Earlier Books

Melissa’s second novel, Killing Darcy, was written for teenagers, and won the Aurora Prize of the Royal Blind Society. Her third novel, Hard Yards(UQP) concerns the aftermath of a death in custody. It was shortlisted for the Courier-Mail Book of the Year in 2001, as well as the NSW Premier’s Award. Too Flash, a teenage novel about class and friendship, was released by IAD Press, Alice Springs, in late 2002.

Melissa’s first novel of urban Aboriginal Australia, Steam Pigs, was published by the University of Queensland Press in 1997 to critical acclaim. A story of racial identity and working class life, Steam Pigs won the Dobbie Prize for Australian women’s fiction, was shortlisted in the NSW Premier’s Awards, and was shortlisted for the regional Commonwealth Writer’s Prize.

Killing Darcy

Angry young Koori Darcy Mango is on parole, and looking for his mob in Northern New South Wales. Befriending the Menzies family wasn’t at all what he had in mind, but then neither was the old shack lurking in the bush near Desperation Creek. Who lives there? Who had died there and what did it all mean for him? It’s Darcy’s fate to find out.

Hard Yards

Roo Glover has two highly desirably talents – he can fight, and he can run like the clappers. But when a suspicious death in custody fractures the King family, can Roo – the white orphan taken in off the street – handle the heat? Maybe if his girlfriend Leena wasn’t pregnant then Roo’s dreams of running in the Olympics could really take off…but Leena is, and Roo’s world is about to come apart fast.

Too Flash

“Bring problems to us before they get too big to handle” the Principal advises Zo when she arrives at her new city school. But good advice isn’t much help to Zo. Her mum’s still a workaholic, and her best friend’s still a thousand miles away back home.

Fifteen year old Missy comes from a tough family that doesn’t take crap from anyone, and it shows. She’s all muscles and attitude like a cattle dog on the warpath.

Zo’s more laid back. Having money makes for a bigger comfort zone, even if you are Fat and black. A showdown can’t be far away when Zo and Missy’s worlds collide. It isn’t a racial issue – or is it?

At school, out clubbing, or stomping the bush on Kulcha Kamp, the girls are on edgy ground. In the darkness of night, each of them finds a special magic all their own.