Shelley Burr is an alumni of the ACT Writer’s Centre Hardcopy program (2018) and a Varuna fellow. When not writing, Shelley is working to establish a small permaculture farm and is studying agriculture at the University of New England, with a focus on soil science.
Shelley was the 2023 winner of the prestigious Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, won the ACWA Ned Kelly Debut Crime Award, and was shortlisted for the Debut Fiction Indie Book Award for her debut WAKE. Her debut novel WAKE was an international best-seller.
Shelley’s newest novel, RIPPER, was published in September 2023 by Hachette (ANZ) and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and William Morrow in the US.
WAKE won the CWA Debut Dagger in 2019 and was previously shortlisted for both the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and the Bath Novel Award. It is described by the publishers ‘as a searing crime novel where the grief and guilt surrounding the unsolved disappearance of a nine-year-old twin girl still haunt a small NSW farming community almost twenty years later’.
Praise for WAKE:
‘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
‘One of the year’s best debuts. Intriguing and compelling. Shelley Burr is a bright new talent in Australian crime fiction’ CHRIS HAMMER
‘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
Praise for RIPPER:
‘Will have you hooked from start to finish . . . Exceptional . . . An amazing and addictive plot loaded with numerous brilliant twists’ CANBERRA WEEKLY
‘A masterclass in pace, plot, character and creeping unease’ THE BOOKSELLER, Book of the Month
‘Tantalising . . . A glimpse into a small town that cannot shake the ghosts of its past’ WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
‘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