What if an insane billionaire decides there are too many people in our world; what will he do? What is his answer? To kill millions for the greater good through the invention of a spectacular killing machine! How will he do this? By manipulating local cultural concepts to gain privacy for...Read more
Silence is safe. Avoidance is comforting. Until it gets you killed.
Mac has spent his life hiding behind his disability. Added to that, he's struggling to find his identity as a freckled redhead in a family of black haired, brown skinned Du Roses.
...Read more
THE SLOW ROLL is New Zealand based author Simon Lendrum's debut novel, which is worth mentioning because readers could be mistaken for thinking this is one of many. Engrossing, with a well constructed plot, a very engaging couple of central characters, and a dry, almost melancholic style,...Read more
It seemed a simple request. ”Can you find my daughter who has run away?” But for professional gambler O’Malley, life isn’t that simple.
There is the murder of one of his poker partners, the attention of drug dealers, money launderers, the police, the gangs, and just to top it...Read more
To say that author Lauren Roche has taken on a mammoth undertaking with MILA AND THE BONE MAN is possibly one of the bigger understatements this reviewer has uttered. There is so much happening in this coming of age story, which is more than just that - it's an exploration of consequences,...Read more
Two missing girls, two decades apart. Only one person knows the truth ...
Jac Morgan never planned on going back to her hometown. Seven years after the fatal house fire that killed her mother and branded Jac a killer she's back - but for only one reason. Her...Read more
EVERYONE WANTS TO BE FAMOUS
Everyone has heard of the Snows. Belle, world-famous singer of Woodville fame. Her husband Teddy, acclaimed actor by day, notorious party animal by night. Their children: Emma, Pearl, Crystal, Elfred and River.
EVERYONE EXCEPT EMMA SNOW...Read more
Less a review, more a few comments on Les Allen's IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES, published in June 2022.
Set in 1982, New Zealand, the story revolves around an unlicensed private investigator who, whilst living under a false identity, forms an unlikely alliance with a small town...Read more
1982, New Zealand. Sean McBride, an unlicensed private investigator living under a false identity, forms an unlikely alliance with small town lawyer Jim Mansell and his unconventional secretary Kelly.
Fighting against dirty tricks from Northland rugby fields to dusty courtrooms...Read more
They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.
A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman's disappearance twenty-five...Read more
Marshall Grade returns in an action-packed thrillride through the New York underworld.
When a former NYPD colleague is shot dead in front of him, private investigator Marshall Grade discovers there's far more to the killing than meets the eye.
Ray Vialoux is in...Read more
A finalist in the Ngaio Awards for Best First Crime Novel, Paper Cage is the story of a divided community and a string of missing children. Full Review at Newtown Review...Read more
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...Read more
Adeline and Hemi finally have everything they ever wanted. A loving partnership, baby on the way, and who could forget Adeline’s beautiful assistance dog, Coco?
But… things never stay peaceful for long when magic is involved. Hemi’s cousin arrives, bringing some unwelcome...Read more
Nothing in Stan Andino's unremarkable life could prepare him for the day he discovers his wife in the living room, naked except for a black apron, bleaching out a stain in the carpet that only she can see.
A CT scan one week later explains the seemingly inexplicable; Carmen...Read more
A dementia diagnosis reveals clues to a decades-old mystery in this new novel from the author of The Secrets of Strangers – Charity Norman’s third to be shortlisted for NZ’s Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Full Review at: ...Read more
Monday Woolridge is a fighter with a face covered in scars and life full of debt.
Her Avondale flat has no furniture, her father’s dead, her catatonic mother’s in an expensive nursing home and her kickboxing gym is going to Thailand.
Monday's shitty bartending job pays...Read more
Puti Derrell likes running at midnight. During lockdown it was safe but now lockdown is over and Porohiwi doesn’t feel safe anymore – especially when she discovers her estranged grandfather has been murdered and left with a Judas mask on his face.
Puti’s already got a lot on her...Read more
Florence. Spring, 1537.
When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.
His case becomes far more complicated when a naked man’s...Read more
A new resident, a new murder, an old lesson
98 year old Alice Atkinson is on the case once more when first an assault, then a murder rocks the Silvermoon Retirement Village. Some of her friends are rethinking living at Silvermoon so once again Alice dusts off her skills in a...Read more
“A Millennial New Yorker, a Stewart Island fisherman, and a WW II veteran walk into a bar...”
Maudie’s on the run – from New York and from her past – but she runs headlong into her future when she ends up on Rakiura Stewart Island on assignment to cover Aotearoa New Zealand’s...Read more
After six Dan Delaney mysteries following a Kiwi family through the 20th century, the story comes full circle during the fragile beginnings of the 1995 Northern Irish ceasefire. The Delaney family are touring Ireland in search of their relations connected to a convict. In the process they...Read more
Addison Harper is abruptly summoned to Milverton at the behest of an abrasive lawyer. He plans to be in and out, back to the city lickety-split. Instead, he finds himself charmed by the small town with its delightful and eccentric residents, not to mention the rather easy-...Read more
BETTER THE BLOOD is one of those novels that I'd been hearing whispers about for quite a while, and should have made it to the top of the reading pile more quickly than my poor priority setting allowed. On the one hand I'm now regretting the delay, but on the upside, maybe I've cunningly...Read more
A DETECTIVE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH
Hana Westerman is a tenacious Ma¯ori 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...Read more
97 year old Alice Atkinson has many ghosts in her past, but she never expected to see this one walk past her in the street.
She doesn't have much time to think about the past though as her friend Teresa asks her for help. She thinks someone is breaking into her apartment and...Read more
If old age doesn't get her..the murderer will.
97 year old Alice Atkinson should be comfortably living out her days at the Silvermoon Retirement Village. But she's bored. A lifetime of living in the grey area between right and wrong means that winning money off her friends at...Read more