Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle’s beaches and her grandparents’ property in Glenrowan, and on the road between the two. When not writing, Shelley is working to establish a small permaculture farm.
Her debut novel, WAKE, was a Top Five bestseller, won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger Award in 2019, and the Australian Book Industry’s Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and the Australian Crime Writers Association’s Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction in 2023. WAKE was also shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards Debut Fiction Award. Her second novel, RIPPER, went straight to Number One on the Australian Fiction Bestseller list and was shortlisted for both the Sydney Crime Writers Festival’s Danger Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction in 2024. VANISH, a Top Ten bestseller, is Shelley’s third book in the Lane Holland series and can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. SHOT, a standalone thriller, is her fourth novel.
Praise for Shelley Burr:
‘Politically savvy, cleverly plotted . . . the kind of book that invites the ravenous language of binge reading: compulsive, propulsive, addictive’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘It is hard to believe WAKE is a first novel. Plot, pacing and characterisation are so finely judged that it feels more like the work of a past master’ THE TIMES
‘WAKE is blazing its own trail. A yarn that feels so plausible and terrifying, it stays with you’ AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY
Outstanding . . . This is both a well-plotted, gripping mystery and a sensitive exploration of the aftermath of trauma’ THE GUARDIAN
‘My crime novel of the year . . . Intense and evocative, it tears at the heart-strings’ DAILY MAIL
‘We devoured this stunningly drawn, deeply compelling mystery in one day’ CRIME MONTHLY (UK)
‘Truly an exceptional debut, well worth the hype around it. Burr is an assured writer. WAKE is tightly plotted, complex and atmospheric … one of the best crimes thrillers I’ve read in a long time.’ BETTER READING MAGAZINE
‘WAKE is the best kind of outback thriller – long distances between houses and safety, the quiet terror of rural Australia’s empty unknown spaces, small towns with suspicious characters. … Burr’s debut is there to show the world that Australian crime is really the superior of the genre. International crime fiction really should watch its back.’ READINGS review
‘A masterclass in pace, plot, character and creeping unease’ THE BOOKSELLER, Book of the Month
‘Filled with lots of twists and turns. I won’t be surprised if this becomes somewhat of a classic in the years to come’ MAMAMIA
‘Everything you want from an Australian crime thriller’ WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN