Three of Australia’s most remarkable writers delve into the all-consuming and inescapable case of Erin Patterson.

From sprouting daily podcasts to inspiring sudden surges in amateur mycology, the story of Erin Patterson’s sensational murder trial gripped not just the nation but the world.

For over eight weeks, three of Australia’s greatest literary forces – Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein – tracked Erin Patterson’s preliminary hearings and trial. They joined the media scrum at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, camped out in Morwell and spent countless hours in fervent discussion of the case, dissecting the facts, speculating on motives and contemplating its sensation.

In this unmissable and exclusive event at Melbourne Town Hall, they take the stage with Raf Epstein to ponder what happened and why it matters – reflecting on why they and all of us became so invested in Erin Patterson’s story, and what it means to bear witness to humanity’s darkest impulses. Together, they will examine the gap between the certainties of the law and the messiness of reality, the tension between truth and narrative, ethics and entertainment, justice and voyeurism, and confront their own ambivalence about the record of true crime.