Why are we addicted to true crime?
Inside the world of crime with award-winning author Matthew Condon OAM
With podcasts climbing the charts and bookstore shelves lined with stories of unsolved cases, one thing is clear: we truly are addicted to true crime.
But what drives this addiction – and how do storytellers balance the ethics and sensitivities of these topics?
Ahead of his appearance at this year’s alumni and community day at the UQ Alumni Book Fair, we sat down with award-winning University of Queensland Press (UQP) crime writer and UQ alum Matthew Condon OAM (Bachelor of Arts ’83) to delve into the world of true crime storytelling.
From campus to crime storyteller
According to Condon, fate guided him into the world of true crime storytelling.
“Early in my journalistic career I’d been a police roundsperson, covering local crimes including murder,” Condon said.
“But in 2010, I was put in touch with disgraced former Queensland police commissioner Terry Lewis. He wanted someone to ghost-write his memoir.”
While Condon didn’t agree to ghost-write, he still had the chance to sit down with Lewis for 3 years of interviews. These interviews unveiled corruption in the Queensland police force.
“I ended up wading through half a century of crime and the odyssey continues to this day,” he said.
The result was Condon’s best-selling Three Crooked Kings trilogy, following Lewis’s rise and fall at the centre of this corruption.
But even though Condon’s movement into true crime was determined by fate, his writing career was not.
“My years living on campus at UQ gave me the freedom and the time to begin shaping the possibility of a writing career,” Condon said.
“I started putting together some stories and was first published in [UQ Union’s student newspaper], Semper.”
At the time, Condon would dream about being published by UQP, which was located at the St Lucia campus.
“I would sometimes sit near the office and hope to glimpse some of my favourite authors. At UQ, with thanks too to some inspiring teachers, I understood that my writing ambitions were possible. My time at UQ gave me hope. My first book, The Motorcycle Café, was ultimately published by UQP.”
Matthew Condon OAM
Matthew Condon OAM
From campus to crime storyteller
According to Condon, fate guided him into the world of true crime storytelling.
“Early in my journalistic career I’d been a police roundsperson, covering local crimes including murder,” Condon said.
“But in 2010, I was put in touch with disgraced former Queensland police commissioner Terry Lewis. He wanted someone to ghost-write his memoir.”
While Condon didn’t agree to ghost-write, he still had the chance to sit down with Lewis for 3 years of interviews. These interviews were an extraordinary insight into corruption in the Queensland Police Force.
“I ended up wading through half a century of crime and the odyssey continues to this day,” he said.
The result was Condon’s best-selling Three Crooked Kings trilogy, following Lewis’s rise and fall at the centre of this corruption.
But even though Condon’s movement into true crime was determined by fate, his writing career was not.
“My years living on campus at UQ gave me the freedom and the time to begin shaping the possibility of a writing career,” Condon said.
“I started putting together some stories and was first published in [UQ Union’s student newspaper], Semper.”
At the time, Condon would dream about being published by UQP, which was located at the St Lucia campus.
“I would sometimes sit near the office and hope to glimpse some of my favourite authors. At UQ, with thanks too to some inspiring teachers, I understood that my writing ambitions were possible. My time at UQ gave me hope. My first book, The Motorcycle Café, was ultimately published by UQP.”
Understanding our true crime addiction
Condon theorises that deep human curiosity may be the driver behind our fascination with true crime stories.
“We are repeatedly horrified by what human beings are capable of doing to other human beings and something deep inside of us wonders, ‘Am I, too, capable of this? How far would I, or could I, go under certain circumstances?’” he said.
According to Condon, these stories offer a controlled environment for us to examine humanity’s darkest acts.
“It’s about extremities,” he notes. “We are fascinated by people who dare to cross the line.”
There is also comfort – and even a thrill – in seeing the consequences of these actions, Condon emphasises.
“In a very simplistic way, we like to see the baddies get caught and punished. It ties a satisfying bow around the story. Then we want another one,” he said.
The toll of writing true crime
Behind the bestsellers, there’s a real emotional weight.
“Researching and writing the Three Crooked Kings books was physically difficult and exhausting. It took hundreds of interviews and documents to piece together the puzzle,” Condon said.
But the emotional weight wasn’t just the scale of the research – it was the nature of it.
“The project came with veiled personal threats and a lot more. As the years went on, I also progressively felt the burden of the material itself – the stories of crime and corruption, violence, child sexual assault and the ruination of the careers of honest men and women who tried to stand up and do the right thing.”
At the end of the day, Condon said that he was fortunate to have his wife and young children by his side.
“When it became an emotional slog, they kept me buoyant.”
Walking the ethical line
True crime is called true crime for a reason – it details true events, committed by real criminals, against real victims.
This carries an ethical responsibility. So, how does a writer balance storytelling with ethics?
“At the end of the day, ethics, to my mind, is a simple equation,” Condon said.
“You tell the truth as best you can. You look at both sides of the issue. You balance the material with perspectives from all sides. And you make no editorial judgement.
“If your writing is clear and true and fair, readers will come to their own conclusions.”
When it comes to the media’s influence on public perception of the justice system, Condon explains that it can be complicated and unpredictable.
“Any good magistrate or judge will correct [any] imbalance by reminding the media of its duties. I think, though, the media – and I include myself as a practitioner – doesn’t give enough credit to the justice system when it's due, nor does it necessarily give it the sort of critical scrutiny it sometimes deserves.
“Perhaps we think it's not an interesting enough subject for media scrutiny, whereas I think it is infinitely fascinating.”
The most shocking part of true crime
After years of studying and writing about Queensland’s criminal underbelly, Condon finds it both surprising and unsurprising that the crime world continues to co-exist with our own, hidden away in plain sight.
“There’s the world most of us live in – a place of great beauty and joy and challenges and heartbreak where certain rules are put in place to ensure that we can all enjoy life as safely as we can,” he said.
“And there is another world, parallel to that, which is populated with people who have absolutely no thought or regard for the law, for human decency, for the sanctity of life and the consequences of their actions.
“When these worlds intersect, we suffer the outfall.”
As a crime writer, Condon has glimpsed into this other world.
“In many ways, much of this world is indescribable. There are things that have happened in this world, are happening now, and will continue to happen into the future, that most brains would have no capacity to comprehend.
“That might be a good thing, but it exists and that needs to be acknowledged.”
Recommendations the true crime fans
If you’re looking to dive deeper into true crime, Condon recommends:
- Book: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer – “Better and broader in scope than Truman Capote’s classic, In Cold Blood.”
- Documentary: The Jinx (Seasons 1 and 2) – “About the life and crimes of New York real estate millionaire and killer Robert Durst.”
- Podcast: The Teacher’s Pet by Hedley Thomas – “A masterclass in journalistic investigation and true crime podcasting with a truly shocking resolution.”
We also strongly recommend Condon’s Three Crooked Kings trilogy, which is one of Australia’s landmark true crime series.
True Crime panel: behind the scenes with writers and scientists
Want to learn more from Matthew Condon OAM?
Join him and internationally recognised geneticist Professor Grant Montgomery at the UQ Alumni Book Fair for an intriguing discussion that bridges the gap between scientific advancements and creative storytelling.
True Crime panel: behind the scenes with writers and scientists
Want to learn more from Matthew Condon OAM?
Join him and internationally recognised geneticist Professor Grant Montgomery at the UQ Alumni Book Fair for an intriguing discussion that bridges the gap between scientific advancements and creative storytelling.
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