ABOUT THE EVENT:

The chilling new mystery novel from the award-winning author of bestsellers Cutters End, Stone Town and Broken Bay.

On Monday 29th July at The Royal Oak, Balmain, join Margaret Hickey in conversation with Matthew Spencer.

Copies of The Creeper will be available for purchase at the venue through Roaring Stories, with Hickey signing copies after the discussion.

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ABOUT THE VENUE

Attendees are asked to arrive at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Seating is unallocated – another reason to arrive early to secure an optimal spot. Why not make a full evening of it, too, by ordering a meal at the Royal Oak before or after the event? One of Balmain's oldest and most loved pubs, it serves a delicious range of food and beverages.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Margaret Hickey, the acclaimed author of the Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti series, returns with a chilling new mystery that introduces a new case, a new setting and a new detective.

For a decade, the serene mountain town of Edenville has been overshadowed by the grisly massacre of five hikers on Jagged Ridge. Also found dead at the scene was Bill ‘Creeper’ Durant, a notorious bushland loner and expert deer hunter with a reputation for stalking campers. The case was deemed a murder-suicide, but as the ten-year anniversary of the killings looms, Senior Constable Sally White is drawn to the eerie history of the Durant family, a potential police cover-up and the secrets kept by the victims that could reveal the killer’s true identity.

The natural landscape is the centrepiece of all Margaret’s writing. In Cutters End she depicted the harsh, relentless desert, in Stone Town the secretive, sodden bush and in Broken Bay Australia’s ethereal underwater world. In The Creeper Margaret welcomes readers to her home, the mountainous High Country of North East Victoria where she lives and where this novel is set. Margaret knows this region intimately and that is evidenced in her descriptions of the winding trails, the hush of the bush, the watchful mountains. As a keen hiker, she has always been struck by the isolation and danger, as well as the beauty and exhilaration, of her local surrounds. Margaret masterfully intertwines the lives of her characters, delving into the powerful bonds of blood and the lengths to which we go for those we love. She also examines the interconnectedness of seemingly complete strangers. Her character Bill Durrant is known as the Creeper because he hunts unwary campers like he hunts wild deer, but not all forms of stalking is hiding in the overgrowth or lurking in darkened alleys…

Bone-chilling, intricate, incredibly satisfying, The Creeper is Margaret Hickey at her best.

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ABOUT MARGARET HICKEY

Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria. As someone who has, for the majority of her life, lived in small rural towns, Margaret has a deep affection for those who live outside city walls. The focus of her PhD was on depictions of landscape in Australian literature and this is evident in her writing, which always keeps the land as the compelling lens through which everything else occurs.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Matthew Spencer was a journalist at The Australian for twenty years with long stints running the Foreign News desk and as Opinion Editor. He has written for newspapers and magazines in Uganda and Kenya and been published in The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald. Matthew has an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Sydney. His first novel, Black River, was published by Allen and Unwin and won the 2023 Danger Award for Debut Crime Fiction. His second novel, Broke Road, will be published in July next year. Matthew lives in Balmain with his wife and their three children.

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

Refunds

Please note that tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled or postponed due to extenuating circumstances. Refunds are not issued within 48 hours notice of event date. Humanitix fee is nonrefundable.

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This event is presented by Roaring Stories Bookshop Balmain and Penguin Random House.

With thanks to our venue partner The Royal Oak.

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