Currently reading: MILKSHAKE by Matt Hammond (initial thoughts and review so far)

A few weeks ago I shared some information about a debut New Zealand thriller I'd come across, MILKSHAKE by Matt Hammond. The book, which seemed like something of a global conspiracy thriller, set right here amongst the forests, dairy pastures, and small towns of Aotearoa, was available in a variety of ebook formats from Smashwords (a site I've come to quite like, in terms of discovering lesser-known authors), and in Kindle format from Amazon (US$0.99), and is now also available in hardcopy/paperback format from Amazon. Here's the blurb:

On the day David Turner is supposed to emigrate to New Zealand, he witnesses a savage murder and becomes caught up in ruthless global conspiracy. A thirty year-old technological discovery threatens his own future and jeopardises the lives of millions of others as David discovers that starting a new life is about to become a deadly game of cat and mouse... and, somewhat surprisingly, cows.

The early reviews on Smashwords and Amazon have been very positive - although you always need to take those with a grain of salt - but the premise of New Zealand being unwittingly used as a testing ground for a dangerous new biofuel, and an ordinary man being unwittingly caught up in a multinational global conspiracy laced with politics, spies, environmental activists, and more, certainly had me intrigued. So I've decided to give the debut thriller a go myself, and have been reading it this week.

I'm about 60 per cent of the way through, and so far am quite enjoying it (and it's growing on me as I go). There is a good narrative drive, and plenty of action - but sometimes the writing isn't as smooth as some crime fiction fans might like. A little too much exposition and 'telling' (sometimes repeatedly - which is a pet peeve of mine, but doesn't bother some other readers as much), and Hammond seems to feel the need to regularly remind the reader of the situation the protagonist, David Turner, finds himself in (a bit too much 'spelling it out'). But despite some irritating flaws - which in all honesty aren't unexpected for a debut book that hasn't come through the editing process of a major publisher - I am still finding myself compelled to keep turning the pages. Hammond has brought together some really good ideas and interesting concepts, and also shows a nice turn of phrase and descriptive passage now and then, in amongst all the action, with some good 'visuals'. I'm certainly intrigued, or hooked, to find out how it all comes together. And whether my home country will just become a testing ground for fuel-hungry Americans.

It's a good solid debut, that might have moved into the very good/great category with some tighter editing. In all fairness, there are plenty of big-name, hugely popular bestsellers that suffer from the same flaws - plot and action-centric conspiracy thrillers where the writing is a little 'on the nose' (eg Dan Brown etc). So I imagine many, many people would enjoy MILKSHAKE, which is entertaining and interesting. I am looking forward to seeing whether the final third moves my final the book up or down in my estimation.

Comments welcome.

BLOOD ROOTS launch party this weekend

As I mentioned last month, New Zealand writer Michael Green has now brought his post-apocalyptic 'Blood Line' thriller trilogy to a close with the completion of BLOOD ROOTS, the third book.

I've now been sent an invitation for myself and any Crime Watch readers who may be interested and in the area to attend the book launch celebration at the Gulf Harbour Yacht Club this weekend.

Not only can you enjoy a good event and a great book, but support a terrific charity - as, like with his first thriller novel, BLOOD LINE, Green is donating all his author royalties to Lifeline (read about his reasons for supporting this very worthwhile charity here).

The Blood Line trilogy is a thriller series set in Gulf Harbour, New Zealand (a scenic area north of Auckland), the UK, and on the high seas in between. It narrates the fortunes of various branches of the Chatfield family as they struggle to survive a deadly world-wide pandemic.

Here are the official details about the book launch:

At The Gulf Harbour Yacht Club

1299 Laurie Southwick Parade, Gulf Harbour, Whangaparaoa
Sunday 20 November 2011 - 3PM
Cash bar (nibbles provided)
Copies of Blood Line & Blood Bond will also be available (the first two books in the trilogy)

If you can't make the book launch, but would like to order a copy of BLOOD ROOTS, you can do so through the author's website here.

Murder, global conspiracies, and... cows?

It's great to see more writers joining the small but growing crime fiction wave we have here in New Zealand. This week saw the release of Nelson-based writer Matt Hammond's debut thriller, MILKSHAKE, on Amazon and Smashwords. I understand it will soon be available in print copy as well.

Hammond works for the New Zealand government, having immigrated from the UK with his wife and kids in 2002, "inspired by the scenery and the laidback lifestyle". He has been working on the manuscript that became MILKSHAKE for several years, and it has evolved into a "fast-paced, ecologically focused thriller":

On the day David Turner is supposed to emigrate to New Zealand, he witnesses a savage murder and becomes caught up in ruthless global conspiracy.

A thirty year-old technological discovery threatens his own future and jeopardises the lives of millions of others as David discovers that starting a new life is about to become a deadly game of cat and mouse... and, somewhat surprisingly, cows.

Modifying milk so that ethanol can be processed from it could be the solution to an impending global oil crisis, but drinking it will kill you. Can the truth be uncovered before an entire country is sacrificed to satisfy the world's demand for bio-fuel?

It's kind of cool that Hammond has brought the dairy industry into his conspiracy thriller, as it is quite a big part of the New Zealand landscape. Although little old New Zealand only has about 0.06 per cent of the world's population (ie 1/1500th), we are responsible for around 30 per cent (ie 500/1500ths) of the global dairy export industry, which is pretty 'wow'; punching above our weight 500 times over.

Since I've had a fairly good experience with some books first published on Smashwords (eg MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW by Bev Robitai) - belying the small publisher/ebook publisher prejudices - I'm going to give MILKSHAKE a go too.

Do you like the sound of a global thriller set in the agricultural industry?

Bringing a post-apocalyptic thriller trilogy to a close: BLOOD ROOTS by Michael Green

I'm pleased to share that the third instalment in Gulf Harbour-based author Michael Green's post-apocalyptic 'Blood Line' thriller trilogy will soon be available. BLOOD ROOTS is scheduled for release next month.

I read, and enjoyed, the second book in the series, BLOOD BOND, on its release in late 2009. You can read my NZLawyer review here. I'm looking forward to seeing how Green brings his saga of the Chatfield family - apparently the only survivors of a global pandemic, thanks to a rogue familial gene - to a climax.

Green, who is now in his mid 60s, was born in England but has lived in Auckland for a few decades (having transferred here as the IT Manager of a large British multinational). He has had a lifelong love of sailing, worked in the Merchant Navy in his younger years, now lives on a yacht in Gulf Harbour, north of Auckland, and travels to Europe each year for the New Zealand winter. Before he started his thriller trilogy he also wrote a humorous sailing-inspired book, BIG AGGIE SAILS THE GULF.

You can read more about Michael Green in a Crime Watch bio here and his website here.

I do like his fairly lively website bio, which begins by stating that Green "arrived in this world with a 'hell of a bang'. He was born during an air raid in May 1944, under the kitchen table in his grandmother's cottage in Sevenoaks, Kent, England."

When Green retired from his IT consultancy business in 2003, he found he had more time to write, and notes in his blog that "like many who retire, I also felt it was time to ‘put something back’. " Combining his goals of writing a novel, and raising money for charity, he began work on a thriller, inspired by the SARS outbreak, looking at how the few survivors of a global pandemic that got out of control might act, and interact, when everything was stripped away from them.

Green aimed to raise $10,000 for the telephone counselling charity Lifeline - a cause close to his heart due to New Zealand's high youth suicide rate, and the fact that years ago he'd lost his son, and an aunt back in England, in that way. Green self-published THE CRUCIAL GENE, using his toastmaster skills to market the book - he sold out the print run (and more) by talking to Lions, Rotary, and Probus Clubs, and was able to exceed his planned donation to LifeLine. The book was then picked up by Randon House, and republished in late 2008 as BLOOD LINE (with some minor edits to make it a 'tighter' novel). BLOOD BOND followed in late 2009, with the third and final instalment in the trilogy, BLOOD ROOTS, released soon.

In BLOOD ROOTS, the Chatfield family, scattered across the globe, continue to fight for survival. Their only hope is to form one strong community together, but power struggles, violence and deception keep them apart. In this thrilling conclusion, the New Zealand community makes a last desperate bid to return to their relatives and blood roots in England. Along the way they discover more survivors of the super-SARS pandemic, but is this new addition to the gene pool more trouble than it's worth?

You can read more about each book in the trilogy, including an extract from each of the three books, at Green's website here.

Do you like post-apocalyptic style thrillers? Have you read BLOOD LINE or BLOOD BOND?

New Kiwi crime fiction: THE BRINGING DOWN OF THE HAWK by Roy Jenner

As part of my ongoing efforts to dig up and share some 'forgotten' Kiwi crime fiction that has fallen out of print, due to the vagaries of the publishing world, earlier this year I wrote about ON THE LIP OF A LION by Roy Jenner, which I had acquired online. That 2004 book (which got some good reviews on release) had been published by Hazard Press, a publisher that later went under, unfortunately taking the budding careers of several promising New Zealand popular fiction writers with it (at least temporarily).

Back in January, I noted that I hadn't been able to find out much more about the author, Roy Jenner, or whether he'd continued to write following Hazard's demise. I am very pleased to say that Jenner has written several more crime and thriller titles, and is now progressively making them available online in e-book form - which means Crime Watch readers, no matter where you are in the world, can give them a go.
 
Today, Jenner has released THE BRINGING DOWN OF THE HAWK. Here's the blurb: "World War 2 rips the hearts from the Starlings. A ten year old boy survives the London Blitz to mourn a father lost at Dunkirk. Eddie Starling emerges unscathed to battle Rommel in North Africa where Eddie is wounded. The war ends. Father and son reunite in New Zealand where their trust is exploited. The embittered son Ted Starling vows vengeance."

You can read a longer description of the book at the Smashwords website, where it is for sale in a variety of e-book forms for US$4.99, here. I understand several more of Jenner's novels (he has apparently written nine over the past few years) will become available to purchase in the coming weeks and months. You can read a little more about him and his crime and thriller writing at his blog here.Search through the July 2011 posts to see the variety of titles that he will soon be publishing.

Five Favourite Kiwi Thrillers - a brand new Crime Watch series

Now that we've passed the two year blogosphere anniversary of Crime Watch, I thought it might be a good time to introduce a new recurring series - Five Favourite Kiwi thrillers - inspired by New Zealand writer David McGill, who I interviewed for the 9mm series last month.

Unlike 9mm (which will continue, don't worry - we have to get to at least 100 interviews before that series is retired), this brand new series won't just focus on crime and thriller writers, but instead will involve crime and thriller fiction readers - a much wider group. So over the next few months you'll see a variety of faces here on Crime Watch, from celebrities in and out of the books world to everyday readers, talking about their favourite Kiwi thriller novels (could be crime thrillers, spy thrillers, adventure thrillers, whatever).

The series arose from an email conversation I was having with McGill (pictured  above right), who has written 45 books on a very wide range of subjects, including several that fall within the thriller category (for example, IN XTREMIS). He shared with me his all-time five favourite Kiwi thrillers, caveated by the comment that his selection probably "dated" him somewhat. You can read more about McGill, his career, and his wide variety of acclaimed books, at his website here.

To kick-off the new series, here is a run-down of David McGill's Five Favourite Kiwi Thrillers (as far as I'm aware, in no particular order):

THE IDIOT PLAYED RACHMANINOV by Michael Brown
Summary: In the near future, when danger is in the mind and violence lurks behind every smile, a rural community foster a terrorist group called The Little Red Hen to defend themselves against the right-wing state. At the centre of the confrontation is the beautiful Rosa with the mentality of a child.

Note: Currently out-of-print, but you may be able to find copies in second-hand bookstores and/or libraries (I did, and have seen it a few times).

McGill's take: "international class and really thrilling in paranoid tradition".

SMITH'S DREAM by CK Stead
Summary: When Smith is left by his wife and goes to hide away in the bush in the Coromandel he never imagines he will become the most wanted man in the country. In a right-wing coup one man, Volkner, has seized power in New Zealand and is using army and special police to maintain his government. Smith's Dream forces us to imagine such a situation and to ask ourselves: Where would you stand? How far would you go?

Note: Recently reprinted as part of the 'Popular Penguin' series. Was adapted into a film, Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill, which was the first New Zealand film released in the United States.

McGill's take: "I prefer the Sleeping Dogs title, and indeed the movie is as good B-grade as they get, and also the paranoia in the Big Brother tradition".

THE SCARECROW by Ronald Hugh Morrieson
Summary: A hilarious Gothic melodrama of a sex killer in a small town. Klynham is a sleepy little New Zealand town in which not a lot happens. But then one moonlit night the Scarecrow arrives, swilling brandies and looking for victims. Something sordid and even macrabre lies ahead.

Note: Widely renowned for having 'the greatest opening line in New Zealand literature': "The same week our fowls were stolen, Daphne Moran had her throat cut." Also adapted into a film in 1982. Recently re-released as part of the 'Popular Penguin' series of classic novels.

McGill's take: "Truly scary. Only Maurice Shadbolt patronage persuaded publication, which says much about our publishers (I know the chap who turned down THE BONE PEOPLE twice as publisher with different houses!)"

OLD SCHOOL TIE by Paul Thomas
Summary: Involves the unlocking of a dark 25-year-old secret relating to a teenage girl's mysterious suicide at a private school ball. Freelance journalist Reggie Sparks' investigation spills over into an underworld turf war involving the Sydney mafia and a ferocious Maori gang, the Blood Drinkers.

Note: Also known as 'Dirty Laundry'. Recently re-released as part of THE IHAKA TRILOGY, along with the Ned Kelly Award winning INSIDE DOPE and GUERILLA SEASON.

McGill's take: "Fresh and genuine crime talent".

BROKEN OCTOBER by Craig Harrison
Summary: The Treaty of Waitangi is stolen by Maori Guerillas. A weak Prime Minister resigns, and his power-hungry successor can't cope with the internal and international problems which rapidly follow. Industrial unrest flares overnight into violent racial conflict. New Zealand splits into two colours; And then the dominoes begin to fall. In one sense this novel is a straightforward narrative of violent revolt and savage repression - a 20th century Maorit Land War fought with all the weaponry and psychological techniques so grimly familiar to the 1970's. Fantastic ? Or eerily credible......

Note: This novel is out of print, but can be found in second-hand bookstores and online, and in libraries. I picked up a copy from a second-hand bookstore a few months ago, and have seen it elsewhere too.

McGill's take: "At time a breakthrough, I thought. More paranoia – must be Kiwi schtik".

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What do you think about the new series? About McGill's picks of some lesser-known thrillers from days gone by? Have you read any of these novels? What do you think of McGill's penchant for dystopian tales of a New Zealand gone bad or mad at the highest, governmental level? Is that something New Zealand writers do well? Who else would you like to see be part of the new 'Five Fantastic Kiwi Thrillers' series? Comments, critiques and suggestions appreciated.

9mm: An interview with David McGill

For the 54th instalment in the 9mm series, today I'm sharing my recent interview with Kiwi author David McGill, a prolific and wide-ranging writer, with a penchant for “Kiwi social history, sometimes fictional”.

McGill has written 45 books, including several that fall within the thriller category. Recently I highlighted IN XTREMIS as part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet series. He has also written WHAKAARI, THE MONSTRANCE, and FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS, and SHAKING 1960, in terms of thriller or crime-centric novels. George Moore in the Sunday Star-Times in 1996 called WHAKAARI “a real ripper” of a thriller, and McGill himself told me recently that WHAKAARI was his "first and best" thriller novel.

McGill's diverse book subjects include ghost towns in New Zealand, the country’s first bushranger, local and national heritage buildings, Kiwi prisoners of war, the history of the NZ Customs Department, a biography of a criminal lawyer, a personal history of rock music, a rail journey around the country, historical and comic novels, his thrillers, and six collections of Kiwi slang. You can read more about McGill and his books at his website here, in a recent Dominion Post interview here, and at the Book Council website here.

But for now, David McGill faces down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: DAVID MCGILL

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Sherlock Holmes (just nudges Van Der Valk, with honorary mention of the the Benjamin Gill guy and Dave Robicheaux, Billy Bob Holland, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike -- I could go on).

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
TREASURE ISLAND, so exciting residing with Jim in the apple barrel, and oh, Blind Pew, still No I villain of all time.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
About 30 books in over a decade of full-time writing of New Zealand social history, which really extended feature writing profession, ending in flames as editor of a magazine that closed after 9 issues. Only thing to do, turn articles into books. But first I did in 1984 all-time favourite non-fiction activity, asking and getting free pass to travel from NZ Rail on trains around all of NZ, several months of bliss mostly with guards in book called THE G'DAY COUNTRY – only months before all 2000 guards sacked by guy who launched the book, Minister of Railways Richard Prebble, who said he loved train travel! Recently revisited THE G'DAY COUNTRY REDUX.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Read thrillers, mostly American authors, drink Merlot (doing so now!), go to art house cinema and garden with my partner, each day walk the beach and tramp the treadmill listening to 180 minutes of my lifetime of pop music on cassettes (lot of Van Morrison) – got a book from it, THE TREADMILL TAPES.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Visit the Kakariki Bookshop in the railway station, and enjoy craic with my collaborator on THE G'DAY COUNTRY REDUX, the poet and publisher and pop music afficionado Dr Michael O’Leary.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Sam Neill

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
GOLD IN THE CREEK, a farcical fictional recreation of my blissful childhood village in Bay of Plenty, my father the main character in fictional form. Writing as I type its sequel GEYSER IN THE CREEK.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
CITYSCAPES, the first collection of historic Wellington house vignettes illustrated by Grant Tilly, running 1976 to 1983 in Evening Post newspaper, was published in 1977 in 6 months, a record at time, by Ann Mallinson of the Hairy McClary series fame. Grant and I launched the book at Whitcoulls in Lambton Quay and signed all morning, outdoing the previous record of Robert Muldoon. I travelled in a car to Auckland the next day with brother and wife and girlfriend to see Fleetwood Mac and raved with adrenaline all trip. How tiresome for them.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Launching THE PIONEERS OF PORT NICHOLSON in Ahradsens Bookshop under Darth Vader’s Dunny, the black BNZ in Central Wellington, sitting for several hours on the BNZ boardroom chair made from the remains of the wreck Inconstant beached there circa 1849. One person asked me to sign a book, a comedown from the 1000 Cityscapes. I’m not sure who was keener to slit wrists, me or John. Yet books are thicker than blood -- only last year John asked me if I was reprinting CITYSCAPES. I said Why not? Soon we will have the complete 346 Cityscapes articles and illustrations in print. Bless you, John. Where would writers and publishers be without booksellers, eh?


Thank you David McGill. We appreciate you taking the time to chat with Crime Watch.

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Comments welcome.

R is for THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE

For my second go around at the Crime Fiction Alphabet (read my 2010 posts here), I've set myself the challenging task of focusing not only just on New Zealand-themed posts, but just on Kiwi crime fiction books (ie I won't do any author profiles etc this time around) - although sometimes it may be the author's name that is relevant to the letter of the week.

This week I’m highlighting THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE, one of the many thrillers written by Colin D. Peel, a prolific author who lives in a coastal area near Auckland and has been published here and overseas. Peel has written more many novels under his own name, as well as SMOKE FROM ANOTHER FIRE as Lindsey Grey and EYE OF THE WARRIOR as Richard Hawke.

Peel has published more than twenty novels since 1972, with most being published by UK-based Robert Hale Publishing (who over the years have also published other NZ-based crime/thriller writers like Freda Bream). Several of Peel's novels have also been published in the USA by St Martin's Press, and overall his books have been published in 10 countries, and translated into six languages. There are also audio-book and large print versions. Peel's passion for 'international thrillers' can possibly be tied to his earlier career designing weapon systems in the aerospace industries of Europe and North America. According to his website, his stories "range from terrorism and nuclear-testing to gun-running, the heroin business, diamond smuggling and the illegal market for plutonium."

Peel's latest book, released in 2009, is THE RYBINSK DECEPTION. You can read more about him and his writing at his website here.

Like several other ‘popular fiction’ writers in New Zealand has been somewhat overlooked or underappreciated here at home - although it was great to see HarperCollins NZ had picked up the distribution of some of his books in recent times.

THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE was published by HarperCollins in 2005 (in New Zealand). Here’s the back cover blurb:

“In some of the most inaccessible forests on Earth, giant fires burn uncontrollably through coal seams far beneath the ground. For Adam McKendrick, one of the few men who have the expertise to extinguish them, the deeper they are, the greater the challenge. But when his ten-year-old son narrowly escapes death at the hands of an assassin, he finds himself in a deadly race to discover who is trying to silence him... and why.

From a routine assignment in Indonesia gone badly wrong, to the scene of another fire - born in the dying flames of Hitler’s Reich - he begins to uncover the truth, with the help of Lucy Mitchell, a young woman whose research into the Nazi movement has put her life at risk. A radical form of international terrorism is on the rise, using fear, religious hatred and a horrifying new bioweapon in the fight for racial supremacy and a new world order.”

In an article for the Sunday Star-Times, one of the biggest newspapers in New Zealand, renowned reviewer Iain Sharp called THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE “a gripping new thriller”, and noted that Peel, an inventor who once designed weapon systems for the aerospace industry, not only “excels at making scientific concepts accessible to the lay reader” but “goes a stage further by tying the ideas to exciting, cunningly plotted storylines”.

Sharp said Peel writes “intelligent adventure yarns” and “deserves to be as huge as Alistair Maclean or Robert Ludlum”. In an earlier article for the Sunday Star-Times in 2003 to coincide with the release of Peel’s thriller CHICANE, Sharp called Peel “one of New Zealand’s best kept literary secrets”.

Given that Alistair Maclean was one of my very favourite authors as an adolescent and teenager (the first adult novelist I was hooked on when I frequented the local library in the school holidays etc), I am very much looking forward to reading some of Peel’s novels. I acquired a copy of THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE from an online auction site, and also have bought copies of some of his older books, CHICANE and WHITE DESERT from a second-hand store.

You can buy new hardcover copies of his latest novel, THE RYBINSK DECEPTION, online from Amazon.co.uk, in hardback or paperback (only GBP5.51) from Book Depository, in hardback from Mighty Ape (NZ), and in e-book from Amazon (the latter is only US$8.90)

Have you read THE ROSENBERG PRINCIPLE, or any of Peel’s other novels? Do you enjoy action thrillers in the vein of Alistair Maclean, Robert Ludlum, and Desmond Bagley? Do you like thrillers that incorporate some science into them?

Reviews: Who says politics is boring?

Who says politics is boring?
As New Zealand Book Month makes a welcome return in this election year, reviewer Craig Sisterson takes a look at a couple of political thrillers, one old, one new

As we said in the latest issue of NZLawyer extra (edition 20, 4 March 2011), during the month of March we will be supporting the celebration of all things books and reading that is New Zealand Book Month by reviewing a variety of locally-penned books. After all, if Kiwis won’t hit the bookstores and libraries around the country to support our local writers, how can we expect international readers to? All of us who are keen readers need to do our part to try a few local tales, perhaps in the genres or styles we each prefer, so we can see for ourselves that our writers can match, even better, the quality storytelling we often devour from their international peers.

One genre that’s been wildly popular since the dawn of storytelling is thrillers. As Lee Child told NZLawyer last year, thrillers date back to Greek Tragedies and beyond - in fact, the first stories cavemen told around the campfire were probably of heroic battles with or escapes from wild animals and other prehistoric dangers. Nowadays the thriller genre encompasses a diverse range of keep-you-up-at-night tales, including action-adventure, crime, spy, psychological, heist, domestic, conspiracy, and political.

Recently I read a couple of local novels of the latter flavour; one old, one new. A POLITICAL AFFAIR (Kinglake Publishing, 2010) won Dunedin playwright and short story writer Andrew Porteous a UK-based unpublished author competition. Part Maori detective Lachlan Doyle’s career is already in jeopardy when he’s assigned to quickly and quietly close a high-profile ‘accidental death’ case; an attractive assistant to the Prime Minister is found dead at the PM’s private house. With pressure mounting from many directions, Doyle begins to suspect that the nighttime ‘fall down the stairs’ may have actually been a push, and that powerful forces, political and otherwise, are massing to keep the truth from coming out. But who pushed, and why?

At 118 pages A POLITICAL AFFAIR is more novella than a novel, but it’s an enjoyable debut read from a new voice in Kiwi thriller writing. The story flows well, there’s a nice touch of intrigue to keep you wondering, and Doyle is a likeable hero - hemmed in by forces outside his control and understanding- that you want to follow as the pages turn. Hopefully there may be more to come from Porteous and Detective Doyle.

Going back a little further in publishing time is Michael Wall’s FRIENDLY FIRE (Penguin, 1998), which is no longer in print, but can still be found in libraries and some secondhand bookstores. As I discovered, it’s a terrific locally-set political thriller well worth digging out. Renowned expat journalist Erin Florian returns to Wellington from Europe to become Press Secretary for the new Prime Minister, after finding her French husband in bed with someone else. She quickly finds herself caught up in the political world, including plenty of intrigue caused by the new MMP system, and the Government’s junior partner undergoing a leadership coup.

When the new leader starts making outrageous demands, Erin has to dampen media speculation that the Government is coming apart at the seams. But why is the new leader so sure that Erin’s boss will eventually succumb to what seems like a poisoned chalice? Erin witnesses a killing, which is covered up, then finds herself under scrutiny from the secretive SIS, and the lesser-known but even more powerful and dangerous GSCB. More deaths, hidden conspiracies, and the country nears the brink of political and economic meltdown.

Before he became a novelist, Wall was himself a Press Secretary for a New Zealand Prime Minister (Jim Bolger in the early 1990s), and he certainly brings all that experience and inside knowledge to bear in what is a fantastic thriller, full of twists, intrigue, interesting characters, and more. Global economics, the Waihopai base and intelligence services, international relations, and the place of the media are all issues canvassed in FRIENDLY FIRE, woven into a cracking plot that keeps the pages whirring.

The best political thriller I’ve read in years, set right here in New Zealand.

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This article was published in the 11 March 2011 issue of NZLawyer, and is republished here with permission.

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Have you read A POLITICAL AFFAIR or FRIENDLY FIRE? Do you enjoy mixing some politics into your crime and thriller reading? Thoughts and comments welcome.

F is for FRIENDLY FIRE by Michael Wall

It's that time of the week again, as the Crime Fiction Alphabet rolls on and our intrepid book bloggers out there around the blogosphere (and the globe) now find themselves frantically tapping away at their keyboards in creation of fantastic posts related to the letter 'F'. Fantastic, fun times.

For my second go around at the Crime Fiction Alphabet (read my 2010 posts here), I've set myself the very challenging task of focusing not only just on New Zealand-themed posts, but just on Kiwi crime fiction books (ie I won't do any author profiles etc this time around) - although sometimes it may be the author's name that is relevant to the letter of the week.

So this week I'm featuring FRIENDLY FIRE, a fast-paced thriller by Kiwi author Michael Wall, who wrote several thrillers, getting some pretty good reviews, back in the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s. Wall is a former Chief Press Secretary for the New Zealand Government. He also worked in the Office of the Prime Minister, for Jim Bolger (New Zealand Prime Minister from 1990-1997). He had previously been offered a job by David Lange (New Zealand Prime Minister 1984--1989), but turned him down.

Wall later moved to Te Ore Ore in the Wairarapa where he wrote, and bred sports horses. He was also Deputy Chair of the Tourism Board. He has written a series of thriller novels, including Museum Street, Friendly Fire, The Cassino Legacy, The Temptations of Frederick Weld, and Cardinal Sins. He has also written other books, including the non-fiction book Wairarapa: A Place Apart. Although his books are no longer in print, they can be found online from secondhand dealers and auction websites.

FRIENDLY FIRE was his second political thriller - a type of book that although very popular overseas hasn't seen many exponents in New Zealand. For a time he was also rumoured to be the author of SPIN, a highly-politicised thriller written by 'Anonymous', although Wall denied this and had his own suspicions of who else within the inner circle may have written that book.

Here's the blurb for FRIENDLY FIRE:

"Journalist Erin Florian returns home from Europe seeking silence and solitude, only to be sucked into a whirlwind of passion, political intrigue and sudden death on the windy streets. FRIENDLY FIRE is an incandescent novel.

In this stylish, fast-paced thriller the author of the best-selling MUSEUM STREET writes of teh dangerous world of MMP politics... fills his capital with a cast that is evil, brutal, ruthless, funny and lethal... and gives us a 'behind the bullet-proof doors' insight into the shadowy world of New Zealand's secret services and the sinister power they wield over our political mistresses and masters."

Sounds intriguing, that's for sure (especially being a Kiwi, to read a political thriller set in our otherwise-rather-benign democracy). I've got my hands on a copy of FRIENDLY FIRE, and am looking forward to reading it.

Are you taking part in the Crime Fiction Alphabet series? What do you think of my 'Kiwi crime only' challenge-within-a-challenge? Do you like political thrillers? Have you read any of Michael Wall's novels? Comments welcome.

Forgotten Kiwi Fiction: MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS

I've been scouring the secondhand bookshops and dealers again recently, and have stumbled across some more intriguing out-of-print and hard-to-find Kiwi novels that seem to perhaps fall within the crime, mystery, or thriller fiction categories.

A book I thought I'd highlight today was written by someone who was quite a well-known New Zealander in the early-mid 20th century, for activities away from the page as well: MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS by John A. Lee.

Lee (1891–1982) seems like he was an interesting character who lived a long and very full life - he was awarded the DCM for gallantry in the First World War, joined the Labour Party on his return, was a Member of Parliment from 1922-1928 and 1931-1943, and from 1936 to 1939 he was Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance and responsible for the introduction of state housing in New Zealand. While an MP in the 1930s he became famous as a novelist and writer on socialism, and then was expelled from the Labour Party for attacking the Prime Minister in a pamphlet (as an aside, in one of those funny coincidences of history, we've just had another Labour Party MP here in New Zealand expelled from the party for attacking the leader in word form).

He went onto become a well-known left-wing socialist, founding another political party, and disseminating his views through John A. Lee's Weekly in the 1940s, and then from the 1950s he was a successful writer and bookseller in Auckland. As the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature states, "although he miscalculated politically in 1940, he never lost the legendary status he had achieved by that time, a status owed in large part to his writings and gift of oratory".

Lee wrote several non-fiction political books, including one that had an introduction by British Labour Party leader Clem Atlee, as well as 'autobiographical fictions' and "potboilers he wrote originally as serials to boost the circulation of his Weekly" - the latter included MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS, which was published in novel form in 1970.

In MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS, "James Burns returned from incarceration in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp more injured in mind than body. He went to recuperate at the New Zealand sheep ranch of Kevin McArthur and his lovely daughter Jean. It was there he stumbled on two kinds of treasure - the sinister and mysterious hoard with which Mussolini had intended fleeing his defeated country; and the love and affection he had not known he craved.

Isolated and immobilised on a lonely New Zealand sheep farm, Jimmy Burns and Jean McArthur found that their discovering of a fantastic treasure placed them in deadly danger. A few desperate men guarded the secret of Mussolini's millions. It was a secret they were determined would never be shared."

I'm looking forward to seeing how Lee's famous skills of writing and oratory translate into this mid 20th-century 'potboiler'.

You can read more about John A. Lee at the New Zealand Book Council website here, New Zealand History Online here, the Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand here, and Wikipedia here.