‘Welfare Queens’ novel manuscript
Two vintage-wearing single mums on welfare solve crimes while battling the system
Awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2024 and shortlisted in the 2023 Penguin Random House Write It Fellowship program.
The story’s heroines, Jess and Sharon, reluctantly look into what appears to be the unsolved murder of a friend’s boyfriend — a case the authorities have dismissed as unsuspicious. Can Jess overcome her self-doubt and Sharon muzzle her smart mouth long enough to set things right?
Welfare Queens is intended to be the first novel in a comedic crime fiction series. It combines the type of spunky female protagonist and sidekick stumbling into mischief (and sometimes hurtling straight towards it) portrayed in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series; the tight-knit cast of quirky characters and cosy feel of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books; and the working-class Aussie vernacular, sense of egalitarianism, and general ‘vibe’ of The Castle.