OBSERVER: Sisters In Crime
Crime fans are invited to attend the launch of Caroline de Costa’s new standalone mystery, The Rosemary (Boolarong Press) on Thursday, November 13 from 6pm to 7pm at Europa on Alma, 31 Alma Rd, St Kilda – Café area, Ground Floor. Caroline will be in conversation with Sisters in Crime national co-convenor, Carmel Shute.
The Rosemary is a departure for Caroline whose previous crime novels are police procedurals set in Cairns that feature Detective Cass Diamond – Double Madness (2015, shortlisted for the Davitts in 2016), Missing Pieces (2018), Blood Sisters (2019), and Buried Secrets (2023) – plus a prequel to the series, Hidden Lives (2021).
The Rosemary centres on the disappearance of Jessica, a student at a boarding school in northern New South Wales. Her group of seven close friends is left to mourn her over more than 30 years . . . until one of them, crime-writer Neroli Woodhouse, stumbles on a link to a fatal accident years before in the South Island of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, in Far North Queensland, the skeleton of a young woman is discovered on a remote beach. Detective Cass Diamond is charged with establishing her identity. In NSW, Neroli and police work in tandem on the riddle of Jess’s disappearance, while Cass’s search leads her from Queensland back to the rural NSW where she grew up, and a meeting with Neroli. Can both mysteries be solved?
Caroline will also speak briefly about the book she co-authored with Francesca Miller which was published in 2013 in French – Sarah Bernhardt and Doctor Pozzi – Letters of Love and Friendship. It has just been republished in English in Paris. Pozzi made an enormous contribution to improving women’s reproductive health.
Caroline practised as a doctor in the area of women’s health from 1973 and played a leading role in getting RU486, the medical abortion drug, legalised in Australia. Until recently, she was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at James Cook University College of Medicine in Cairns – the first woman in Australia to hold a professorship in the field. She and her husband had to return to Ireland to gain their qualifications in the area – they weren’t allowed to study for it in Australia, she because of her gender, he because of his Sri Lankan ancestry. Her memoir is titled The Women’s Doc. Caroline became a keen reader of crime fiction during long nights of waiting for women to give birth.
She won Scarlet Stiletto Awards for her crime-fiction stories in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023.
In 2024, Caroline was awarded the AMA Gold Medal for her long and dedicated career and extraordinary work in regional Queensland.
The event is free, but bookings are essential: eventbrite.com.au/e/launch-of-the-rosemary-by-caroline-de-costa-tickets-1910126071499?aff=oddtdtcreator
Cheryl Threadgold
Pictured: Sisters in Crime national co-convenor Carmel Shute (left) with author Caroline de Costa, author of The Rosemary.