Author Archives: alysonebaker

Mami Suzuki: Private Eye by Simon Rowe – 2023

Mami Suzuki is moonlighting as a private eye in Kobe, Japan. She is doing so unbeknownst to the management of the Orient Hotel where she works – she needs the money to support herself, her mother, and her daughter. Four … Continue reading

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Return to Blood by Michael Bennett – 2024

Hana Westerman is back staking out houses, interviewing suspects, filming crimes in progress, and piecing together scraps of information. The only problem is, she’s no longer a detective: “Hana had walked away from the cops because she couldn’t live with … Continue reading

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Emergency Weather by Tim Jones – 2023

An Aotearoa we are all familiar with – extreme weather events, houses washed away, roads impassable, calls for resilience and re-building. But in Emergency Weather these events have become more extreme: “Glacial slowness had become an oxymoron.” The landscape is … Continue reading

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El Flamingo by Nick Davies – 2023

Lou Galloway has given up his Hollywood dream and taken off for Mexico – where he falls into a whirlwind adventure, acting out the role of a lifetime. With a magic realism start, a Narcos middle, and a [no spoilers] … Continue reading

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The Quarry by Kim Hunt – 2023

Dif is a rough sleeper, for good reasons he is lying low, keeping clear of the law. However, when he witnesses a woman’s body being dumped in a quarry, he knows he must do something to get justice for the … Continue reading

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Black Silk & Sympathy by Deborah Challinor – 2024

Black Silk & Sympathy is the first in a new series from Deborah Challinor, set in the second half of the 18th Century in stinky vibrant Sydney. Tatty Crowe is a woman in a profession regarded as male – she … Continue reading

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Dice by Claire Baylis – 2023

Four teenage boys accused of sexual offending, three teenage girls under the spotlight of public opinion and speculation. We read their stories through trial testimonies, memories, and from the point of view of the twelve jurors tasked with judging the … Continue reading

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Chasing the Dragon by Mark Wightman – 2023

Inspector Maximo Betancourt is back solving crimes in sweaty bustling 1940 Singapore. Like his first outing, Waking the Tiger, Chasing the Dragon is full of colourful characters, lots of action, and an intriguing crime to solve. In Waking the Tiger, … Continue reading

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Take Two by Caroline Thonger & Vivian Thonger, illustrated by Alan Thomas – 2023

Take two is a random collection of incidents from the U.K. childhoods of two sisters, Caroline and Vivian Thonger. Vivian now lives in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Take two is like a catalogue of memories, complete with illustrations of remembered artefacts. … Continue reading

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Resurrection by Roger Simpson – 2023

Jane might finally be making headway with a twenty-year-old case, when an accident sends her spinning into a strange world. Three months after the accident, she is surrounded by “strangers who somehow feel familiar” – are they familiar because she … Continue reading

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