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Duo Ex Machina #1
Fly By Night
Originally published by Homosapien Press in 2004, this out-of-print novella is now available again as an e-book. Fly By Night and its companion novella, Sacrifice, were nominated for a Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2004.
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Successful musician Frank Capriano returns home to Perth for his mentor's funeral, along with his band-mate and lover, Milo. Frank's old friends are having money troubles and are trying to make ends meet through smuggling, but that turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg. Soon they have a murder to contend with.
***
Successful musician Frank Capriano returns home to Perth for his mentor's funeral, along with his band-mate and lover, Milo. Frank's old friends are having money troubles and are trying to make ends meet through smuggling, but that turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg. Soon they have a murder to contend with.
- GenresM M RomanceRomance
142 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Narrelle M. Harris
66 books120 followersI grew up in a home bursting with books. My father was in the Royal Australian Air Force – we moved roughly every three years – and my parents were passionate advocates of reading and the importance of access to a library of ideas, no matter where we lived.
Between a childhood spent on the move yet steeped in literature, and a naturally dramatic personality, it’s no surprise I became a storyteller.
At home, and at libraries all over Australia, I read everything from Little Golden Books to The World Book Encyclopaedia. As my family moved so frequently, my companions wherever I went were the Pevensies of Narnia, a horse named Flicka and the Hardy Boys. I grew up with the characters created by Diana Wynne Jones as they too learned independence and responsibility. Miss Marple and the Dragonriders of Pern were always at my side.
Writers like Eric Frank Russell and Lois McMaster Bujold were as influential on my character and my writing as surely as Shakespeare and the Brontes. I’m still always picking up new influences, from modern writers like Emily Larkin and Neil Gaiman as well as classics by PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Before you figure I am always and forever reading, I’m a traveller too. My early years spent moving from state to state led to itchy feet. After moving out of the family home, I lived in Perth, then met Tim Richards and we decided to have adventures of our own. We moved to Egypt to teach English as a Foreign Language, then went on to Poland.
After we finished teaching, we kept travelling: we’ve been to the UK and US, to Thailand, Germany, Hungary, Syria, Jordan, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech, and Canada – and we’re not done travelling yet.
The places I’ve visited – London, Hungary, Canada – often appear in my work, but the home of my heart is the place I write about most often.
Melbourne, Australia. The town we chose to live in always. The city I love so much she is practically a character in her own right in books like The Opposite of Life and short stories like Near Miss. I even researched the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1890s for my Holmes♥Watson romance, The Adventure of the Colonial Boy.
Given my background and all my literary influences, it’s hardly astonishing that my storytelling is eclectic: crime, adventure, fantasy, horror and romance – separately or combined.
For all the different genres I write in, everything I write generally includes the same tone and the same type of themes. They are full of the families one is born with and the families we make for ourselves. The protagonists all face challenges they’ve made for themselves as well as external threats that test them. They’re full of people who’ve made mistakes who seek to learn and to make better choices.
Whether you’re reading a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne, a Holmesian mystery in London or a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East, you’ll find humour, heart, friendships and love.
Awards
Jane: In 2017, my ghost/crime story Jane won the Athenaeum Library’s Body in the Library prize at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.
Other nominations and shortlistings include:
Fly By Night (nominated for a Ned Kelly Award 2004)
Witch Honour (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize as Witching Ways in 1998)
Witch Faith (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize in 1999)
Walking Shadows (Chronos Awards; Davitt Awards in 2012)
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Narrelle's erotica published as NM Harris is listed on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Between a childhood spent on the move yet steeped in literature, and a naturally dramatic personality, it’s no surprise I became a storyteller.
At home, and at libraries all over Australia, I read everything from Little Golden Books to The World Book Encyclopaedia. As my family moved so frequently, my companions wherever I went were the Pevensies of Narnia, a horse named Flicka and the Hardy Boys. I grew up with the characters created by Diana Wynne Jones as they too learned independence and responsibility. Miss Marple and the Dragonriders of Pern were always at my side.
Writers like Eric Frank Russell and Lois McMaster Bujold were as influential on my character and my writing as surely as Shakespeare and the Brontes. I’m still always picking up new influences, from modern writers like Emily Larkin and Neil Gaiman as well as classics by PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Before you figure I am always and forever reading, I’m a traveller too. My early years spent moving from state to state led to itchy feet. After moving out of the family home, I lived in Perth, then met Tim Richards and we decided to have adventures of our own. We moved to Egypt to teach English as a Foreign Language, then went on to Poland.
After we finished teaching, we kept travelling: we’ve been to the UK and US, to Thailand, Germany, Hungary, Syria, Jordan, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech, and Canada – and we’re not done travelling yet.
The places I’ve visited – London, Hungary, Canada – often appear in my work, but the home of my heart is the place I write about most often.
Melbourne, Australia. The town we chose to live in always. The city I love so much she is practically a character in her own right in books like The Opposite of Life and short stories like Near Miss. I even researched the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1890s for my Holmes♥Watson romance, The Adventure of the Colonial Boy.
Given my background and all my literary influences, it’s hardly astonishing that my storytelling is eclectic: crime, adventure, fantasy, horror and romance – separately or combined.
For all the different genres I write in, everything I write generally includes the same tone and the same type of themes. They are full of the families one is born with and the families we make for ourselves. The protagonists all face challenges they’ve made for themselves as well as external threats that test them. They’re full of people who’ve made mistakes who seek to learn and to make better choices.
Whether you’re reading a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne, a Holmesian mystery in London or a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East, you’ll find humour, heart, friendships and love.
Awards
Jane: In 2017, my ghost/crime story Jane won the Athenaeum Library’s Body in the Library prize at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.
Other nominations and shortlistings include:
Fly By Night (nominated for a Ned Kelly Award 2004)
Witch Honour (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize as Witching Ways in 1998)
Witch Faith (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize in 1999)
Walking Shadows (Chronos Awards; Davitt Awards in 2012)
__
Narrelle's erotica published as NM Harris is listed on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 12, 2019
I loved it! I love the sense of place and time that you got reading this, and I love the characters.
The story-line is very good, and it's so easy to understand how Frank's friends thought they could get away with their plans. But of course, they couldn't. And so, there is murder and danger and oh, so much going on here!
And Milo and Frank! I love them, I really do. They are so real, so full-fledged... I can't wait to read the next book in this series!
The story-line is very good, and it's so easy to understand how Frank's friends thought they could get away with their plans. But of course, they couldn't. And so, there is murder and danger and oh, so much going on here!
And Milo and Frank! I love them, I really do. They are so real, so full-fledged... I can't wait to read the next book in this series!
March 6, 2011
Frank and Milo are wonderfully fleshed out characters. You feel their grief, fear, and anger while also getting a kick out of their occasional sense of mischief.
While this is a novella, it manages to fit all the twists & turns of a full-sized novel without cutting corners. Overall, a very satisfying read.
While this is a novella, it manages to fit all the twists & turns of a full-sized novel without cutting corners. Overall, a very satisfying read.
December 1, 2010
Very enjoyable read. Started reading it and can hardly put it down. I will definitely be looking for more from this author. Plus he is an Aussie, and the setting for this book is Australia, which is a plus!
March 25, 2010
Interesting story about choices people and families must make when characters decide on a lifestyle other than the conventional. What do people do when money, sex, grief and murder force them to make decisions that go against their natural instincts?
April 9, 2010
Fly by Night is an interesting book of murder, love and complicated relationships. Milo and Frank are musicians and are thrust into solving two crimes before they become the the next victims.
March 17, 2010
An enjoyable read. Thanks Narrelle for making me a winner.
April 2, 2010
i really enjoyed this book
and for a short read thought it was well written
and very enjoyable cant wait to read more from this author now
and for a short read thought it was well written
and very enjoyable cant wait to read more from this author now
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews