Review

In 2023, Erin Patterson invited four elderly in-laws over for lunch and served them beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans. Her in-laws were shortly afterwards severely ill and hospitalised with kidney damage caused by death cap mushroom poisoning. Three of them died. One of them survived… barely. The mushroom murder case caused a sensation in Australia and overseas.

This short book (256 pp.) is made up of conversations about the case between the three authors, all well known and highly respected literary true crime writers (among other things), as they travelled to and from the trial in country Victoria.

I listened to this on audiobook, voiced by all three authors, plus one extra narrator. It was excellent. They took a really human, personal and socio-cultural approach to the events, the people involved and the attraction of the case. It was a different angle that was really thought provoking and fascinating. One of the things they looked at was the legend of Medea and the cultural taboo of a woman perverting her role as nurturer by becoming a poisoner.

We put this book in our Senior True section: a sophisticated take on crime, probably only of interest to students Year 10 & up.

> Click here for content info – spoilers, enter at own risk!

Domestic relationships; marital tensions; separation; murder; attempted murder; tragedy; grief; personality disorders; media treatment.

*

Garner, H., Hooper, C., & Krasnostein, S. (2025). The mushroom tapes: Conversations on a triple murder trial (H. Garner, C. Hooper, & C. Craig, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Penguin Random House Australia Audio.

Images are used on this blog post under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968.

I read this novel via Libby — support your local library!