Central North Island crime: BUCKINBAH WEIR by Wayne Brooking

Last year, I wrote a long feature article for New Zealand Author magazine about the depth and breadth of contemporary New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing - taking readers through a tiki tour of our country as I looked at the various regions where local crime writers were based, or set their stories.

At the time, I noted that the one large area that seemed near-completely untapped was the Central North Island: "The regions between our biggest city and our capital city currently provide slimmer pickings when it comes to contemporary crime fiction, despite what would seem like a plethora of intriguing landscapes, geographic and demographic, and issues that could provide great fodder and colour for a well-told thriller story."

Well, it seems I spoke too soon, as the very month my article was published, so was a crime novel set in the forested heart of Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island): BUCKINBAH WEIR by Wayne Brooking.

BUCKINBAH WEIR is a contemporary mystery set in the forestry backblocks of New Zealand's central North Island. A weir on a forest creek has been the scene of a series of strange murders stretching back to the early 1900s that have never been solved. With the murders occurring intermittently over a long period of time, local people in the small settlements nearby have their own suspicions and theories as to who- or what - may lie behind the heinous crimes, but no one really knows why they keep happening, or when the killer will strike again.

A young Australian journalist and an Aboriginal photographer are visiting the area to cover a major eruption at Mt Ruapehu. When the journalist reads about the murders, she realises the potential for a big scoop, and decides to investigate. Could there really be a link between all of the crimes, even though they have been committed over a period of nearly 100 years? And can the investigators unravel the mystery without becoming the killer's next victims?

Brooking, a plumber for the Kawerau District Council, wrote the crime novel at night over several years - never telling anyone beyond his immediate family that he was working on a novel. He told the local "The Council" newsletter that the response from Kawerau locals purchasing his book, and their feedback that it's "a jolly good read" has made all the hard work, long nights, and knock-backs, worthwhile. You can also read more about Brooking and his debut novel in an article in the Whakatane Beacon, here.

I think the Central North Island would be a wonderful setting for crime fiction, so I'm looking forward to reading BUCKINBAH WEIR (National Pacific Press, $29.99). You can order it from various independent booksellers, or email Brooking directly on huhana@xtra.co.nz if you'd like to purchase a signed copy.

Save the date: 30 August to 2 September 2012

I'm pleased to share that the dates for the 2012 The Press Christchurch Writers Festival have been announced - 30 August to 2 September 2012. After many setbacks due to the devastating earthquakes suffered by the city in the past 18 months (including the cancellation of the 2010 festival, where the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel was originally to be presented), organisers are looking forward to being back in the city in the New Zealand spring this year.

It'll be great to see such a terrific celebration of books and writing back in Christchurch this year, and I understand there should also be plenty on the menu for fans of crime writing. More details to come about that in due course. You can keep up to date with the news and announcements about this year's programme at the festival's own website here, and by signing up for their newsletter here.

I will of course keep Crime Watch readers up to date with any announcements in relation to the crime writing events to be held at this year's festival, as and when particular international and New Zealand authors and events are confirmed.

To whet your appetite, there is also a terrific event next week with Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, as part of The Press Literary Liaisons series, which doubles as a fundraising event for the upcoming festival. So if you're anywhere near Christchurch next week, make sure you head along to meet Jo Nesbo - and regardless of where you are, keep the 30 August to 2 September in mind for a visit to this great, recovering, city.

It is the home of Dame Ngaio, after all.

9mm: An interview with William Deverell

Welcome to Crime Watch's 1000th post. It's weird to think that I've written 1000 blog posts about crime fiction in the past two and a half years, in addition to all the reviews and features I've written elsewhere. Amazing how quickly things can add up.

To mark the occasion, I'm very pleased to bring you my recent 9mm interview with doyen of Canadian crime writing William Deverell. While Canadian crime writers such as Linwood Barclay, Rick Mofina, Chevy Stevens, Alan Bradley and Louise Penny may have garnered broader attention internationally in recent times, Deverell is a living legend of Canadian literature. After working as a journalist, Deverell mixed careers as a trial attorney and novelist, publishing his debut novel, NEEDLES, in 1979. A literary page-turner that took the reader into the seedy underground of crooked cops, drug lords, and a super-charged courtroom scene, Deverell's debut won the Seal Prize, the Book of the Year Award, and sold more than 250,000 copies.

In the thirty-plus years since, Deverell worked as a criminal lawyer, activist, and novelist - publishing more than a dozen more novels, a true crime book, and also writing for television (including the pilot for CBC's Street Legal). He has won the Arthur Ellis Award twice, received the Best Canadian Crime Writer Award, and won the Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing.

I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Deverell at a Crime Writers Canada event in Vancouver in April 2008, and chatting to him a little after the event. Like his writing, he's a very interesting, engaging and articulate man. I remember asking him a question about the importance of good writing in crime writing, not just exciting plots. In a way it was that event, and meeting the likes of Deverell, that sparked then set me on my path to reviewing crime fiction, starting this blog, interviewing and establishing the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel after I returned to New Zealand later that year. So, in a roundabout way it's a nice coincidence that my 1000th post ends up being an interview with Deverell.

You can read more about William Deverell at his website here, and my Crime Fiction Alphabet post here. But for now, he faces down the barrel of 9mm, as the 59th instalment in a series that probably wouldn't even be around if it wasn't for a discussion with him almost four years ago.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM DEVERELL

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Sherlock Holmes, whose author, btw, has recently recurred in Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Probably the Wizard of Oz, possibly one of the Lone Ranger or Tarzan series. As I entered my teen years: The Grapes of Wrath (masterful prose, a powerful social-political drama that appealed to a young lefty radical).

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Fiction? A couple of short stories that went nowhere, but I'd been a reporter/editor/columnist for six years while working my way through law school.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise
Delete the latter two categories from my like-list. Reading, hiking, biking, laughing, getting high.

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?
I have two home towns. Pender Island BC. The unaware tourists miss out on the secret trails to the hidden beaches and to the mesas and bluffs with their breathtaking views. Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. The unaware tourists miss out on the secret trails to secret trails to the hidden beaches and to the mesas and bluffs with their breathtaking view.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Paul Newman.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
I'll See You in My Dreams. Because it's the deepest, and with the strongest social message.

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?
I won the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award with Needles, so I'll leave you to guess my reaction.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Too many, not enough space, so I'll content myself with the TV interviewer who mixed me up (live) with the author still waiting in the Green Room, a veterinarian, and who asked me to describe my most interesting encounters with sick dogs.


Thank you William Deverell, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to Crime Watch.

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Have you read any of William Deverell's Arthur Beauchamp tales, or his books? Watched Street Legal? What do you think of his mix of courtroom drama, social environmental issues, and literary stylings?

Under construction

As you'll be able to see, Crime Watch is going through a bit of an overhaul and facelift. With almost 1000 posts under my belt in around two and a half years, it seemed a good time to perhaps try to make this website a better experience for readers, so I'll be changing a few things over the coming days.

I really appreciate all of you who read, follow, share, comment, and otherwise interact with Crime Watch. If there are things that you would like to see more (or less) of on Crime Watch - whether it's reviews, author interviews, features, New Zealand crime writing, overseas authors and books, events, news, analysis and discussion - please let me know and I'll take all of your feedback into account with the renovations.

Please share your thoughts about the new look, and what you'd like to see/read in future.

A sneak peak at the upcoming "Headhunters" film

As I've noted a few times, Norwegian crime writing superstar Jo Nesbø is touring New Zealand next month in support of his latest Harry Hole novel PHANTOM, and the cinematic release of a film adaptation of his standalone art heist thriller HEADHUNTERS. Nesbø will be attending events in Auckland, Wanaka, Christchurch, and Wellington, and in each city there will be a preview screening of "Headhunters" (see full tour itinerary here). Now, you can watch the trailer for the film:



It certainly looks pretty exciting!

I enjoyed reading HEADHUNTERS last year, and I'm looking forward to watching the movie in a couple of weeks time. As Nesbø recently told me during our interview for a large feature in the New Zealand Listener, he doesn't know where the inspiration for HEADHUNTERS came from.“When you write songs, sometimes you struggle for weeks and weeks, and sometimes you write one in 20 minutes. And this was a 20-minute song. I woke up one morning, I was just lying there, and I just came up with the idea. It was like it was there, already finished.”

At the time, Nesbø was between Harry Hole books, and looking for a break from his detective. He wrote HEADHUNTERS quickly, and that sense of pace carries through into the book (and hopefully, also the movie - which has been very successful in Europe). “If it reads like easy work, that’s how the writing was, too,” Nesbø told me. “It’s not too complicated, it’s got more humour probably than the Harry Hole books, and it’s like an Ocean’s 11 feeling, it’s playful, not really serious. It was fun to write.”

Hat tip to Karen from EuroCrime about the trailer being available.