Join us at Books@Stones on Saturday 18 April (2pm) for a special author event with Edwina Shaw in-conversation with Fiona Robertson discussing Dear Madman.

A Notorious Crime, A Family Curse

After he killed the girl, the murderer hid in the bushes and wrote three notes of confession to the girl’s mother, Mrs Williams. Dear Madman, he wrote, misspelling madam. I humbly confers to you for a deed of murder …

These notes were always part of the story my nana had told me since I was seven. My great aunt told a different version. There were no notes. No remorse or forgiveness. How can you forgive the murder of a child? When my great aunt died, she hoped the curse she believed had been placed upon her with the death of her sister would die with her, but it didn’t. Loss after loss after loss. Desperate to free us all, I began to search for the truth behind the myth of the madman who’d shadowed our days.

What I discovered was only the beginning of a story that twisted and turned as often as the Brisbane River. A story that changed me forever.

'A haunting and beautifully crafted descent into a Queensland crime and the legacy it leaves behind. Dear Madman is a powerful exploration of crime, consequence, and the unseen threads that bind us to the past' – Nikki Mottram, author of Crows Nest and Killarney

Edwina Shaw is a Queensland author and editor of fiction, memoir and screenplays. She is the author of Dear Madman, A Guide Through Grief, Thrill Seekers, In the Dark of Night and over 40 short pieces that have appeared in literary journals and anthologies including Best Australian Stories. She is the commissioning, contributing editor of Bjelke Blues and co-editor of Queersland and Our Inside Voices. She has been teaching creative writing at UQ and in the community for over 20 years. She also runs Relax and Write Retreats and is co-director of Transformational Writing Retreats. Dear Madman is the story she was born to tell. Visit Edwina's website.

Fiona Robertson is a writer and doctor living and working in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her short story collection If You’re Happy (University of Queensland Press, 2022) won the Glendower Award in the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards and was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the 2022 Queensland Literary Awards and for the 2018 Richell Prize. Fiona’s short fiction has been published in Australia and the UK, and has been shortlisted and longlisted for international competitions. Fiona is currently working on a novel, working title An Innocent Affair, which was Highly Commended by the 2025 Varuna Residential Fellowship assessors. Visit Fiona's website.

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All our events are free to attend, but bookings are required as seats are limited.

Contact the host of Books@Stones event: Dear Madman by Edwina Shaw