Author Archives: alysonebaker

Empathy by Bryan Walpert – 2025

Posted on November 13, 2025 by alysonebaker

David Geller is a father of two, Gemma and Finn. He is  a grieving widower. He is an “upper-level chemistry and biology” teacher. He is a compulsive organiser “a little OCD”. When David’s father, Edward, goes missing, things get very … Continue reading →

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The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney – 2025

Posted on July 26, 2025 by alysonebaker

The Good Father is a complex and disturbing mystery centred on a nightmare scenario – a child going missing, along with the awful speculation of what might have happened, or be happening, to him. At the beginning of the book, … Continue reading →

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The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey – 2025

Posted on May 29, 2025 by alysonebaker

The Book of Guilt is an alternate history of a dystopian Britain, and the bildungsroman of a boy called Vincent. It is a mystery to solve, and a #YeahNoir thriller. It is a cautionary tale of how we accept the … Continue reading →

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Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett – 2025

Posted on May 24, 2025 by alysonebaker

Hana Westerman’s life as an ex-cop in Tātā Bay, working with her dad on a driver training scheme for the local youth, is about to be shattered in many ways: Illness in the family, an impending wedding, a possible new … Continue reading →

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Northbound by Naomi Arnold – 2025

Posted on April 9, 2025 by alysonebaker

“It was at once too universal and too personal to put into words, an experience of awe and devastation known only to those who shared it …” Naomi Arnold walking the Te Araroa trail, which spans the length of Aotearoa, … Continue reading →

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Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray – 2024

Posted on February 19, 2025 by alysonebaker

“You will give these women voice and nourish them with hope … You will give them flesh and make them real” – Lee Murray, a “New Zealand-born Chinese Pākehā”, tells nine tales of women of the Chinese diaspora, women who … Continue reading →

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At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley – 2024

Posted on February 8, 2025 by alysonebaker

“‘It’s a funny old world, eh?’ I said after a second sip. ‘It’s pretty random,’ said James.” Libby is back at the Grand Glacier Hotel, on the West Coast, Aotearoa. Twenty years earlier she and her husband, Curtis, had promised … Continue reading →

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The Royal Free by Carl Shuker – 2024

Posted on January 30, 2025 by alysonebaker

The Royal Free depicts the fracturing of a stable reality – personal, institutional, and societal. James Ballard is a grieving widower with a six-month-old daughter, Fiona. He is a copy editor at the Royal London Journal of Medicine, the: “third-oldest … Continue reading →

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A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop – 2024

Posted on January 19, 2025 by alysonebaker

“Investigating a murder that involves the Church never ends well in Florence.” Cesare Aldo and Carlo Strocchi are back pounding the beat in 1539 Florence. Literally pounding the beat for Aldo, who has been assigned to months of night-patrolling the … Continue reading →

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The Huia & Our Tears by Ray Ching – 2024

Posted on December 21, 2024 by alysonebaker

“The fables come always to the same end; this beautiful bird that touched all who met with them or heard their call from their forest places, is gone.” I include The Huia & Our Tears in my reviews of Aotearoa … Continue reading →

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