(a little) More on Alix Bosco

After my original post on the release this month of new Auckland-based author Alix Bosco's first crime thriller, CUT & RUN, I tried to find out a little more information about Ms Bosco, as there was little to nothing on the internet (other than the standard book publicity).

Having spoken to some publicist contacts, it seems Alix Bosco is in fact a pseudonym for an Auckland-based woman who writes for other media (and thus understandably wants to keep her identity secret, or at least separate from her crime-writing persona). It will be interesting to see how much further publicity we get about Ms Bosco from the mainstream media outlets (as clearly she can't go on Breakfast TV or things like that).

In terms of the book itself, I am looking forward to reading it when my copy arrives. The first chapter can be read at: http://www.penguin.co.nz/webfiles/PenguinGroupNZ/files/Cut__Run_sampler.pdf

What do you, my fellow crime fiction fans, think of the first chapter?

She certainly name-drops a lot of real-life Auckland locations and historic urban footnotes in the first few pages - local readers may appreciate this, but it will be interesting to see whether those not from Auckland feel it creates a good/rich picture of the setting, or is merely a laundry-list of place-names that may or may not convey atmosphere/place in a vivid way. Considering I'm sitting a couple of hundred metres from the starting point of the book, I'm probably too close to tell :-) Certainly seems authentic and real to me (I've bought fish'n'chips from that shop too).

The publishers (Penguin) have said it will be the first in an ongoing series featuring middle-aged legal researcher Anna Markunas, which is great news. It would be fantastic to see both the number of Kiwi crime writers, and the number of books those writers put out, increase.