Category Archives: Book Review

Down from Upland by Murdoch Stephens – 2022

Posted on June 11, 2022 by alysonebaker

Jacqui and Scott live with their son Axle down from Upland Rd, Kelburn, Wellington. They are both civil servants, she in Police Headquarters, he across the road in the Ministry of Health. Axle has moved from single-sex Wellington College due … Continue reading →

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Notorious by Olivia Hayfield – 2022

Posted on May 21, 2022 by alysonebaker

Should Emma Snow persist with Rowan Bosworth, a dark and troubled Heathcliff, living a reclusive life on the Yorkshire moors? Or should she stay with Henry Theodore, a clean-cut Bingley, “a fully signed up member of the rich and powerful”. … Continue reading →

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Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman – 2021

Posted on May 14, 2022 by alysonebaker

Set in hot and humid Singapore in the 1930s, Waking the tiger is a murder mystery that stalks around the colonialism and rising fascism of the era, and it also introduces a great new fictional detective: Inspector Maximo Betancourt. Betancourt … Continue reading →

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Polaroid Nights by Lizzie Harwood – 2021

Posted on May 10, 2022 by alysonebaker

The Auckland hospo scene in the mid 1990’s – late nights in smoke-clogged cocktail bars after shifts are done, drinking high-end high-alcohol drinks, trying to save enough tips from the night’s work to pay the rent. Betty Asphalt often fails … Continue reading →

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The Darkest Sin by D.V. Bishop – 2022

Posted on May 8, 2022 by alysonebaker

“After all, how much trouble could a convent full of nuns be?” Cesare Aldo, an officer of Florence’s criminal court, is at first dismissive in his approach to the women of Santa Maria Magdalena. However, he soon realises they are … Continue reading →

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Remember Me by Charity Norman – 2022

Posted on April 24, 2022 by alysonebaker

Emily Kirkland never felt close to her father, Dr Felix Kirkland. So, when his neighbour calls her from Aotearoa to say her father is struggling on his own and can she return to help, she thinks it would be “easier … Continue reading →

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Exit .45 by Ben Sanders – 2022

Posted on April 21, 2022 by alysonebaker

Marshall Grade is living in New York, passing his time solving really hard Jackson Pollock jigsaw puzzles, when an old buddy from his Brooklyn South, NYPD days, Ray Vialoux, asks to meet him. Ray is deep in gambling debt, and … Continue reading →

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Slow Down, You’re Here by Brannavan Gnanalingam – 2022

Posted on April 16, 2022 by alysonebaker

Auckland in the time of Covid, and the lockdowns have made work even more precarious than usual for Vishal and Kavita. Vishal has been driving taxis since he lost his marketing job a few years back, he works evening-into-night shifts … Continue reading →

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Entanglement by Bryan Walpert – 2021

Posted on April 14, 2022 by alysonebaker

Paul is at a writers’ retreat in 2019, writing pieces in response to prompts, pieces from his life, from the stories he used to tell his daughter. Paul remembers episodes from 2011, in reverse chronological order, it is the year … Continue reading →

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Both Feet in Paradise by Andy Southall – 2021

Posted on April 7, 2022 by alysonebaker

A woman is waiting at Auckland International Airport for her parents to arrive. She thinks of them impatiently: “Dad off on his walks, and Mum busy with her cousins, her friends, her legions of family.” Adam is on an island … Continue reading →

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