120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

We're Moving! 🚚 We’ll be closed Fri, Sat & Sun. Pick up before 5pm tonight from our cute Rawiri bookshop!

Outrageous Fortunes

The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George
By Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.63 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 27 ratings, 6 reviews)
Brief Description
The gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son. When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place. After a time selling sly grog and a... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4100
Elsewhere:
$4500
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son.

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place.

After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author. The Detective's Album was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years - but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about 'unladylike' subjects.

When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune's astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime, and Melbourne's literary bohemia consorts with the criminal underworld.

'Mary Fortune's bold fictions electrified colonial Australia. But her own story, pieced together by two tenacious literary detectives, was best of all.' -Gideon Haigh

'A fine introduction to the author and her work.' -Garry Disher

Outrageous Fortunes is a delight- beautifully written and carefully researched, it is an engrossing, illuminating and ultimately deeply moving portrait of an extraordinary woman and her ne'er-do-well son. The pioneering crime writer Mary Helena Fortune finally receives the biography she deserves, and no mystery reader should be without it.' -John Connolly

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760645052

Publisher: Black Inc.

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 February 2025

Country: Australia

Imprint: La Trobe University Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 154.0mm

Height: 233.0mm

Weight: 470g

Pages: 352

Collections

Australian & Pacific History Biography & Memoir History & Archaeology History & Military Lucy Sussex Megan Brown Musicians, Movie Stars & Creative Biographies Non-Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Megan Brown (Author) Megan Brown completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong, examining the work of Mary Fortune. She has contributed chapters to The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature and The Unsocial Sociability of Women's Life Writing. Lucy Sussex (Author) Lucy Sussex's books include Blockbuster! Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which won the 2015 Victorian Community History Award, Women Writers and Detectives in the Nineteenth Century and Saltwater in the Ink- Voices from the Australian Seas. She has a PhD from the University of Wales and is an honorary fellow at La Trobe University.

Also by Lucy Sussex

View all

Also by Megan Brown

View all
  • The Seventh Member State
    The surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But...
    By Megan Brown
    Hardback
    $8399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Monster High: New Scaremester (Mattel: Graphic Novel Volume 1)
    Ghouls and boos are heading back to Monster High for a new scaremester in the first volume of this new comic series! While they’ll certainly be serving lurks in the hallway and haunting study howl, rumour has it that trouble is brewing. Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, Cleo de Nile, and Frankie Stein have never met a bad scare day or monstrous...
    By Megan Brown and Jacque Aye
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • My Little Pony: Set Your Sail
    Set your sail for the Seven Seas because the Seaponies are swimming into comics for the first time ever in this collected miniseries! Pestering the queen into sending messages in bottles to the fabled Seapony kingdoms is just one of the many perks of having royal besties... which is exactly what Izzy has been doing ever since first reading about...
    By Casey Gilly and Megan Brown
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • My Little Pony: Classics Reimagined--Little Fillies
    Little Women meets My Little Pony in this new graphic novel interpretation of the literary classic about love, life, and sisterhood. Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rarity appear as the March sisters, who harbour dreams of life beyond Broncord, Massahoofetts. Little Women meets My Little Pony in this new graphic novel interpretation of the literary classic about love, life,...
    By Megan Brown and Jenna Ayoub
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    By Isabel Klee
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgun wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through her journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    By Lena Dunham
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    Home Again
    Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...
    By Jon Toogood
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    By Layne Staley
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Book cover for 'Swan Song: Diana, my sister' by Charles Spencer, featuring a black-and-white portrait of Diana with white and gold text on a gray background.
    Pre-order
    Swan Song
    Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles – available to pre-order now. ‘When asked, ‘What was it like, growing up with Diana?’, my first thought is always, But I don’t know what it was like not to grow up with her…’ In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before...
    By Charles Spencer
    Hardback
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $6500
    Pre-order
    Out 23 Sep 2026
  • Signed Copy
    Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoir Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    By Noelle McCarthy
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    By Brad Poulter
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    By Melissa Auf der Maur
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    By Hannah Richell
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Place to Stand
    A Place to Stand by Clare Ward is a profound memoir that delves into the life of a country doctor living and working in the Hokianga Harbour area in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. This region is sparsely populated and poses numerous health challenges. This thoughtful account details Clare’s thirty-year career, highlighting the people she works with and...
    By Clare Ward
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Rule of Lies
    Written with all the pace and energy of a John Grisham novel … An incredible true story and a great read! BILL BROWDER, author of Red Notice and Freezing Order An American lawyer’s brilliant, propulsive story of witnessing and playing a part in the transformation of Russia under Yeltsin and Putin. A true tale of fascinating personalities, criminal intrigue, harrowing...
    By Jamison R. Firestone
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Rory
    The New York Times bestseller The #1 Irish Times bestseller The definitive biography of Rory McIlroy, the most important, popular and confounding player of the post-Tiger era. Rory McIlroy contains multitudes. The child of a working-class family from a small town in a war-torn homeland now commutes to work in his own private jet and counts billionaires as confidants. He can overwhelm a golf...
    By Alan Shipnuck
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

Biography & Memoir lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all