Outrageous Fortunes (Megan Brown & Lucy Sussex, La Trobe)

‘Mary Fortune’ might sound like a pseudonym but it’s the name of one of Australia’s most prolific—if often overlooked—woman crime writers. Outrageous Fortunes is a dual biography of Fortune and her criminal son, George, which charts the ways law-breaking, family and fiction shaped the lives of one pioneering author and her recidivist offspring. Born in Ireland in 1832, Fortune landed in Australia in 1855 and began publishing anonymous detective stories, fuelled by the knowledge she ‘absorbed’ from her police officer husband—and later, George’s lawless ways. When George was imprisoned for armed robbery, Fortune’s enthralling tales even took on this terrain, considering ‘prison and its effects’. What Outrageous Fortunes: The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son highlights is how Fortune—in spite of her marginalised gender, fractured family and alcoholism—bucked Victorian norms and became a trailblazer in Australian crime writing. Fortune was one of few women to not only understand Australia’s early criminal justice system but also write for a popular audience on it (under pseudonyms but with some 500 published stories). From obscure penitentiary records to revelatory personal letters, this deeply researched portrait enriches our understanding of the two Fortunes and the way true crime advanced or unravelled their lives. Authors Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown offer rigorous analysis that demystifies Fortune (and corrects several misconceptions), revealing her to be a compelling figure sometimes overlooked in our literary canon. Readers interested in biography, crime fiction and Australian history will delight in this book.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Nathan Smith is a freelance writer. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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