Love, hate, jealousy, revenge – what prompts a home-cooked triple murder?

In The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations about a Triple Murder Trial three renowned writers of true crime unite to unravel the mystery that gripped the nation. Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Chloe Hooper (The Arsonist) and Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) spent countless hours in fervent discussion about the case. In this highly anticipated book they share their private conversations about their impressions from inside the courtroom, media scrums and stakeouts in Morwell.

The trio explore the gap between the certainties of the law and the messiness of reality, their own ambivalence about the true crime genre and all that remains unknowable about Erin Patterson.

Three multi-award winning authors, Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, will be in conversation with Beejay Silcox on their book The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial

In July 2023, in the quiet Gippsland town of Leongatha, Erin Patterson—stay-at-home mother and true-crime devotee—invited her husband’s devoutly Christian family to lunch. Within days, three of her guests were dead and the fourth was in a coma. They had all been poisoned by death cap mushrooms. Two years later, Patterson stood trial, accused of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The court case gripped the nation and fascinated people all over the world.

Among those drawn into the drama were three of Australia’s greatest literary forces: Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. Together, they  spent long days immersed in the case’s sinister and complex themes: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology and murder. In The Mushroom Tapes, they examine the gap between the certainties of the law and the messiness of reality, the tension between truth and narrative, ethics and entertainment, justice and voyeurism, and confront their own ambivalence about the record of true crime.

Meet internationally celebrated author James Islington - author of The Licanius Trilogy and most recent winner of the 2023 Aurealis Award for the Best Fantasy Novel - Will of the Many. We are pleased to also have the much anticipated sequel to Will of the Many - Strength of the Few available for James to sign for you in store. If you are unable to be at Dymocks Chadstone , don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to arrange a signed copy of any of his books for you.

Meet internationally celebrated author James Islington - author of The Licanius Trilogy and most recent winner of the 2023 Aurealis Award for the Best Fantasy Novel - Will of the Many. We are pleased to also have the much anticipated sequel to Will of the Many - Strength of the Few available for James to sign for you in store. If you are unable to be at Dymocks Eastland, don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to arrange a signed copy of any of his books for you.

Three of Australia's most renowned writers discuss the Erin Patterson case and our collective obsession with her strange and terrible crime.