Category Archives: Lindy Kelly

Crime Fiction Alphabet: N is for New Zealand

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I was prompted to highlight New Zealand after stumbling across this rather sad little collection of four entries in the New Zealand location index at Stop You’re Killing Me. Now I’m not blaming the fine people at Stop…, it’s a great website and resource for crime fiction fans, but I’m guessing they rely heavily on information from publishers to populate their various lists and I suspect they simply don’t get a lot of material from New Zealand publishers to work with.

Although we’re always at odds in the sporting arena, Aussies and Kiwis do tend to feel quite kindly towards each other on other matters (promise). Both countries are down here at the bottom of the world where it can feel like we are a bit forgotten by that part of the publishing world dealing in the English language which is heavily focussed on US and UK products and markets. So I thought I’d do my bit to promote cross-Tasman crime fiction.

Sadly my own reading of New Zealand crime fiction can’t offer much better than the meagre offerings at Stop… as I have only reviewed 4 books set in New Zealand myself (though I have read a few more in my pre-blogging days):

  • Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly, which is an amateur sleuth tale set in the world of international horse eventing. It’s a light, fun tale with a dash of romance and strongly recommended for all the animal lovers.
  • Murder in the Second Row by Bev Robitai is a cosy mystery set in a historic theatre in a small New Zealand town. An amateur theatre group’s production of an Agatha Christie play is thrown into disarray when one of the stars is killed in this terrific little cosy mystery.
  • Overkill and Containment by Vanda Symon. These are the first and third books in the Sam Shephard series and are very entertaining police procedurals. I have the fourth book in the series, 2011′s Bound. on my TBR pile to read in the next couple of weeks.

Fortunately for you though you don’t have to rely on the meagre offerings of either me or Stop You’re Killing Me. There’s a marvellous resource at your fingertips in the form of Crime Watch, a great blog by Kiwi crime fiction fan Craig Sisterson. Craig discusses crime fiction from all over the world but he does a great job of highlighting New Zealand crime writers in particular. In fact his own contributions to this round of the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme have all highlighted books by New Zealand crime writers (not all of these are set in New Zealand but many are).

Have you read any crime fiction set in New Zealand? Got any recommendations to make?

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Extreme Reading

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I have officially completed the extreme level of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

This required me to read 3 books set in different countries of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America plus two books set in Antarctica and a wildcard book set in any time or place new to me. Because that wasn’t quite complicated enough I added my own slant that all the books had to be by new-to-me authors.

Participating in this challenge opened my reading up to 21 new authors, many of whom I wouldn’t otherwise have read. For some of them a single exposure will be enough but many will be reappearing on my reading list in the not too distant future. In fact I’ve already read and/or ordered additional titles from several of the terrific authors discovered on my virtual tour around the globe where I met an array of fascinating people and learned a thing or three I didn’t know.

Here’s my final list of 21 books

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Australasia

Europe

North America

South America

Wildcard (any time or place new to me)

And here are all the places I’ve visited virtually


View Larger Map

Thanks to Dorte of DJs Krimiblog for conceiving of and hosting the 2010 Global Reading Challenge. It was a hoot and lived up to all aspects of its name and I would encourage you to sign up for the 2011 version of the challenge (in which I am reliably informed you won’t have to read books set in Antarctica to be considered an extremist).

Review: Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly

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For my sixth book in the 2010 Global Challenge I chose the debut adult novel by New Zealand author Lindy Kelly. I first read about the book on the excellent Crime Watch blog from Kiwi crime fiction fan and journalist Craig Sisterson.

Caitlin Summerfield rushes home to Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island when she hears her mother is in a coma. Despite being a doctor there’s not much she can do for her mother’s health but she can take care of her farm. Shirley Summerfield, along with five other businesses, is in competition for a lucrative contract to provide eventing horses to an American outfit so Caitlin, helped by the farm’s neighbour Dom and a young girl who loves horses, Kasey, attempts to keep things afloat until her mother is back on her feet. Unfortunately it seems one of the competitors is using dirty tricks to get rid of the competition and a series of ‘accidents’ and near misses befall Caitlin and the horses.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the characters in Bold Blood who, apart from the killer(s), all seem like people you wouldn’t mind meeting in real life which is not always the case in crime fiction, even with the good guys. Caitlin’s homecoming is traumatic as she doesn’t have a good relationship with her mother and she is reminded everywhere she turns of her father and younger brother who both died years earlier. Despite this though she gets stuck into the work that needs to be done and is very practical and appears to be just the sort of woman you’d want in a crisis. Dom and Kasey share similar troublesome issues with at least one parent each yet are both optimistic people who display a good dose of humour in the face of adversity which is one of my favourite things about the book. Jean is a wise older woman who has been like a mother to Caitlin and she adds a nice dimension to the book though it annoyed me that she kept trying to mend the rift between Caitlin and her mother when common sense would suggest letting sleeping dogs lie.

The main story is well crafted and, especially towards the end, very exciting. However as a mystery it’s not terribly complex (a simple process of elimination really) and while I wouldn’t quite call it a ‘cosy’ there’s not much of a procedural element to speak of either. However the people were interesting enough and events unfolded at such a pace that I was always keen to find out what would happen next to all the characters, including the poor horses. I like to see worlds different to my own depicted in fiction so enjoyed learning about the different aspects of eventing, which I assume were shown realistically as Kelly is a former participant in the sport. Very occasionally the book goes overboard with insider jargon and for me there’s a bit too much time devoted to pairing all the players off neatly in a romantic sense but these are minor quibbles with an otherwise solid story.

The book had something of a sense of its New Zealand setting including some glimpses into elements of Maori culture and some mentions of local wildlife but in the main I thought we could have been in any farming or ‘horsey’ community in the world. Though perhaps I am not familiar enough* with the place to have picked up on other things with are particularly New Zealand-ish.

Bold Blood is a fast-paced and entertaining tale with many likable characters and a humourous feel. I’d especially recommend it for animal loving readers and those who like a dash of romance with their crime.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating 3.5/5

Publisher: Harper Collins [2009]; ISBN: 9781869507336; Length 288  pages; Setting: New Zealand, present-day.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

*Yes I know it’s the closest country to me but, due entirely to my own appalling choice of boyfriends and having nothing to do with the beautiful country or its friendly people, I once spent a perfectly horrid holiday in New Zealand and tend towards panic attacks if anyone ever suggests me going back.