Thursday 24 August 2017

Manukau Bluebirds by Tin Larrick + Free book


Manukau Bluebirds by Tin Larrick
Published by Obscure Cranny Press in February 2014.

Where to buy this book:

Abebooks

Alibris

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Kobo (FREE)

Smashwords (FREE)

Speedyhen

The Book Depository

Waterstones

Wordery


How I got this book:

Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In furtherance of some nebulous dream of a better life on the other side of the world, Hugh Button, former Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police, is starting again as a patrol constable in Auckland, New Zealand. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But now he is here alone, with no family, no stuff, a wooden shack in the middle of nowhere and what amounts to constructive demotion – or possibly career suicide.
Two months in, Hugh still has no stuff and no family, but he's learning to live with it. The 2011 Rugby World Cup – and the ensuing chaos on New Zealand’s streets – is going full steam ahead, his beloved family are due to arrive in just one more month, and with the fractious bonds he has made with his colleagues on Section Three, life is maybe a little less surreal than when he touched down. But only a little. Relearning the art of patrol work, Hugh and the rest of Section Three respond to a spectrum of calls that range from the violent to the exhilarating, from the tragic to the tender, from the hilarious to the just plain weird.
In the meantime, there is a shadow over Auckland. The shadow of a night stalker. The shadow of fear and violation. An obsessive creeper, on the prowl, whose hunger for breaking into houses and forcing himself upon the occupants is growing by the day …

For me, Manukau Bluebirds is definitely Tin Larrick's best book to date. Although I missed the recognition of familiar Eastbourne scenes that characterised his previous work, a local flavour is still much to the fore. It's just local to the other side of the world in this New Zealand based story. We are introduced to the police officers and city of Auckland in a series of vignettes, some of which are the beginnings of the overall story arc. Larrick's characters are realistic and nicely portrayed. The arc begins slowly, albeit with some horrific crime scenes, but once it takes off, the ride is breathless and I was gripped throughout!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Tin Larrick / Crime fiction / Books from England

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read any books by this author yet but am always happy to learn more about New Zealand
    Tori @ In Tori Lex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think this novel gives a good flavour of Auckland

      Delete