Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Grove Atlantic via #Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
From the author of Better the Blood, the gripping second novel in a crime series starring Māori detective Hana Westerman, in which the discovery of human bones in the dunes of New Zealand upends a long-ago murder conviction
Synopsis:
After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career as a detective in the Auckland CIB. Hoping that civilian life will offer her the opportunity to rest and recalibrate, she returns to her hometown of Tātā Bay, where she moves back in with her beloved father, Eru. Yet the memories of the past are everywhere, and as she goes for her daily run on the beach, Hana passes a local monument to Paige, a high school classmate who was murdered more than twenty years ago and hidden in the dunes overlooking the sea. A Māori man with a previous record was convicted of the crime, although Eru never believed he was guilty.
When her daughter finds another young woman’s skeleton in the sands, Hana soon finds herself awkwardly involved. Investigators suspect that this is Kiri Thomas, a young Māori woman who disappeared four years earlier, after battling years of drug addiction. Hana and her daughter Addison are increasingly captivated by the story behind this unsolved crime, but without the official police force behind her, Hana must risk compromising her own peace and relationships if justice is to be served.
Expanding the range of vivid characters who made Michael Bennett’s first book, Better the Blood, so appealing, and offering a shocking twist at the end, Return to Blood takes readers further into Māori culture and traditions as it engages us more deeply into the story of Hana Westerman.
Review:
This is the follow up to Better the Blood which I loved, and hated that the lead character, Hana Westerman, was leaving behind law enforcement, and which seemed to end the series. But the author found and adept way at bringing her back to the edges, with her former colleagues, in a case that literally comes to her door. In this book Hana is able link the found body to a high school classmate, and soon she has a personal stake in solving the crime. It's a great way to introduce the reader to Maori beliefs and practices, while solving a mystery, making for an unique read, that is like a breath of fresh air on the genre. Don't miss this series!
About the Author:
MICHAEL BENNETT (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. He is the author of the crime novel Better the Blood, the nonfiction book In Dark Places, and the young adult graphic novel Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, which was a finalist for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards.
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