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Dorothy Johnston Dorothy Johnston i(A27120 works by)
Born: Established: 1948 Geelong, Geelong City - Geelong East area, Geelong area, Geelong - Terang - Lake Bolac area, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Johnston grew up in Geelong. She trained as a teacher at the University of Melbourne and taught English and was a researcher in the education field. Johnston moved to Canberra in 1979. In 2005 she took up a residency at Ledig House International Writer's Colony in Switzerland. Johnston has written novels and had short stories published in several anthologies. Her fiction often makes explicit links between the realms of the public and the private. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature comments on the depth of her writing, describing the exploration of the lives of prostitutes in her novel Tunnel Vision as 'subtle and even lyrical'.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2004 Australia Council Literature Board Grants Skills and Arts Development Individuals Two-month residency at Château de Lavigny International Writers' Residence, 2005
1991 inaugural winner ACT Literary Award to complete book of short stories about Canberra

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Gerard Hardy’s Misfortune Manly Vale : For Pity Sake Publishing , 2019 19467412 2019 single work novel crime 'According to local legend, the historic Royal hotel in the Victorian coastal town of Queenscliff is haunted. Having served as both a mental asylum and a morgue in the early days it could hardly fail to be, but a bizarre murder in the hotel's basement puts a decidedly eerie spin on things.

'The victim is an academic, obsessed with spiritualism, the tarot and the town's most famous literary resident, Henry Handel Richardson. From the outset, the local knowledge and unorthodox methods of Queenscliff's police officers, Chris Blackie and Anthea Merritt, are ridiculed by the bull-necked Detective Inspector Masterson from Geelong's CIU. And yet, hard-nosed police investigation practices seem ill-equipped to counter the otherworldly influences at play.

'What DI Masterson believes is an open and shut case turns out to be anything but.' (Publication summary)

 
2020 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
y separately published work icon The Swan Island Connection Manly Vale : For Pity Sake Publishing , 2017 14316320 2017 single work novel detective

'The murder of a 10-year-old boy, strangled with the lead of his dog, shocks the quiet town of Victoria's Queenscliff to its core.

'The local senior constable, Chris Blackie and his deputy Anthea Merritt, expect the murder investigation to be handled by Geelong-based detectives from the Criminal Investigation Unit. But they're blind-sided by the interest that personnel from the secret military training base on Swan Island take in the case, strongly suspecting that the Detective Inspector may be taking direction from them.

'Consigned to the edges of the investigation and fearing an imminent wrongful conviction, Chris and Anthea defy their superiors to follow their own lines of enquiry - at great personal risk.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2018 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
y separately published work icon Through a Camel's Eye Manly Vale : For Pity Sake Publishing , 2015 9174984 2015 single work novel crime

''Still, he looked for hoof prints, glad there was nobody to laugh at him for doing so. He shaded his eyes and squinted at a dark object, half covered in sand, then began to walk towards it. He should should have been wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes, but he never thought of things like that. It was a women's coat, black, or at least it has been.'

'A young camel disappears from its trainers paddock and the coat of a murdered women is found abandoned in the sand dunes. These seemingly unrelated events are a far cry from the regular police duties of Constable Chris Blackie and his rookie recruit from Melbourne, Anthea Merritt, in the small seaside town of Queenscliff. Little by little and with a burgeoning sense of menace, these two unlikely detectives carefully navigate the eclectic, often eccentric personalities of the town, as well as the disdain of law enforcement colleagues further afield, to uncover the unsettling truth.

'Described as a 'sea-change mystery' Through a Camel's Eye deftly juxtaposes the idyllic surroundings of a coastal Victorian town with the gravity of murder. ' (Publication summary)

2017 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel

Known archival holdings

National Library of Australia (ACT)
Last amended 19 Dec 2014 13:11:03
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