It’s a mystery to me, the book commences, what’s the plot to be, what’s the vicarious experiences? Digging up the dirt on twenty established Australia crime writers is the brief of IF I TELL YOU….I’LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (Allen & Unwin), edited by Michael Robotham.

All are self confessions of techniques, disciplines, ideas, motivations and influences that are as compulsively readable as any of their novels or true crime books.

All have slightly different ways of writing – the physical act, the percolation, the navigation of the narrative – but each of the twenty agree that reading is a prerequisite and each are forthcoming with five must reads. Compulsive reading produces compulsive writers.

Another consensus is that character is king over plot, people before places for they set the paces.

The Godfather of Australian crime fiction, Stawell’s gift to gumshoe shenanigans, Peter Corris, relates a fascinating story about the great, late actor, Bill Hunter, worthy of any Cliff Hardy caper. And if you’re wondering why he has written any more Creepy Crawley or Browning books, it’s because Cliff is hardier in the hard, cold cash market. He would have liked to continue with those characters and had ideas for further outings but it seems Cliff is the public’s preferred and its appetite must be fed.

Marele Day creator of the vivacious Balmain baffle buster, Claudia valentine, confides that the purchase of a cadenza has parallels to writing. Her original intention was to buy a filing cabinet but ended up with something that performed that function but was a far more interesting creation.

Tara Moss fesses up that she took a polygraph to prove her bona fides as a writer when she became the target of unsubstantiated rumours of heavy editing and ghost-writing when she published her debut novel, Fetish.

The insinuation was that because she had modelled and was beautiful she couldn’t possibly string two words together. “How exactly does physical appearance indicate intellectual ability”, she asks, “Think Stephen Hawking.”

This is a review not a catalogue, so I’ll stop with an individual itemisation of every contributor. Suffice it say, every piece is an eye opener, an anecdote on mechanics, influences, and motivations. Thoroughly recommended.