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
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
Dead Man’s Pose is a tension-reliever in yoga. Not this time!
The relaxation goes further than expected. One of Elaina Williams’s yoga students dies in her class. Was the victim helped into Dead Man’s Pose? Behind the scenes, there’s a coverup threatening to unravel Elaina’s...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
In 1987, leather-clad tourist Blanca Nul goes missing in small-town New Zealand. Local reporter Ray Moody, washed-up and over-imbibing, gets a scoop the foreigner modelled for a pornographic magazine. He chases the story but crashes his car and loses his job.
A year to the day...Read more
At the end of Neands, in a world that has turned against them, Charlie, Pru, and Ivy have found refuge but they are desperate for answers. As they set out to find out what happened to Charlie’s mother and their foster parents, Alan and Ngaire, Em and her brother Miro are risking their lives...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
Ray Moody is washed up. He drinks too much and won't look after himself. He's separated from his wife (it's more complicated than that), living in the house that her family still pays for and he's got a full time pre-occupation with separating himself from his career. So explaining the...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
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
Who killed Marcia?
Beautiful but difficult, Marcia...
Ted answers the telephone to discover his ex-wife, Marcia, is dead, accidentally drowned in the sea below the house that he built on a remote beach in the north of New Zealand, a house he lost in the divorce....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
Zoe Herewini's treatment for her irrational behaviour threatens to reveal the killer of her sister. The killer must silence her.
Members of a protest group wish to kill the Prime Minister, Jennifer Allenby for imposing sanctions on people's freedoms during the Covid-19 pandemic...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