Hooper attended Lauriston Girls' School before commencing an arts degree at Melbourne University. She then went to New York's Columbia University to study creative writing on a Fulbright Scholarship. Her True Crime book Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee was released in 2008 and took out numerous awards including the 2009 Ned Kelly Award and Davitt Award for Best True Crime book as well as the Australian Book Industry Award for Best General Non-Fiction.
Stand Alone
A Child's Book of True Crime (2002)
The Engagement (2012)
True Crime
Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee (2008)
The Arsonist (2018)
Critical Acclaim
Tall Man:
- Winner 2009 Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime
- Winner 2009 Davitt Award for Best True Crime
- Winner 2008 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, Award for Non-Fiction category
- Winner 2008 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for Book of the Year
- Winner 2009 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction
- Winner 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
- Winner 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards for General Non-fiction
- Winner 2009 John Button Prize for Writing for Young Adults
- Winner 2009 Queensland Premier's Literary Non-Fiction Book Award
- Winner 2009 Indie Award for Non-fiction
The Arsonist:
- Shortlisted 2019 Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime