"When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out. The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal...

As Darling's town librarian is fond of saying: "Naked Ladies is not a respectable name for a plant." A lily by any other name would certainly smell as sweet-and look just as beautiful as the Naked Ladies decorating Miss Hamer's lawn. It seems Miss Hamer's house may also be home to naked ladies of a different sort. Rumors sprout that the elderly recluse's visiting niece and her friend are actually the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfield Frolic,...