I wrote Murder on a Melbourne Tram during the Covid years when we were restricted in our movements. It became the first Dusty Kent novel where I did not travel to the setting. I was already here in Melbourne and a regular tram traveller.

We love our trams here in Melbourne. Some love them even more than others. For example, in April 2005 a 15-year-old boy was so besotted with trams that he hopped in the driver seat of a C-class in the South Melbourne depot and off he went; past Luna Park in St Kilda, through Malvern and Kooyong and up along Glenferrie Road.

Amazingly, along the way, he stopped to pick up and set down passengers. His passengers were blissfully unaware that their tram was being driven by a completely untrained amateur who didn’t even qualify for a driver’s licence. The teenager was able to execute the difficult braking system correctly and even expertly changed the points on the track. (This involves getting out of the tram and using a long piece of steel pipe to pull a lever across.)

His joyride came to an abrupt end in Kew where he was met with a police armed-response team in eight cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring. His passengers objected to his arrest and praised his driving skills. No-one was hurt during the escapade — unlike in Murder on a Melbourne Tram where a dead body was discovered on a tram.

Ciao Team Dusty!

Don’t you love that word ‘halcyon’? My new address has the word ‘halcyon’ (HAL-see-uhn) in it. It’s a word I’ve always liked. The dictionary meaning is ‘very happy and successful’ or ‘calm, peaceful, and happy’. But there is much more to this word.

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In 2016, on a research trip for Rippling Red, Team Dusty was lucky enough to be in Darwin on Cracker Night, the night when Territorians go wild with fireworks to celebrate Territory Day.

That evening, after enjoying a meal and a drink or two at the casino, we headed back to our accommodation to watch the fireworks displays. Guess who was waiting at the hop-on hop-off bus stop? None other than the award-winning British actor Bill Nighy! We were gobsmacked. What was he doing in Darwin? Why was he travelling on a bus?

Eventually, we realised the bus passenger was not Bill Nighy but a look alike. He was the spitting image of the genuine article. But it belatedly dawned on us that ‘our’ Mr Nighy was too short to be the real deal.  He was around 5’6” while Bill Nighy is just over six feet. Dead giveaway, right? Even after drinks at the casino, we should have spotted the difference straight away. Duh.

Out on the balcony at our hotel, watching the rockets of colour whistling through the air to light up the night sky, I was reminded of the fireworks scene in Agatha Christie’s story Peril at End House. Unfortunately for one of the characters, the ‘fireworks popping and the squibs going off’ provided cover for a murder to take place.

This was not the case in Rippling Red. Dusty and Sean enjoyed the pungent aroma of spices from a home-cooked Indian meal while watching brilliant balls of colour exploding into the air. The murder they were investigating was another cold case Dusty was determined to solve.

Until next time. JB & Brigid George

Image:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-10(Supplied:HC Blechynden)

I was looking forward to visiting the extraordinary Jenolan Caves in New South Wales with Team Dusty to research the area for Dusty Kent Murder Mystery #8. However, it was not to be. The entire visitor precinct closed in 2019 due to severe weather damage and won’t reopen until next year. For the first time in the writing of these mysteries, Brigid George has had to make do with remote researching of the setting.

In Dusty Kent #8 (as yet untitled and unpublished) Sean and Dusty travel to the caves–the oldest cave system in the world at 340 million years old. When she first sees the four-storey complex of Jenolan Caves House with its gables, tiled roofs and multi-paned windows, Dusty exclaims, “It’s like a storybook house!” She did not know then that ghosts loitered in the storybook house.

And so it was in Agatha Christie’s short story Philomel Cottage, the main character was captivated by an isolated, dream-like country home, exquisite with its old-world charm. She did not know it was hiding a terrifying dark reality and shadows from the past. Dusty also experiences ‘the ghosts of years past’ in the spirits that accompany her on her morning walk and the ghosts of past employees that haunt the hotel.

Spirits of the dead have featured in previous Dusty Kent investigations such as the doomed princess of the yellow hibiscus flower in Disguising Demons, but the Jenolan Caves simply teem with ghosts and apparitions.

One setback after another has interrupted my writing of this mystery, which I began during my Covid isolation, but the light at the end of the tunnel is finally starting to shine.

Image: www.jenolancaves.org.au

Who flew over the Yarra River in a turquoise Elvis Presley suit?

Ciao Team Dusty!

Here we are in autumn, the season that brings a kaleidoscope of colourful reds, oranges and golden yellow to Melbourne. At the last Friday Writers’ meeting I attended, we had a charming view of a tree-lined street. By our next meeting, the vibrant green leaves on those trees will have changed to the spectacular golden hues of autumn.

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Have you ever gone bandicooting?

Ciao Team Dusty!

Summer arrived in Melbourne on a cold wet day and little changed weatherwise until  mid November. Melbourne weather is famous for its unpredictability. We often complain that we have four seasons in one day. But this summer, the weather has been particularly topsy-turvy. We have had short bursts of hot summer days but the weather, for the most part, goes from one extreme to the other. We have just had dangerously hot weather that caused several bushfires.
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Our summer season might arrive in autumn!

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Do crocodiles really like to eat Irishmen?

Ciao Team Dusty!

The spring racing carnival (including the Melbourne Cup) has come and gone; now here in Victoria (and most other states) we are heading into summer. It seems odd because the last couple of months in Melbourne have been more wintry than springlike. Sometimes I think Melbourne almost has a ‘wet’ season like The Top End and Tropical North Queensland. Those places don’t have four seasons. They have to make do with only two: the ‘wet’ (November to April) and the ‘dry’ (May to October). 

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