A Rediscovered Queen of Australian Crime
Melbourne-born June Wright made quite a splash with the publication of her debut novel, Murder in the Telephone Exchange, in 1948. It was the best-selling mystery in Australia that year, sales outstripping even those of the reigning queen of crime, Agatha Christie. Wright went on to publish five more top-quality mysteries over the next two decades including three featuring the irrpressible nun detective, Mother Paul while at the same time raising six children.
When she died last year at the age of 92, June Wrights books were largely forgotten, despite the praise she received at the time and the championing of her work in such recent surveys of the field as Stephen Knights Continent of Mystery.
All thats about to change; Dark Passage is proud to announce the imminent republication of all June Wrights novels, beginning in December 2013 with Murder in the Telephone Exchange, followed by a previously unpublished mystery, Duck Season Death, in April 2014. These two books include extended introductions by Derham Groves. The other five novels will follow at intervals over the the next two years.
MURDER IN THE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
June Wrights debut stars feisty young telephonist Maggie Byrnes. When one of her more unpopular colleagues at Melbourne Central is murdered her head bashed in with a buttinsky, a piece of equipment used to listen in on phone calls Maggie resolves to turn sleuth. A couple of her co-workers are acting strangely, and Maggie is convinced she has a better chance of figuring out who is responsible for the killing than the stodgy police team assigned to the case, who seem to think she herself might have had something to do with it. But then one of her friends is murdered too, and it looks like Maggie might be next in line.
Narrated with verve and wit, this is a mystery in the tradition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Daphne du Maurier, by turns entertaining and suspenseful, and building to a gripping climax. It also offers a marvellous account of life in Melbourne in the late 1940s, as young women like Maggie flocked to the big city, leaving behind small-town family life for jobs, boarding houses and independence.
About the Author
June Wright (1919-2012) was born June Healy in Malvern, Victoria, and educated at Kildara College and Loreto Mandeville Hall. After leaving school she worked as a telephonist at the Central Telephone Exchange in Melbourne. She married Stewart Wright in 1941, and they had six children. Her novels include So Bad a Death, The Devils Caress, Reservation for Murder, Faculty of Murder, and Make-Up for Murder.
