New year, new bodies. Well, fictional ones anyway.

2026's shaping up to be a cracker for crime and thriller fans. The genre's evolving faster than a crook changing alibis, and if you're not paying attention, you'll miss the good stuff. Let me walk you through what's coming down the pipeline and why it matters for your next page turner.

The smell of sausages on the barbie. Cold ones cracked at midday. Thongs scattered across the lawn. Australia Day brings out the best of us, but let me tell you something about what makes Australian crime fiction bloody brilliant.

See, the Mortice series isn't just set in Queensland. It lives and breathes Queensland. There's a difference, and on Australia Day, that difference matters more than ever.

Australian crime fiction is dominating 2026. From Byron Bay to Brisbane, Aussie detectives are cracking cases international thrillers can't touch.

A.J. Wilton has lived on the Gold Coast for over four decades, watching the predictable pattern unfold every January. The crime statistics spike. The hospital is full. The police work double shifts.

Summer in Queensland isn't just hot. It's dangerous.

System's broken. Everyone knows it.

Courts backlogged years deep. Violent offenders getting bail when they shouldn't. Victims retraumatized by legal processes designed to protect accused rights while minimizing their own. Police resources stretched impossibly thin responding to mental health crises they're not trained for.

A.J. Wilton didn't create Mort's Queensland. He just populated it with characters willing to do what most won't.

Walk through Brisbane's inner south and you're walking through Mortice territory. Drive the M1 to the Gold Coast and you're following routes Mort uses for surveillance operations. Stop at a hinterland café and you might be sitting where fictional characters planned tactical strikes against criminal targets.

The line between A.J. Wilton's fiction and Queensland's reality? Thinner than readers realize.

The stretch from Byron Bay to Grafton looks like every Australian tourism brochure ever printed. Pristine beaches. Lush hinterland. Hippie markets and wellness retreats.

And a body count that would make most cities nervous.

But nobody wants to talk about it. Bad for tourism. Bad for property values. Bad for the carefully crafted image of coastal paradise.

While the rest of Australia breaks out the prawns and pavlova, Queensland's criminal element gets creative. Turns out the festive season isn't just prime time for family gatherings. It's hunting season for opportunists.

How a COVID lockdown, 45 years of Queensland observations, and an obsession with inbox zero created the Mortice thriller series—plus exclusive insights from A.J.'s recent live Q&A.

For readers wondering where the Mortice series draws its edge, the answer is simple: Australian reality. Let's examine five real cases that prove truth is not only stranger than fiction—it's far more disturbing.

 Australian thriller author A.J. Wilton explores why revenge-driven protagonists like Mort captivate readers, examining the psychology behind vigilante justice in crime fiction.

The recent Byron Bay Butcher case has dominated news cycles and social feeds—and for good reason. A.J. Wilton HQ's reel on this shocking case went viral, capturing the public's morbid fascination with true crime unfolding in real time.

A.J. Wilton’s Double Tap, the latest Mortice novel, gets this dead right. When Mort describes a Toyota Hilux parked “half on the kerb, half on the lawn like it owned the street” (p. 112), you know exactly the type of bloke who drives it. Cars in Double Tap aren’t window dressing — they’re cultural signposts.

Every crime reader knows the thrill of being led astray. You’re convinced you’ve spotted the smoking gun, only to find out it was nothing but smoke. That’s the art of the red herring—a deliberate distraction planted by clever authors to keep you second-guessing until the very last chapter. In Mortice: Double Tap, A.J. Wilton serves up his own version of these narrative tricks, twisting expectations until you’re forced to wonder: who’s playing who?

In the real world, modern interrogation leans more on psychology than broken knuckles. But in Mort’s world? Let’s just say he understands the science… he just doesn’t always mind bending the rules if the stakes are high enough.

Byron Bay. A coastal Eden where backpackers dream, celebrities hide, and locals swear by kombucha like it’s holy water. But look a little closer and the dreamscape cracks: missing women, unsolved deaths, and whispers of a serial killer the police say doesn’t exist.

In A.J. Wilton’s Mortice series, everything comes at a cost. Mort doesn’t get to play hero without facing the hangover. The world remembers. The consequences are real. Why? Because Wilton taps into some of the oldest, smartest literary tricks in the book—then spins them like a knife on a café table.

Welcome to the gritty world of Mortice — where bullets fly faster than government red tape, villains are nastier than a two-dollar servo pie, and justice is served with a side of revenge (and maybe a broken rib or two).

In Mort 5: Double Tap, AJ Wilton doesn’t just give us a nail-biting, emotionally charged investigation, he roots it in real places. No hazy “Somewhere in Queensland” business here. From suburban Brisbane to beachside cafés, you’ll recognise the streets, venues, and vibes,  right down to the brand of beer and layout of the stairwell.

If you’ve ever stayed at the JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort and Spa, chances are your biggest concern was whether to hit the swim-up bar or book a massage. But in Mort 5: Double Tap, this five-star paradise gets a fictional makeover—as the backdrop for a high-stakes child abduction and private investigation that puts every guest under the microscope.