Shane Maloney (born 1953) is an Australian novelist, based in Melbourne, best known for his crime fiction novels. He is a graduate of the Australian National University.
Maloney has written non-fiction and journalistic essays, but is best known for his six crime fiction novels - in the "hard-boiled" sub-genre - featuring Murray Whelan, a Labour party functionary working for a Victorian state political member, who finds himself investigating crimes linked to his job. The series (1994 - 2007) is popular for its wit and its portrayal of Melbourne's political and social culture. The novels are set slightly earlier than written, during the late 1980s when Labour was in power at both a federal and state level. The first two novels, "Stiff" and "The Brush-Off", were adapted into TV movies starring David Wenham in 2004.
"The Brush-Off" won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction in 1997. In 2009, Maloney received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers Association of Australia.