Wimmera

Given the substantial list of award wins and short-listings that the unpublished manuscript has already received, including the Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger Award, it’s clear that the reader is in the hands of a master storyteller. Comparisons are already being made to Jane Harper’s THE DRY and Dennis Lehane’s MYSTIC RIVER. This is literary crime fiction at its best. - BOOKS+PUBLISHING

written with great delicacy and deliberate restraint - ADELAIDE ADVERTISER

Very little fiction is as emotionally true as this. WIMMERA is a dark and disturbing story from a substantial new talent. - SATURDAY PAPER

Wimmera makes excellent use of atmospheric rural Australia to weave a gothic story with a strongly rooted sense of place. - HERALD SUN

Congratulations to this debut Australian author, Mark Brandi. This well-plotted tale lets the reader see how evil can be so pervasive and affect the lives of innocent children, but also how true friendship can alter your life forever.

If you like reading stories that will stay with you for days, put this onto you’re to be read list. - Read Round Oz Blog

Wimmera is a dark and melancholy coming-of-age story / murder mystery from a talented new voice in Australian crime fiction. Incorporating some iconic Australian elements, the story is like time-travel back to the eighties, capturing the quintessential rural Australian spirit of the time. With some very dark elements running through the story, it may not appeal to all readers, but I found it a gripping and haunting read and am looking forward to reading more from this author in future. - But Books are Better Blog

This book carried me along very quickly and I read it in almost one sitting captured by the tension of wanting to know how the boys handle the menace and what happens next. - ReadPlus

Wide open skies, hidden country lanes, spooky escarpments, baking heat and bone-chilling cold - Victoria’s Wimmera district is ripe for use as a backdrop for a novel. - Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

Mark Brandi’s bestselling novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime.

Mark’s second novel, The Rip, was published to critical acclaim in 2019, and his third novel, The Others, was shortlisted for the Best Fiction prize in the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards. His fourth novel, Southern Aurora, was Highly Commended in the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

Mark’s shorter work has appeared in The Guardian, The Age, The Big Issue, and is sometimes broadcast on ABC Radio National. Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked in the justice system before changing direction and deciding to write. Originally from Italy, he grew up in rural Victoria. He now lives in Melbourne and is working on his next novel.