News & Blog by Leah Giarratano
Read the latest news and bulletins, essays, features, opinions from our bestselling authors. Find out what's being said, debated, and discussed in the world of books and ideas.
When he let me hold his tiny hand, I knew I had him. Only just five, vegemite on his chin and fear crouching in his eyes, he allowed a quarter of himself to slip from behind his mum’s chair, just enough for his chubby fist to stretch out to me. He wanted a picture on his hand, you see. They all do. Especially when I tell them that their brothers don’t yet have one and that it will be a picture...
I'm often asked in interviews what happens next to Jill Jackson, the kick-arse cop, lead character of my first four books. But right now, while I have some definite ideas, they’re not living and breathing in an all-but completed novel as they have been by this time, this year, for the past four years. You see, in 2010 I stabbed my pen really deep – in fact right through the fabric of reality. And...
It was an evening only in March, indeed still swimming weather, when I slid my closed my back doors and found the frames cold to touch. Instantly, my summer happiness evaporated and I slid into a black fog of misery. I promise you, I almost cried. The cicadas still sang in the warm twilight, and my hair was still damp from the pool, but wicked winter had warned me she waited, patiently, licking at...
She is the bane of my existence. Five long years have seen us attempt to master this wretched dessert. By us, I mean my darling husband and I, and I offer limply an excuse for the five years; you see, we’ve tried only infrequently – in between dieting and bouts of derision for the latest research indicating that eggs are bad and that cream will surely kill you. And in our favour, I must tell...
This is one of the most frustrating comments that I’ve ever read about one of the characters in my third novel, Black Ice. The character referred to was Seren Templeton. Seren, short for Serendipity – a lucky chance, a fortunate coincidence. My character, Seren, was born into the world most of us occupy – the one where kids are safe at night and mum and dad would do anything to protect them from pain. But...
This article is part of a series. Read the previous article here > ‘Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream’: This is the title of a book on my shelves, written by forensic psychiatrist, Robert I. Simon. Simon argues that all of us have the capacity to commit terrible acts, but societal norms keep our primitive, sometimes ‘evil’, desires in check. Could this be true? I remember...
This article is part of a series. Read the previous article here > The very first presentation I gave at a writers’ festival was entitled Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. Now, the coordinators who’d invited me were not trying to flatter me by attributing these particular attributes to my personality; rather, the crime writers on the panel were asked to speak about what makes a...
This article is part of a series. Read the previous article here > Something there. Near the wheel of a wheelie garbage bin on a grizzly, drizzly morning. The rain provided the drizzle, I the grizzle, given that it was Monday, I was late, and I had to work. There it was again. A flick of blonde. A little cat. Surely a kitten – so tiny! Actually, she was a starving blue point Siamese...
This article is part of a series. Read the previous article here > What is a psychopath? The phrase was coined more than two hundred years ago by Dr Philippe Pinel (physician), who described this condition as 'madness without confusion'. These people are not insane. They are not driven to these crimes by delusions or hallucinations. They know right from wrong. They just don't...
Hypervigilance: Why I’d Want One of My Patients Watching My Back
by Leah Giarratano on 17 August 2009
I’m a trauma therapist. I've worked with at least a hundred combat veterans, amongst them snipers and SAS, specialist clearance divers and even mercenaries. I've worked with cops, firies and ambos. People who’ve killed, who’ve been tortured, and those who have prevented others being killed. Most of them have had a hard time ridding their minds of the sights and smells...
