Unbury the Dead, the debut novel from award-winning writer (and beloved Readings staffer and former long-serving Readings Monthly crime-fiction columnist) Fiona Hardy, was a breath of fresh air in the increasingly crowded genre of Australian crime fiction. Unbury introduced us to Alice and Teddy – two women working for the morally (and legally!) ambiguous Choker, in a kind of seedy Sopranos-meets-Charlie’s Angels set up. The book was shortlisted for the 2025 Ned Kelly Awards and made the top 50 in our 2025 bestseller list.

If you’re in any doubt as to where Alice and Teddy sit on the moral spectrum, it’s dispelled by page two of Old Games when they threaten a man they’ve had tied up in the boot of their car with the diabolical torture of having to endure a visit to a pierogi food truck without being able to partake. This combination of light and dark is a signature of Hardy’s work, along with her cast of nuanced characters, wit, pacy storytelling, and heart.

Alice and Teddy play off one another with the kind of fond familiarity seen in the very best fictional partnerships, riffing off one another’s dialogue with charm and humour. They’re unambiguously loyal to one another, so when Alice’s estranged sister finds herself in hot water after the ashes of a long-dead celebrity tennis star are stolen from the mansion she’s house-sitting, they have no hesitation in leaping into the investigation.

Twisty and intricately plotted, Old Games is a story about legacies and loss, about public figures and who ‘owns’ them after they’re gone, and about families: those we are bound to by blood and those we build ourselves. It’s full of good food, great cars, plenty of laughs, a mystery that will keep you turning pages, and a few unanswered questions that will have you champing at the bit for the next book.