The Brownout Murders
By (Author) Luke C. Jackson
By (author) Kelly Jackson
Illustrated by Maya Graham
Scribe Publications
Scribe Publications
3rd June 2025
Australia
General
Fiction
Paperback
160
Width 179mm, Height 233mm, Spine 13mm
426g
They blamed alcohol. They blamed men. But they blamed women most of all. The year is 1942, the place Melbourne. A brownout is in effect to dim the night-time lights of the city, and thousands of American GIs are based in Royal Park. As the latter make plans to defend the Pacific, the women of Australia have stepped up to support the war effort at home. Beatrice is doing her part. She's enlisted as an air raid warden, preparing the city ahead of a possible Japanese attack. Her sister June is an operator at the telephone exchange, while her other sister, Lizzie, works as a shopgirl by day and parties with the Americans by night. But the times are about to change again, and the three sisters will have to navigate the consequences of a new threat as a series of grisly murders are committed in the eerie half-light of the brownout. Inspired by true events, The Brownout Murders tells a story of fear, fortitude, and social change - and how the independence of all women is too often set against the violence of a single man.