Winter is the perfect time to cosy up with a new book. Courtesy of Fremantle Press we are celebrating the release of four new novels by emerging WA female crime writers, and you could win an advance copy.

The Night Village by Zoe Deleuil
What do you do when a house guest has overstayed their welcome? When Australian ex-pat Simone moves to London to start a career, getting pregnant is not on her agenda. But she’s excited to start a new life with her baby and determined to be a good mother, even though her boyfriend Paul’s cold and grey apartment in the Barbican Estate seems completely ill-suited for a baby and they have only known each other for a year. The arrival of Paul’s cousin Rachel in the flat should be a godsend. However, there is something about Rachel that Simone doesn’t trust. Fighting sleep deprivation and a rising sense of unease, she begins to question Rachel’s motives and to wonder what secrets the cousins share. A psychological thriller about family secrets and the impact of an unexpected arrival.

Private Prosecution by Lisa Ellery
Written by lawyer-turned-writer Lisa Ellery, Craig Sisterson calls Private Prosecution “a superb debut written with personality and pace, from an arresting new voice in Australian crime”. In this action-packed legal thriller, Andrew Deacon is young, fit and single, a junior prosecutor at the WA DPP with a bright future and a sense of entitlement to match. That future starts to look darker when he spends the night with an attractive stranger, Lily Constantine, and she is found murdered in her apartment the following day. Based on a conversation with Lil, Andrew believes he knows who killed her – a senior Western Australian criminal law barrister who is also Lil’s brother-in-law. Yet when Andrew tells the police everything he knows, his quest to bring justice provokes retaliation and soon Andrew is on the run in this pacy, darkly comic whodunnit with a twist.

The River Mouth by Karen Herbert
In this literary rural noir novel, fifteen-year-old Darren Davies is found face down in the Weymouth River with a gunshot wound to his chest. The killer is never found and ten years later, his mother receives a visit from the local police. Sandra’s best friend Barbara has been found dead on a remote Pilbara road, and her DNA matches the DNA found under Darren’s fingernails. When the investigation into her son’s murder is reopened, Sandra begins to question what she knew about her best friend. As she digs, she discovers that there are many secrets in her small town and that her murdered son had secrets too.

“… tautly plotted, brilliantly characterised and laced with venomous moments that lay bare the town’s racial and criminal histories. The River Mouth marks the debut of a brilliant new voice in Australian crime fiction.” David Whish-Wilson

Fromage by Sally Scott
Journalist Alex Grant is enjoying the last days of her summer holiday in Croatia when she is accosted by an old school friend, Marie Puharich, and her brother, Brian, both there to attend the funeral of their fearsome grandfather’s two loyal retainers. An incorrigible foodie, Alex is unable to resist Brian’s invitation to visit the family creamery in Australia’s southwest to snoop around for stories and eat her body weight in brie. But trouble has a way of finding Alex, not least because her curiosity is the size of a giant gouda wheel. What begins as a country jaunt in search of a juicy story will end in death, disaster, and the destruction of multiple pairs of shoes. Fans of MC Beaton, Kerry Greenwood and Richard Osman will love Sally Scott’s Alex Grant whodunnit series. It’s a cosy culinary crime that’s addictive without the additives.

To be in the running to win, simply email competitions@seesawmag.com.au with the title of your preferred book in the subject line and your name and phone number in the body of the email.

Limit of one entry per person.

Deadline for entries: 5pm, 15 August 2021. Winners will be notified by email by 16 August 2021.