Last night, while heading home after the very cool 'Midwinter Murderfest' event at the Takapuna Library (a crime fiction quiz, scavenger hunt, and panel discussion with local authors Yvonne E. Walus, Zirk van den Berg, and Bev Robitai), I got a very interesting text: apparently Vanda Symon's excellent new book THE FACELESS had made a cameo appearance on Shortland Street. For readers not from New Zealand, Shortland Street is an extremely popular, long-running evening TV drama (soap) - kind of our equivalent of Coronation Street or Eastenders (for UK readers), or General Hospital (for US readers).
Heading online to tvnz.co.nz this morning, I found last night's episode (it can be watched 'On Demand' by those in New Zealand for the next week), and sure enough, at 1.05mins into the episode, Dr Chris Warner, who is currently incarcerated for a crime he may not have committed, was reading THE FACELESS in his cell. The book features for a few brief moments, and is even referred to in dialogue. So quite the coup for Vanda Symon - it's great to see Kiwi crime fiction making its way into pop culture too.
You can read more about THE FACELESS here, and those of you in New Zealand can watch last night's episode of Shortland Street here. For everyone else, the screenshot above will have to do, sorry.
Have you read THE FACELESS, or any of Vanda Symon's other books? What other crime novels have you seen featured on popular TV shows over the years? Have you ever decided to read a crime novel based on seeing it mentioned in a TV show, or by a celebrity mentioning they were reading it etc?
Craig - Oh, my goodness! I watched Shortland Street while I was in NZ. So good to know Vanda's been "starring" on the show :-)
ReplyDeleteWho wrote the dialogue? Not the author of "Serial Killers," perchance?
ReplyDelete