Marele Day (born 4 May 1947) is an Australian author of mystery novels. She won the

Shamus Award The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one si ...

for her first Claudia Valentine novelpage 62-64, ''Great Women Mystery Writers'', 2nd Ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, publ. Greenwood Press, and a

Ned Kelly Award The Ned Kelly Awards (named for bushranger Ned Kelly) are Australia's leading literary awards for crime writing in both the crime fiction and true crime genres. They were established in 1996 by the Crime Writers Association of Australia to rewar ...

for non-fiction work ''How to Write Crime''.UQP - Marele Day
/ref>

Biography

Day was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, and grew up in

Pagewood Pagewood is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 8 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. It is part of the Bayside Council. Pagewood has a mixture of residential and industrial areas. H ...

, an industrial suburb. She attended

Sydney Girls High School , motto_translation = Work Conquers All , location = Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney#New South Wales#Australia , established = , type = Governmen ...

and

Sydney Teachers' College The Sydney Teachers' College was a tertiary education institution that trained school teachers in Sydney, Australia. It existed from 1906 until the end of 1981, when it became the Sydney Institute of Education, a part of the new Sydney College of ...

and in 1973 obtained a degree from

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

. She has worked as a

patent search Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the Novelty (patent), novelty and the inventive step or non-obvio ...

er and as a researcher and has also taught in elementary school during the 1980s. Her Claudia Valentine series features a feminist Sydney-basedAustralian Crime Fiction Database - Marele Day
/ref> private investigator but her breakthrough novel was ''Lambs of God'' which was a departure from the crime genre and features two nuns battling to save the island on which they live from developers; it became a bestseller. Lambs of God was adapted into a

tv series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

of the same name in 2019, starring

Ann Dowd Ann Dowd (born January 30, 1956) is an American actress. She has played supporting roles in numerous films, including ''Green Card'' (1990), ''Lorenzo's Oil'' (1992), ''Philadelphia'' (1993), '' Garden State'' (2004), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' ...

and

Essie Davis Esther Davis (born 19 January 1970) is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in ''Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' and its film adaptation, '' Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears'', and as Amelia Vanek in ''Th ...

. She lives on the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

North coast, where she is on the board of

Byron Writers Festival The Byron Writers Festival (formerly known as Byron Bay Writers Festival) is a literary event taking place annually in Byron Bay, New South Wales. The festival commenced in 1997 and was founded by Peter Barclay and a group of volunteers who in pa ...

and was the mentor of their residential mentorship program from 2002-2022.

Bibliography

Claudia Valentine series

* ''The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender'' (1988) -

winner * ''The Case of the Chinese Boxes'' (1990) * ''The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado'' (1993) * ''The Disappearances of Madalena Grimaldi'' (1995)

Other novels

* ''Shirley's Song'' (1984) * ''Lambs of God'' (1997) * ''Mavis Levack, P.I.'' (2000) * ''Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife'' (2003) * ''The Sea Bed'' (2009)

Non-fiction

* ''Successful Promotion by Writers'' (1993) * ''How to Write Crime'' (1996) -

winner

References

External links

Marele Day: an interview with the author of ''Lambs of God''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Marele 1947 births Writers from Sydney Australian women writers University of Sydney alumni Living people Ned Kelly Award winners Shamus Award winners Australian mystery writers Women mystery writers People educated at Sydney Girls High School