W&N to publish 'indelible portrait' of mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s murder trial

Weidenfeld & Nicholson are set to publish "indelible portrait" of mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s murder trial from Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein.

Lettice Franklin, deputy publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand and Canada, to The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial from Sarah Lutyens at Lutyens and Rubinstein, on behalf of Michael Heyward at Text Publishing.

The book tells the true story of the murder trial of Patterson, who in July 2023 poisoned her husband’s family with death cap mushrooms at a dinner party. Three of those who attended the party died and, two years later, Patterson stood trial for three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein were three people who were part of the "daily media scrum" at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court. They spent long days "immersed in the case’s sinister and complex themes: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology and murder".

The publisher added that "The Mushroom Tapes 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".

Franklin said: "The Mushroom Tapes is an indelible portrait of an extraordinary triple murder trial, a classic in the making and a true crime book like no other. It is completely thrilling to see Helen, Chloe and Sarah think about what drives someone to murder, about what makes us so endlessly interested in those who do, about life, loneliness, love and the law. This is a book I read in one weekend, completely consumed by it, and now expect to be thinking and talking about it for the rest of my life."

The Mushroom Tapes will be published by W&N on 20th November 2025 in hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audiobook.