Explore: New Zealand

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc.
September: New Zealand

READ:

The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton
Literary | Published: 2013 | Goodreads
It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.

WATCH:

The Stolen (2017)
Director/Writer: Niall Johnson
Writers: Emily Corcoran
Stars: Alice Eve, Graham McTavish
Action, Adventure, Drama, Western, New Zealand | imdb | my rating: 4
The story of a woman who must find her kidnapped son, navigating a world she doesn't know, on the edge of danger with every heartbeat.

VISIT: someday...

The Women's Bookshop
105 Ponsonby Rd
Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand
(details)

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* part of Explore the World (here)

Death On Demand by Paul Thomas

Death On Demand
by Paul Thomas

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
BookExcerpt

Published: 2013
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
Genre: Mystery, New Zealand
Paperback: 288
Rating: 5

Tito Ihaka series:
Death On Demand
Fallout

First sentence(s):
Greytown, fourteen years ago
Females had always found him hard to resist.

Zombie sighting:
He drove over the Rimutakas to Greytown, aka Gaytown. It had been just another zombified little country town until a few gays from Wellington jazzed it up.
-chapter 9, page 145

Maori cop Ihaka, unkempt, overweight, intemperate, unruly, unorthodox, and profane, is a cop unable to play the police politics necessary for promotion, but he's a man who has a way with women, and he's a stubborn investigator with an uncanny instinct for the truth.

Tito Ihaka is in the wilderness, having fallen foul of the new regime at Auckland Central. Called back to follow up a strange twist in the unsolved case that got him into trouble in the first place, Ihaka finds himself hunting a shadowy hitman who could have several notches on his belt.

His enemies want him off the case, but the bodies are piling up. Ihaka embarks on a quest to establish whether police corruption was behind the shooting of an undercover cop and—to complicate matters—he becomes involved with an enigmatic female suspect who could hold the key to everything.

My two-bits:

This mystery got complicated and twisty-like. However, I liked how this cop stayed true throughout.

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* part of Books, Inc. Foreign Intrigue Book Club (here)