Leigh Straw Livres

Set against the backdrop of a 1929 murder-suicide in Collie, this narrative delves into the haunting legacies of World War I on Australian soldiers. The author, Leigh Straw, reveals her personal connection to the tragedy through a striking resemblance between the killer and her husband. The book explores the struggles faced by the 23,700 West Australian men who returned from war, highlighting their challenges in readjusting to civilian life and the enduring mental and physical scars of their service. It emphasizes the importance of remembering both the fallen and the survivors.

The newspapers called her 'Australia's most beautiful bad woman' and she was deadly to know... This is the story of 'Pretty' Dulcie Markham, a key figure of the underworld of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, who, according to one crime reporter, 'saw more violence and death than any other woman in Australia's history'. Nicknamed the 'Black Widow' and 'Angel of Death' by the crooks, reporters and police who knew her best, Dulcie's lovers were stabbed and gunned down in the most violent years of Australian crime, the 1920s to the 1950s. Not always by her ...

Josie de Bray, aka Madam Monnier, aka Marie Louise Monnier, was a brothel madam who owned most of Roe Street, Perth from WWI up to the 1940s. A returned soldier tried to shoot her dead in her brothel in 1917 and her 'bungalow' was at the centre of underworld violence in the 1920s. She returned to France before WWII to visit family and was bombed repeatedly out of homes there and captured by the Germans. She was a prisoner of war and one story has her in a concentration camp. She survived, returned to Perth in 1947 and took up business again in Roe Street, having made a fortune from the rent collected from her brothels while she was a prisoner of war, up until her death in 1953.

The fascinating and unknown story of Australia's first female detective - and a gripping and colourful account of Sydney crime in the 1920s to 1940s

In August 1925, Audrey Jacob shot dead her former fiancé, Cyril Gidley, in full view of hundreds of guests at a charity ball in Perth’s Government House. When she was arrested, she still held the gun in her hand. It was a open and shut case of wilful murder—that is until Jacob assigned prosecutor Arthur Haynes to her defence. His ability to play the press and the jury for sympathy would lead to a sensational result. Not only did Jacob escape the gallows, she was found not guilty of Gidley’s murder. Straw, the author of a number of books about notable Australian female criminals, tells a story that is rich with first-hand newspaper accounts from the day.

The narrative follows a rebellious Reformatory girl from Dubbo who rises to prominence in eastern Sydney's underworld, challenging the gender norms of her era. Through a blend of fiction and historical insight, the author, Leigh Straw, reveals the complexities of her journey to wealth and influence, showcasing her resilience and the societal obstacles she overcame to become a notable figure in a male-dominated world.