Beams Falling - a new book in 2014 from Australian crime writer P M Newton

I live in Cabramatta, one of the most vibrant, fascinating and multicultural areas in Sydney. It's no secret that I love this place, and I find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. I can have all the fantastic food I want, I can visit a different Buddhist temple every day of the week and never double up, and I can hang out in cafes sipping avocado shake or cafe sua da till the cows come home.

Of course, Cabramatta has had a tricky past, and in the time I have lived her (more than ten years now) I have seen its fortunes wax and wane. But there is no escaping the fact that it is one of Sydney's cultural powerhouses.

I am terribly excited to announce that my pal, the crime writer P M Newton, has a new novel coming out next year (published by Penguin) that is set in the tough streets of Cabramatta in the early 1990s. And P M Newton knows those streets well - she was a police officer here during those years.

P M Newton

The book is called Beams Falling (can anyone identify the source of this beautiful title?) and that's just about all I can say at this stage.

Oh, and it's due for a March 2014 release. The cover has been unveiled, and it references the cover design of her previous book The Old School, which was set in Bankstown.

I love Sydney writing, and am always interested to see how it is represented in books.

I seem to remember that, back in the day, Marele Day wrote a crime novel set in Cabramatta. Does anyone know of any other mentions of Cabramatta in Australian fiction?

You can read my chat with P M Newton recently at the Tom Keneally Centre at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts here.