Program

Suburban streets, domestic routines and familiar relationships are the setting for some of today’s most unsettling crime fiction. In The Murder Next Door, five thriller writers explore psychological suspense, domestic noir and the menace that lurks in ordinary lives — the neighbours you wave to, the houses you pass every day, the secrets hidden in plain sight. Kate Horan, Troy Hunter, Ali Lowe, and Nikki-Lee Taylor discuss why stories set so close to home exert such a powerful pull on readers, how tension is built through intimacy and misdirection, and what these novels reveal about trust, fear and the fragile boundaries of safety. This is a conversation about crime fiction as entertainment, obsession and social mirror — and why the most disturbing stories often unfold where we feel safest.