Melbourne writer June Wright (1919-2012) had six celebrated crime novels published between 1948 and 1966. All had a wonderful sense of place, witty dialogue, and a strong-willed female amateur detective, ranging from a young telephonist to a nun.

Wright’s life and work have been celebrated in literary reviews,  media articles and exhibitions of Australian detective fiction across Australia. In 2015, she featured in  ‘Highlights and Lowlifes’, showcasing the University of Sydney’s Australian detective fiction collection, the largest of its kind in Australia. Wright was also part of Monash University’s ‘Body in the Library’ exhibition of international crime writers in 2012.

Graphic design by Mike Reddy; kind permission of Steve Connell, Verse Chorus Press.

Since 2014, four of June Wright’s books have been re-released for a new generation of crime lovers by Verse Chorus Press with brilliant contemporary graphic design by Mike Reddy.  In March 2018, her life and works will be brought to the stage for the first time in The Devil’s Caress, a play written by Wendy Lewis based on Wright’s novel of the same name.

(The Argus, 24 May 1952, p1)

In her day, June Wright made quite a splash as a ‘slim, vivacious, youthful and attractive to look at’ housewife who had six children and wrote gory stories (The Argus, 16 March 1948) but there was a lot more to her than that…

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO of JUNE WRIGHT