In July 2023, in a quiet Australian country town, Erin Patterson – housewife, mother, true crime devotee – invited her husband’s devoutly Christian family to lunch. Within days, three of her guests were dead and the fourth was in a coma. They had all been poisoned by Death Cap mushrooms.<\/p>\n
Two years later, Patterson stood trial, accused of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The court case gripped people all over the world.<\/p>\n
Among those drawn into the drama were three renowned Australian writers: Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. Together, they joined the daily media scrum at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts and spent long days immersed in the case’s themes: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology and murder.<\/p>\n
The Mushroom Tapes <\/i>is a true crime book like no other – a uniquely enlightening study of Erin Patterson and our collective obsession with her strange and terrible crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In July 2023, an unremarkable family lunch in a quiet, rural town spiralled into one of Australia’s darkest tragedies. Days after Erin Patterson hosted her estranged husband’s parents, aunt and uncle at her home, three of the guests were dead and another critically ill, all poisoned by Death Cap mushrooms. Two years later, Patterson stood accused of this shocking crime and her court case gripped onlookers across the world. Amongst those drawn into the unfolding drama were three renowned true crime writers: Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. Together, they followed Patterson’s preliminary hearings and trial, joined the media scrum at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, stayed in a nearby motel and spent late nights immersed in fervent discussion about the case’s complex themes: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology, and murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[641],"product_tag":[143],"class_list":["post-112105","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-biography","product_tag-true-crime","pa_book_author-garner-helen","pa_cover-hardback","pa_dewey-364-1523099456-edition23","pa_imprint-weidenfeld-nicolson","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8388","pa_publisher-weidenfeld-nicolson","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n