Review: SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL, Chris Blake

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby through my local library
  
• Publisher: Bonnier Books UK, 352 pages
• Release date: November 4, 2025
• Formats: OverDrive Read
• ISBN: 9781786585417 

Synopsis (publisher) 

Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.

But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. 

How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?

Tensions rise, there are more deaths, people are threatened, memories surface of a cult that went horribly wrong ... Even when support arrives, Matt finds himself pursuing a case that's well outside his remit and is taking him to places he'd sooner not revisit. Also part of an increasingly terrifying situation are an over-curious journalist and a woman who could be someone special.

Matt has managed to shun his own demons, and is desperate not to face them again, but when confronted by the devil himself, he must take action, rediscover something of the person he was - for his own sake and to save those he loves.
This is the work of an award-winning master storyteller. Fast-moving, spare, compelling and rich in laconic humour, Softly Calls the Devil will grab you from the first page and refuse to let go. 

My Take

This is basically a police procedural with a distinctive rural New Zealand flavour. Matt Buchanan has been a metropolitan CIB detective but is now a sole-charge constable in an isolated rural community. 

His predecessor has been found dead and Matt discovers the case he was looking into was a cold case from 25 years earlier: a murder suicide where a young girl went missing and was never found. The case appears to have been linked to a nearby hippy community but the police investigation got nowhere.

The rural setting and the time frame of the original case provide tantalising elements which reach out into the present.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Chris Blake was born and raised in Auckland. He served briefly in the New Zealand Army's Reserve Force before joining the New Zealand Police in 2006.

His debut novel, The Sound of Her Voice (published under the pseudonym Nathan Blackwell), was a double finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards for best novel and best first novel. Chris was an assistant storyboarder for season two of the crime drama television series, The Gulf, released in 2021.

Review: PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath

• 
  This edition an e-book from Borrowbox through my local library
  
• Published 30 August 2022, Text Publishing
• ISBN 9781922791023
• Extent 320pp 

 Synopsis (publisher)

Winner of the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize, this thrilling debut unravels a series of mysterious child abductions in a small New Zealand town.

Masterton isn’t a big town. The community’s tight, if not always harmonious. So when a child goes missing it’s a big deal for everyone. And when a second kid disappears, the whole town’s holding their own children that little bit tighter.

Lorraine doesn’t have kids, but she has a nephew. She’s holding him a bit tighter, too, because she works for the police, and she knows they don’t have any idea.

Lo’s not a cop, she’s a records clerk. She sits out back among the piles of paper, making connections, remembering things. Working things out that the actual cops don’t want to hear about.

Until the new investigator, Hayes, arrives from Wellington, and realises Lo’s the only person there with answers to any of his questions. Which is just as well—because the clock is running down for the children of the town.

Both a nail-biting thriller and a beautifully written, acutely observed portrait of a community, Paper Cage is the prize-winning debut from young New Zealand novelist Tom Baragwanath.

My Take

Always difficult to write crime fiction set in your home town.  The community is concerned with the disappearance of three children and Lorraine knows the clock is ticking. 

Themes covered: low socio-economic effects, simmering race relations, gang-related violence and drug and alcohol-fuelled suburban culture. The abducted children are from fragmented families and haven't had the best start in life, but they are loved. Their families are bewildered by what has happened, and the police seem to think their abduction is the result of gang warfare. 

Sections of the story are narrated by different points of view, and the style and the language, particularly local idioms, were at times a challenge for the reader.

Lucky Thing by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing) is on the longlist for best novel 2026  Ngaio Marsh Awards.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Paris with his young family. His first novel, Paper Cage, was published by Text to international acclaim. 

Review: EXPECTANT, Vanda Symon

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon) 
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BKPJRDV2
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orenda Books, Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 16, 2023
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1914585586
• Book 5 of 6 ‏ : ‎ Sam Shephard

Synopsis (Amazon) 

A killer targeting pregnant women.

A detective expecting her first baby…

The shocking murder of a heavily pregnant woman throws the New Zealand city of Dunedin into a tailspin, and the devastating crime feels uncomfortably close to home for Detective Sam Shephard as she counts down the days to her own maternity leave.

Confined to a desk job in the department, Sam must find the missing link between this brutal crime and a string of cases involving mothers and children in the past. As the pieces start to come together and the realisation dawns that the killer's actions are escalating, drastic measures must be taken to prevent more tragedy.

For Sam, the case becomes personal, when it becomes increasingly clear that no one is safe, and the clock is ticking…

My Take:

Highly recommended.  I love the feistiness of Sam Shephard and the intution that she brings to solving cases. 

I realised when I recently read Vanda Symon's latest,  PREY, that I had missed a story in the series. EXPECTANT feels a very personal book, and the Author's Note at the end goes a long way to explaining why that emotion comes through. I think in many ways this is a "woman's" book.

I thought too that I hadn't noticed before how "Kiwi" some of Symon's language is, particularly dialogue.

Most enjoyable. 

My rating: 4.7 

I've also read

• OVERKILL - #1
• THE RINGMASTER -#2
• CONTAINMENT - #3
• 4.8, BOUND - #4
• 4.5, PREY -#6

Review: PREY, Vanda Symon

• 
   this edition a library book from my local library
  
• large print from Aurora Large Print published 2024
• ISBN 9-781399-171014
• 329 pages 
• #6 in the Sam Shephard series 

• ***SHORTLISTED for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger***

  ***SHORTLISTED for Best Paperback in the Barry Awards***

  **SHORTLISTED for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel** 

Synopsis (publisher)

On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin.

The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.

With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder?

But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey.

But is it already too late…? 

My Take

When she returns to work after 6 months maternity leave, Sam's boss makes sure she feels that she is an imposition by giving her a cold case to work on. 25 years ago his wife's father died on the steps of his church in Dunedin. 

I thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Sam Shephard. She is feisty and strong as well as intuitive. 

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• OVERKILL
• THE RINGMASTER
• CONTAINMENT
•  4.8, BOUND 

Review: DICE, Claire Baylis

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby supplied by my local library
  
• ISBN:9781761067242
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 4 July 2023
• Page Extent:384 
• WINNER OF THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD FOR BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL
• SHORTLISTED FOR THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION 

Synopsis (publisher)

A compelling courtroom drama, Dice is an incredibly timely exploration of how sexual violence is viewed in our society.
...

Four teenage boys invent a sex game based on the toss of a dice. The police charge them with multiple sexual offences against three teenage girls.

Twelve jurors must work out what actually happened.

How does the jury find?

Dice is a stunning courtroom drama told from the perspective of a diverse group of ordinary people - the jury. How will twelve women and men of different ages, backgrounds and beliefs decide whether consent was given or crimes were committed?

In this dazzlingly accomplished and gripping debut novel, the story is told through the eyes of each juror as the trial unfolds and evidence is presented, withheld, fragmented and retold by different witnesses.

Will the verdict deliver justice or punish the innocent? Where does the truth lie?

My Take

A very confronting story, at times difficult to read both in terms of the content and in terms of the way the story is presented. Set in New Zealand. We see the "evidence" from the point of view of each of the jurors, who range widely in terms of age, cultural background and experience. Each of the boys is represented by a different defence lawyer but only two of the boys take the stand. The trial takes three weeks and then the jury considers its verdict for each of the young men on each of four charges against three girls.  

A challenging read in a number of ways. A considerable achievement for the author. 

Coincidentally I attended a talk yesterday where a former Director of Public Prosecutions raised similar issues about sexual violence and mitigation of sentences, and why most women don't report events.

My rating: 5.0

About the author

Claire Baylis was born in England and emigrated to New Zealand at sixteen. Her fiction has appeared in Landfall, Sport, Takahē, Turbine/Kapohau, anthologised in Horizons 4 and has been read on Radio New Zealand. Dice is her first novel to be published. It was written as part of a PhD in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka and was included on the Dean's List for being of the highest academic excellence. Claire studied law and then lectured in it for twelve years at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka before moving to Rotorua with her family. There she wrote, brought up her three children, worked as an interviewer and researcher for the Trans-Tasman Jury Study and set up a water safety programme targeting low-decile schools.

Review: THE WATER'S DEAD, Catherine Lea

• 
  This edition an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09R96Q3LR
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brakelight Press; 1st edition (February 9, 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 334 pages
• #1 DI Nyree Bradshaw Crime Thriller  

Synopsis (publisher) 

The chin tattoo confirms the victim in Māori. The whorls of ink from her lower lip to her chin - the moko - is worn only by Māori women.

So her ethnicity is a given.

Finding who murdered her and dumped her body in the pool at the base of Mason's Rock waterfall is DI Nyree Bradshaw's latest case. From the strangely unsympathetic parents to the belligerent boyfriend on home detention for drugs, it seems everyone has something to hide, and no one is telling the truth.

Then Nyree discovers six-year-old diabetic, Lily Holmes is missing, last seen in the victim's care. Now Nyree must find the killer to save Lily.

The clock is ticking.

She has already failed her own son. She cannot fail this child.

Who Is DI Nyree Bradshaw?
A tough, no-nonsense New Zealand DI. Her heart and soul have gone into the job. She thought her toughest cases were behind her. She was wrong.

The Setting:
New Zealand's beautiful Far North. With its white sand beaches, the crash of waves from the turbulent Tasman Sea, and small rural towns surrounded by Māori land, traditions, and community.

My Take

Another new author to follow! Detective Inspector Nyree Bradshaw is likeable, hardworking, methodical, but also intuitive, located in the north of the North Island of  New Zealand. She has a strong sense of obligation to her clients, both dead and alive, as well as to her own team. 

A young Maori woman is found dead in the river, and the little girl she has been looking after is missing. Nyree has to tread a fine line in negotiating for a search within the nearby Maori community as well following their wishes as they mourn their loss.

I will certainly be reading more by this author. 

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Catherine divides her time among numerous fictional worlds behind her keyboard. In past lives, she has sold international satellite capacity, worked in IT recruitment, and run her own communications store.
When Catherine isn't writing, she's dog-wrangling, wrestling with technology, or going crazy trying to maintain control of the yard.
She also writes dark, gritty thrillers under the pen name C. J. Lea.
You can find Catherine's official website at www.authorcatherinelea.com

Review: THE BOOKSHOP DETECTIVES, Gareth and Louise Ward

• 
  This edition an e-book from Amazon on Kindle
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D9KZGBLK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin eBooks (NZ Adult) (23 July 2024)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 340 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

Two small-town booksellers (and their cowardly dog) solve a decades-old murder-mystery in this witty debut novel, full of literary clues, sparkling dialogue, and comedic insights into the world of bookshops.

"When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we'd made a terrible mistake. People warned us that e-readers were taking over. People warned us that we'd never compete with Amazon. The one thing they didn't warn us about was the murders..."

Introducing...the Bookshop Detectives!

When a mystery parcel arrives at Sherlock Tomes bookshop in small-town Havelock North, New Zealand, husband-and-wife owners Garth and Eloise (and their petrified pooch, Stevie) are drawn into the baffling case of a decades-old missing schoolgirl.

Intrigued by the puzzling, bookish clues the two ex-cops are soon tangled in a web of crime, drugs, and floral decapitations, while endeavouring to pull off the international celebrity book launch of the century.

With their beloved shop on the chopping block and the sinister suspect who forced them to run away from Blighty reemerging from the shadows, have Garth and Eloise Sherlock finally met their Moriarty?

For once, the cover copy is no exaggeration- Diary of a Bookseller really does meet Thursday Murder Club meets Bookseller at the End of the World in this witty debut novel, full of literary clues, comedic insights and the kinds of Kiwis you only ever meet in bookshops.

My Take

There is more than a touch of the autobiographical about this story. It would be true to say that I struggled through the first half of the book, but then I rarely give up. I'm not sure what my problem was - perhaps a slightly different style of writing, an unfamiliar setting and plot scenario, a few too many characters, a few too many plot strands, but I'm glad I persisted. Mysteries were solved and everything came together beautifully at the end.

My rating: 4.4

About the authors

Gareth and Louise Ward are the real-life owners of independent bookshop Wardini Books, with stores in Havelock North and Napier, New Zealand.

Louise is known among the staff as Fearless Leader and Gareth as a bit of a dick; he is, however, the author of the Tarquin the Honest and The Rise of the Remarkables book series, as well as being the bestselling and award-winning author of The Traitor and the Thief and The Clockill and the Thief.

Gareth and Louise met at police training college in the UK and are both ex-coppers. Louise has one murder arrest to her name, is an English Literature Graduate and as an ex-teacher inflicted Shakespeare on inner-city twelve-year-olds. She regularly reviews books on RNZ.

Both are obsessed with their rescue dog Stevie, avoid housework and gardening, and live in the cultural centre of the universe that is Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Bookshop Detectives is Gareth and Louise’s first book together.

Review: THE NIGHT SHE FELL, Eileen Merriman

• 
   this edition is available on Amazon for Kindle
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CP6X5ZFJ
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin eBooks (NZ Adult) (March 5, 2024)
• author website
  

Synopsis (Amazon)

‘When I last saw Ashleigh, she was lying in a pool of blood . . . Her eyes were open, staring sightlessly into the sky. I’d like to think she saw the stars before she died; that in her last moments she flew, soaring on serotonin, dreamy with dopamine. I’d like to think she didn’t suffer . . .’

A beautiful young law student dies on the concrete below her third-storey window in chilly Dunedin.

It’s clear enough how she died. What isn’t is why — or who’s involved.

Plenty of people had a reason to hate Ashleigh, with her straight As and perfect looks. She’s fallen out with her flatmates, and her boyfriend Xander is having second thoughts about their future together. And then there are the weird messages.

The Night She Fell is a gripping psychological thriller from one of New Zealand's most multi-talented contemporary novelists. 

My Take

This appears to be the author's first adult crime fiction novel.

Set in Dunedin where Ashleigh and Xander are university students living in different flats. Xander is a medical student and Ashleigh a law student. They have been together for seven years but Ashleigh is dominating while her parents have been financially generous to Xander and his family. Xander's eye has been recently caught by Ronnie, a psychology student with a room in Ashleigh's house.

And then one night Ashleigh dies, jumping from a third floor window. It is just a week since she and Xander broke up.

The structure of book centres around Ashleigh's death. The main voices are Xander and Ronnie and the chapters are Before and After.  The puzzle is what caused Ashleigh to jump. Is anyone or anything to blame?

Very engrossing.

My rating: 4.7 

About the author

Several of Eileen Merriman’s young adult novels have been finalists in the NZ Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards, and also Storylines Notable Books. Her first adult novel, Moonlight Sonata, was released in 2019, and was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. Her fourth YA novel, A Trio of Sophies, was released in Australia, New Zealand  and Germany in  2020 and was a finalist in the Ngaio Marsh Crime Awards. Her fourth adult novel, The Night She Fell, is due for release in March 2024. Three of her young adult novels have been optioned for TV or film, including Catch Me When You Fall, for which the prequel, Catch A Falling Star, was released in 2023.

Review: BETTER THE BLOOD, Michael Bennett

• 
  this book made available by my local library as an e-book through Libby
  
• Published Simon & Schuster (in Australia), August 2022
• Length: 336 pages
• ISBN13: 9781398512221

Synopsis (publisher)

A DETECTIVE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH.
A KILLER IN SEARCH OF RETRIBUTION.
A CLASH BETWEEN CULTURE AND DUTY.
THE PAST NEVER TRULY STAYS BURIED.

Hana Westerman is a tenacious Māori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a secret room. As Hana and her team work to track down the killer, other deaths lead her to think that they are searching for New Zealand’s first serial killer.

With little to go on, Hana must use all her experience as a police officer to try and find a motive to these apparently unrelated murders. What she eventually discovers is a link to an historic crime that leads back to the brutal bloody colonisation of New Zealand.

When the pursuit becomes frighteningly personal, Hana realises that her heritage and knowledge are their only keys to finding the killer.

But as the murders continue, it seems that the killer's agenda of revenge may include Hana – and her family . .

My take

It is unusual for me to read a book in a single day, but that is what happened here. And I came away feeling that I had learnt so much, particularly about what has happened to the Maori people in New Zealand.

The setting is Auckland. The scenario a killer who wants his crimes noticed by one person in particular, so he sens her videos alerting her. And Hana Westerman is clever enough to work where those videos have been shot, and then eventually to learn what is behind them.

An absolutely fascinating read.

Rating: 5.0

About the Author

Michael Te Arawa Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director and author.

His first book, a non-fiction novel telling the true story of New Zealand’s worst miscarriage of justice, In Dark Places, won Best Non-Fiction Book at the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Michael’s second book, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas is a time-travel graphic novel co-authored with Ant Sang.

Michael’s short films and feature films have won awards internationally, and have screened at numerous international festivals including Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, Locarno, New York, London and Melbourne. Michael is the 2020 recipient of the Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award, in recognition of members of the Māori film-making community who have made high-level contributions to screen storytelling.

He lives in Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand) with his partner Jane, and children Tīhema, Māhina and Matariki.

Review: THE WRONG WOMAN, J. P. Pomare

• 
  This edition published by Hachette Australia
• available from my local library
  
  
• Jul 27, 2022
• ISBN 9781869718190
• 334 pages
  

Synopsis (publisher)

IT WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT. WASN'T IT? A private investigator returning to the hometown he fled years ago becomes entangled in the disappearance of two teenage girls in this stunning literary crime thriller.

Reid left the small town of Manson a decade ago, promising his former Chief of Police boss he'd never return. He made a new life in the city, became a PI and turned his back on his old life.

Now an insurance firm has offered him good money to look into a suspicious car crash, and he finds himself back in the place he grew up - home to his complicated family history, a scarring relationship breakdown and a very public career-ending incident.

As Reid's investigation unfolds, nothing is as it seems: rumours are swirling about the well-liked young woman who crashed the car, killing her professor husband, and their possible connection to a local student who has gone missing.

Soon Reid finds himself veering away from the job he has been paid to do. Will he end up in the dangerous position of taking on the town again?

My Take

A woman has driven her car into a tree, killing her husband. Two teenage girls are missing.  A private investigator, once a policeman, is employed to investigate the crash, to find out if it really was an accident, or did the woman deliberately drive her car into a tree? Why would she? Are these strands all linked?

There are a number of mysteries for the reader to solve. Why did Reid leave the twin towns in California originally? Why did he promise never to return?

A tightly woven plot, hints dropped here and there, told mainly by two narrators, threaded skilfully between the past and the present.

Pomare is an author to watch out for.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

• 4.6, IN THE CLEARING
• 4.8, CALL ME EVIE
• 4.8, TELL ME LIES 

review: TELL ME LIES, J. P. Pomare

• 
  this edition published by Hachette in 2020
  
• ISBN 9-781869-718619
• 230 pages

Synopsis (Publisher)

Psychologist Margot Scott has a picture-perfect life: a nice house in the suburbs, a husband, two children and a successful career.

On a warm spring morning Margot approaches one of her clients on a busy train platform. He is looking down at his phone, with his duffel bag in hand as the train approaches. That's when she slams into his back and he falls in front of the train.

Margot's clients all lie to her, but one lie cost her family and freedom.

A fast-paced psychological thriller for fans of The Silent Patient.

My Take

It is not just Margot's clients who lie to her, the success of her entire career has been based on lies, narrowly avoided conflict of interest and compromise.

Margot knows that she is a successful psychologist. She spends much of her time in pigeon-holing her clients, confident that she can help solve their problems. But she doesn't seem to see behind the facade they present, and she doesn't realise that at least one of them is stalking her, and just biding his time.

Her own problems seem to begin when her family house is fire-bombed. She thinks that the culprit is one of her clients, but she picks the wrong one. And then her consulting rooms are fire-bombed as well, but her office has been ransacked too, and she realises that the fire-bomber was looking for something.

An interestingly constructed plot, with little problems for the reader to solve along the way. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8 

I've also read

4.6, IN THE CLEARING
4.8, CALL ME EVIE 

Review: MURDER ON THE MENU, Fiona Leitch

• 
  format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN : B08BHN4H1P
• Publisher : One More Chapter (January 15, 2021)
• File size : 3113 KB
• Print length : 286 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

The first book in a NEW cosy mystery series!

Still spinning from the hustle and bustle of city life, Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is glad to be back in the Cornish village she calls home. Having quit the Met Police in search of something less dangerous, the change of pace means she can finally start her dream catering company and raise her daughter, Daisy, somewhere safer.

But there’s nothing like having your first job back at home to be catering an ex-boyfriend’s wedding to remind you of just how small your village is. And when the bride, Cheryl, vanishes Jodie is drawn into the investigation, realising that life in the countryside might not be as quaint as she remembers…

With a missing bride on their hands, there is murder and mayhem around every corner but surely saving the day will be a piece of cake for this not-so-amateur sleuth?

The first book in the Murder on the Menu cosy mystery series. Can be read as a standalone. A humorous cosy mystery with a British female sleuth in a small village. Includes one of Jodie's Tried and Tested Recipes! Written in British English. Mild profanity and peril. 

My Take

Here is one for those who would like to be in on the start of a new cosy series. Ex-police Jodie "Nosey' Parker is trying to set herself up as a cook for hire, when she meets up with an old boyfriend desperately looking for a caterer for wedding which is imminent. And then his ex-wife is killed, his wife-to-be goes missing, and eventually another body is found. And Jodie finds that she hasn't lost the urge to investigate. The groom is the main suspect and Jodie is convinced that the police are barking up the wrong tree.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.2

About the author

Fiona Leitch is a writer with a chequered past. She’s written for football and motoring magazines, DJ’ed at illegal raves and is a stalwart of the low budget TV commercial, even appearing as the Australasian face of a cleaning product called 'Sod Off'. After living in London and Cornwall she's finally settled in sunny New Zealand, where she enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them. She spends her days dreaming of retiring to a crumbling Venetian palazzo, walking on the windswept beaches of West Auckland, and writing funny, flawed but awesome female characters.

Her debut novel 'Dead in Venice' was published by Audible in 2018 as one of their Crime Grant finalists. Fiona also writes screenplays and was a finalist in the Athena Film Festival Writers Lab, co-run by Meryl Streep's IRIS company.

Fiona is represented by Lina Langlee at the North Literary Agency.  

Review: THE TALLY STICK, Carl Nixon

• 
  this edition on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN : B089SC8KLH
• Publisher : Random House New Zealand (August 4, 2020)
• Language : English
• File size : 547 KB
• Print length : 234 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)  

A compulsive and chilling novel about subjugation, survival and the meaning of family.

Up on the highway, the only evidence that the Chamberlains had ever been there was two smeared tyre tracks in the mud leading into the almost undamaged screen of bushes and trees. No other cars passed that way until after dawn. By that time the tracks had been washed away by the heavy rain . . . It was a magic trick. After being in the country for only five days, the Chamberlain family had vanished into the air. The date was 4 April 1978.

In 2010 the remains of the eldest Chamberlain child have been discovered in a remote part of the West Coast, showing he lived for four years after the family disappeared. Found alongside him are his father’s watch and what turns out to be a tally stick, a piece of wood scored across, marking items of debt.

How had he survived and then died? Where was the rest of his family? And what is the meaning of the tally stick?

My Take

Thirty two years after he and his family disappeared in a remote part of New Zealand Mo Chamberlain's skeleton turns up on an equally remote beach.  At the time when the family and their car disappeared the land near the highway was searched extensively but no trace was ever found, of the car, of the husband and wife, or the four children.

We are in the car with them as it plunges off the road, and with the children as they wait for rescue. What follows is beyond belief.

We are with Suzanne, Julia Chamberlain's sister, when the New Zealand High Commission rings 32 years later to say a body has been found. We know Suzanne has been to New Zealsnd 4 times in the intervening years, the first just 3 weeks after the family disappeared, trying to work out where they had gone.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Carl Nixon is an award-winning short story writer, novelist and playwright. He has twice won the Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition, and won the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition in 2007. His first book, Fish ’n’ Chip Shop Song and other stories went to number one on the New Zealand bestselling fiction list, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book.

Nixon completed his first novel while he was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at Canterbury University in 2006. Rocking Horse Road saw him identified as ‘a major talent’ by North & South, and was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009. It has been published in China, France, and Germany and was on several lists for the best crime novels in Germany in 2012. His second novel, Settlers’ Creek, was also long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award. His novel, The Virgin and the Whale is being developed as a feature film by South Pacific Pictures.

His stage plays have been produced in every professional theatre in New Zealand. They include Mathew, Mark, Luke and Joanne,The Birthday Boy and The Raft. He has adapted for the stage Lloyd Jones’s novel The Book of Fame and JM Coetzee’s Disgrace. He was awarded the 2020 Howard McNaughton Prize at the Adam NZ Play Awards, recognising excellence in a unproduced script.

In 2018 Carl Nixon was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in France where he worked on The Tally Stick.

See more at www.carlnixon.co.nz/

Review: THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR, Rose Carlyle

• 
  this edition e-book (Libby) through my local library
  
• Publisher : William Morrow & Company (20 October 2020)
  
• Language: : English
• Hardcover : 304 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0063030144
• ISBN-13 : 978-0063030145
• author website

Synopsis (Amazon)

Twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beyond what the eye can see lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of Summer's seemingly never-ending good fortune.

When Summer calls Iris to Thailand to help her sail the family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris has secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But after a disturbing incident in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes.

Now Iris has the chance to step into the golden life she's always envied-and get one step closer to the hundred-million-dollar inheritance left by her manipulative father. All Iris would need to do is ensure she's the first of his seven children to fulfill the strange conditions of his will.

But Iris soon discovers that her twin was keeping more than one secret, and Iris's life lurches between glamorous dream and paranoid nightmare. In a family in which the winner takes all, whom can she trust? And how far will she go to get the life she's always dreamed about?

My Take

The narrator at first is Iris, second-born of "mirror" twins. Summer, the older twin, is perfect. Iris has always been conscious of being the less beautiful, the less perfect, although most people, including their younger brother, find it difficult to tell which is which.

Both women are recently married, but Iris's marriage has recently collapsed. Summer and her husband are in Thailand with her infant stepson and call for Iris to come to them because of an emergency with the little boy. 

Much of the plot becomes predictable once Summer and Iris begin sailing the family yacht from Thailand to the Seychelles. In the long run there is only one of them on the boat when it arrives. 

From that point on there are several plot twists. The last, in the final few pages, sent me back re-reading the final few chapters to check if there were any indications about where the plot was heading.

This book just kept me reading, mainly because I wanted to know how the plot worked out.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Rose Carlyle is a law professor who has written intermittently throughout her life and who began writing fiction in 2016. She was awarded first class honours in her creative writing Masters at the University of Auckland and was granted a prestigious mentorship under which she developed and completed this manuscript. She spends her spare time in far-flung places and currently lives in New Zealand. The Girl in the Mirror is her debut novel. 

Review: SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, Craig Sisterson

aka The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film and TV of Australia and New Zealand Kindle Edition

• Format: Kindle Edition
• paperback available for pre-order but publication delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic
• File Size: 2334 KB
• Print Length: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oldcastle Books (23 April 2020)
• Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B08166XDLZ

Synopsis (Amazon)

Australian and New Zealand crime and thriller writing - collectively referred to as Southern Cross Crime - is booming globally, with antipodean authors regularly featuring on awards and bestseller lists, such as Eleanor Catton's Booker Prize winning The Luminaries and Jane Harper's big commercial hit, The Dry, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award.

Hailing from two sparsely populated nations on the far edge of the former Empire - neighbours that are siblings in spirit, vastly different in landscape - Australian and New Zealand crime writers offer readers a blend of exotic and familiar, seasoned by distinctive senses of place, outlook, and humour, and roots that trace to the earliest days of our genre.

Southern Cross Crime is the first comprehensive guide to modern crime writing from "Down Under". From coastal cities to the outback, leading critic Craig Sisterson showcases key titles from over 250 storytellers, plus screen dramas ranging from Mystery Road to Top of the Lake. Fascinating insights are added through in-depth interviews with some of the prime suspects who paved the way or instigated the global boom, including Michael Robotham, Paul Cleave, Emma Viskic, Paul Thomas, Candice Fox, and Garry Disher.

My Take

This is an essential purchase for crime fiction readers especially in Australia and New Zealand, but also those world-wide who enjoy "antipodean noir".
It is an authoritative guide to what to read. Craig has focused on the 'modern era' choosing the establishment of the Australian Crime Writers Association and the inaugural Ned Kelly awards in 1996 as the starting point. He has attempted to survey "more than 300 Australian and New Zealand crime writers.... and endeavoured to be as inclusive and wide ranging as possible. You will find bestsellers, award winners, hidden gems, lesser known authors, and fresh voices."

My own reading of New Zealand crime fiction has slackened in recent years, so I began with paper and pen, making note of titles to hunt down. I found that I have more or less kept up with Australian crime fiction, but also that I have missed on quite a few gems, and there was confirmation that my reading of New Zealand crime fiction hasn't even been the tip of the iceberg. I now have a list that will keep me busy for many years.

This book is a wonderful achievement, not only giving readers tips on a wide variety of titles to look for, interviews with prominent achievers, but also, in the Appendix, arranged from most recent to first years, the Ned Kelly Award winners, the Ngaio Marsh Award winners,and the Davitt Award Winners.

My rating: 5.0

About the author
Craig Sisterson is a features writer and crime fiction expert from New Zealand who writes for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he's interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. He's been a judge of the McIlvanney Prize and Ned Kelly Awards, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir.

Review: ALL OUR SECRETS, Jennifer Lane

• this edition published by Rosa Mira Books New Zealand 2017
• ISBN 9-780994-132215
• 300 pages
• copy supplied by publisher

Synopsis (publisher)

A girl called Gracie.

A small town called Coongahoola with the dark Bagooli River running through it.

The Bleeders — hundreds of ‘Believers’ who set up on the banks of the river, who start to buy up the town and win souls.

The River Children — born in the aftermath of the infamous River Picnic. They begin to go missing, one after another.

Gracie Barrett is the naively savvy spokesperson for her chaotic family (promiscuous dad, angry mum, twins Lucky and Grub, Elijah the River Child and fervent, prayerful Grandma Bett), for the kids who are taken, for the lurking fear that locks down the town and puts everyone under suspicion.

Gracie is funny and kind, bullied and anguished, and her life spirals out of control when she discovers she knows what no one else does: who is responsible for the missing children.

Coongahoola is where hope and fear collide, where tender adolescence is confronted by death, where kindness is a glimmer of light in the dark.

My Take

Gracie Barrett, the central figure in this novel, reminded me a lot of Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. In fact at one stage Gracie is reading the book. In some senses Gracie has a wisdom beyond her years, and in other ways she is naive in her acceptance of what is happening in the adult world. There is a deceptive complexity to this plot.

The first mystery to solve is what actually happened on the night of the River Picnic. And then, as the River Children born in its aftermath, begin to go missing and are then are discovered murdered, what is the thread that connects them? Why are these murders happening, what has triggered them after 8 years?

The town of Coongahoola is divided with the arrival of Saint Bede and his followers, and the followers become easy scapegoats to blame for the murders. Gracie is particularly affected when he mother and father breakup, her mother leaves home, and is then chosen by Saint Bede to be his 4th wife. Through all Grandma Bett provides much needed stability, but still the murders happen.

And then Gracie unwittingly identifies the murderer.

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Boo Radley had been bad?

My rating: 4.5

In 1995, doubled over under the enormous weight of her backpack (lugging a 10kg laptop among other things), Jennifer Lane left Australia to satisfy her curiosity about the rest of the world – and to fulfil her dream of writing a novel. Twenty-two years, one husband and two daughters later, her mum has finally given up asking when she’s coming home.

For two decades now, Jennifer has lived in Wellington, New Zealand with the aforementioned family. She was a winner of New Zealand Book Month’s Six Pack 2 writing competition in 2007 and her short stories have appeared in publications on both sides of the Tasman, including Southerly and Island.

It took a little longer than she planned, but ALL OUR SECRETS is her first novel.

Her website and blog are at: jenniferlane.co.nz

Review: A STRAITS SETTLEMENT, Brian Stoddart

• this edition published by Crime Wave Press 2016
  
• #3 in the Le Fanu series
• ISBN 978-988-14584-8-3
• 265 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

In the third instalment of the Le Fanu Mystery series, the intrepid superintendent is promoted to Inspector-General of Police in 1920s Madras, which proves to be more boring than he had envisaged.

Instead of pushing papers across his desk, Le Fanu focuses on the disappearance of a senior Indian Civil Service officer and an apparently unrelated murder. As the two incidents intertwine, the world weary detective is drawn into the worlds of indentured labor recruitment and antiquities theft..

But as bureaucratic politics make his position vulnerable, his superiors send the intrepid policeman across the Bay of Bengal to pursue the cases in the Straits Settlements. Le Fanu immediately becomes embroiled in the activities of secret societies and the British colonial intelligence services.

The appearance of a mysterious Chinese woman renders his professional life uncertain as he wonders anew about the British imperial future.

My Take

I think it helped, this being #3 in this series, that I had already read the first two, so that I was familiar with many of the characters that occur in the earlier books.

What I particularly like about these stories is the authentic feel to the historical setting, which is, rather vaguely, Madras in the 1920s. The Indian Civil Service is losing its grip because of the independence movement and the protests about Imperialism. Le Fanu has risen to the level of Inspector-General of Police mainly because Major Jepson has taken his sick wife back to England. Le Fanu expects to job to be a lot more interesting than it is, but it does bring status with it.

Nevertheless he jumps at the chance to do some real investigation, rather than his usual pen pushing, and the trail eventually leads him to the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, and with that the tantalising offer of a new job.

Stoddart has left himself plenty of room for #4.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.6, A MADRAS MIASMA - #1
4.3, THE PALLAMPUR PREDICAMENT -#2

Review: INSIDE THE BLACK HORSE, Ray Berard

• Format Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 890 KB
• Print Length: 252 pages
• Publisher: Mary Egan Publishing (November 15, 2015)
• Publication Date: November 15, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0181TQLYU

Synopsis (Amazon)

Winner of the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Debut Novel award and long-listed for the 2017 Dublin Literary Award as well as making the finals of the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Crime thriller of the year.

Inside the Black Horse is a fast-moving thriller, a story of fate, and unlikely love story for our time. Pio Morgan is waiting outside a pub on a cold winter night. There is a debt he must pay and no options left. What he does next drags a group of strangers into a web of confusion that over the course of a few days changes all their lives. The young Maori widow just trying to raise her children, the corporate executive hiding his mistake, the gang of criminals that will do what ever it takes to recover what they've lost - and the outsider sent to town to try and figure out who did what. Time is running out for all of them as events take an increasingly dark turn. 

Inside the Black Horse explores equally the emotions felt by the victim and perpetrator and the effect of crime on the lives of ordinary people, gang members and drug dealers. This book could be based in any city in New Zealand. So real that you can visualize the characters in the book, feel their desperation, sense their hope for the future, and find compassion for them as you join them on their journey. With a few good twists along the way, it’s a great read.

The International Judging panel for the Ngaio Marsh awards called it “A lucid and potent portrait of good people and gangsters that is unmistakably Kiwi and a fine crime story with considerable depth"

My Take:

This book creates an interesting picture of contemporary New Zealand, particularly of a multi- layered drug culture, with a pyramid of users and pushers, with upper layers feeding off the misery of those below. The main characters in this pyramid are Maori born and their elders don't understand what has happened to the old values.

The possibility that the owner of the Black Horse Bar and Casino was somehow involved in the events that took place, gives Peter Butterworth a possible way of covering up the mistake he's made in not having the Black Horse's taking collected in the previous week. He brings in ex-US policeman, private investigator Brian Duncan in the hope that he can find some incriminating evidence.

A really enjoyable and carefully written book with strong and well depicted characters. I liked the way the final results were not entirely predictable.

My Rating: 4.5

About the author
Ray Berard is a Canadian born Kiwi writer based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

A McGill University graduate and five-year member of the NZ Authors Society, writing has always been his passion, and in recent years a full-time one.

Inside the Black Horse is his debut novel, based off a diary he kept during his years supervising betting outlets for the New Zealand Racing Board. "It's about New Zealand right now, and what happens when a group of strangers get drawn into each other's lives after a young man's desperate act."

Ray is currently working on his second Novel, The Diary of a Dead Man.

Review: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, Dorothy Fowler

• first published 2009 by Black Swan
• ISBN 978-1-86979-208-4
• 279 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (back cover)

Everything leaves a trace. Chloe, a contract archaeologist, is excavating the site of a religious Kaipara Harbour community, which burnt to the ground in the 1880s. As the site is uncovered, what unpalatable truths will be revealed about the events on the night of the fire? Chloe's own family has farmed this land, and she is caught in the conflict as local resistance to the excavation mounts. When Chloe digs up more than shards of pottery, she realises that the site holds secrets that will not stay buried, and their effect on the present is devastating. Moving between a diary written in the 1880s and the current day, this compelling novel has murder, mystery, love, lust - and archaeology.

My Take

A carefully constructed mystery on at least two levels. The historical site that Chloe is investigating has been part of her family for a century. It is about to be sold for land development and so the owner, Chloe's cousin Shane, has commissioned her to do an archaeological survey. Over a century ago this was a reclusive mission station, but then it was burnt down. There are some bodies buried on the site and they need to be found and moved to a nearby cemetery.

Chloe's family seem to have lost whatever they knew about the Mission, and they don't even know where the mass grave is.

The reader has the advantage of being privy to a diary written in the 1880s before the fire and so we chart a mystery on that level, at the same time as participating in Chloe's dig. But there is at least one person who doesn't want the past dug up, and local vandals do their best to impede the progress of the excavation. And there is something more serious than vandalism underneath everything.
 
Dorothy Fowler wrote this novel in 2008 as her coursework for the Master of Creative Writing at Auckland University. 

My rating: 4.5 

See another review 

Review: TWISTER, Jane Woodham

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1045 KB
• Print Length: 293 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Rosa Mira Books (December 10, 2015)
• Publication Date: December 10, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0197IIIUE
• source: review copy from the publisher 

 Synopsis (publisher)


Dunedin, in the grip of an unseasonal flu, is a city under siege. Then, after five damaging days of rain, a twister rips through, exposing the body of a missing schoolgirl in Ross Creek.

Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd is the only one who can lead the investigation despite unresolved sorrow over the disappearance of his own daughter nine years earlier.

Sultry weather broods over the beleaguered city as suspects are sifted and pressure mounts for Leo to solve the crime. Meanwhile, his wife Kate tries to summon the courage to tell him the secrets she’s nursed for too long — including one about the disappearance of their beloved Beth.

My Take

In late February Dunedin has a flu epidemic, but also unusually muggy heat, followed by 5 days of torrential rain. And finally comes the twister, a black funnel churning in from the sea and smashing into the town. The weather brings to the surface of the local creek the body of a teenage girl who has been missing for just a few days. The chief investigator in the Wenlock case has succumbed to the flu and so the case is handed over to DSS Leo Judd. And the case brings with it the memory of his own daughter who went missing nine years earlier. Is Leo the best person for the job? That is what the local paper asks.

On the surface this is a police procedural but there is a lot going on. In the nine years since Beth disappeared Leo Judd's marriage has become increasingly sterile and his wife Kate is contemplating leaving him. Leo is unaware of this but doesn't know what to do to improve things anyway.
 
There are several leads in the Tracey Wenlock case and as they are being investigated another girl disappears. Judd's investigation keeps pointing to the same person as being involved but he seems to be well alibied.

This novel is an impressive debut by a new New Zealand author. I hope we see more of her, but it is a little difficult to see this one as the beginning of a series.

My rating: 4.8

About the author
Jane Woodham moved in 1998 from London to Dunedin, New Zealand, where she has been writing for the past nine years. Jane’s work has twice been shortlisted for the BNZ Literary Awards and has been published in New Zealand and the UK.
A New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship in 2014 allowed Jane to work with crime writer Paddy Richardson on the final draft of Twister, her first novel.
Some events in Twister occur around the Dunedin Hot Salt Water Pool, where Jane is a regular swimmer. She is also a keen gardener, cook and fair-weather surfer.