"A heck of a storyteller" - review of THE SURVIVORS by Steve Braunias

THE SURVIVORS by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

True stories of death and desperation. One survivor chooses loneliness. One chooses exile. One chooses oblivion.

Some have violent tendencies, ruining lives indiscriminately. Some seal their own fate in slow motion; others do so in the blink of an eye.

In The Survivors, award-winning true-crime writer Steve Braunias retells twelve mysteries of human nature - unusual stories of how people choose to survive their own lives, and their decisions, desires, impulses... and failings.

“For thousands of years, we’ve made up stories about things largely because we haven’t understood them,” says Dr Alex Bartle in the twelfth and final chapter of Steve Braunias’s superb collection of true stories, The Survivors. The Christchurch sleep medicine specialist is talking specifically about the writings and theories of Volker Pilgrim, who feared vampires stealing his sleep, and whose fascinating story bookends The Survivors, with Braunias describing Pilgrim late on as “the governing principle of the entire book, the exemplar of surviving your own life on your own terms”.

But the timeless idea of reaching for stories to explain the unknown, seeking to understand our world and varied lives moving through it, surviving on our own terms or otherwise, applies broadly.

Steve Braunias is a heck of a storyteller, and The Survivors is a fascinating collection that draws us into lives that have attracted Braunias’s curiosity. There’s a troubled French exchange student, unlucky in love, who vanished while going to collect black sands as a souvenir for his mother. Another tale: two hardworking Chinese migrants eking out meagre existences in bleak bedsits, sacrificing to send money home, only for a misunderstanding to lead to a homicide trial. A would-be arsonist who burned himself alive, having been manipulated by a femme fatale who only faced justice due to a wedding planner turned tenacious detective. A getaway driver for a cop killer. 

Summaries don’t do the stories justice; each is soaked in small details, acute observations. Many arise from Braunias’s court reporting, his desire to write about real crimes ‘as a kind of literature’. Chapter 5, ‘Zones of Interest’ is one of the most affecting, as Braunias grapples with his own role as voyeur of horrors inflicted on others, as he reads and takes notes from a 42-volume set of Nuremberg trial transcripts. “The volumes are demonic, a collection of bad spells for extermination.” 

While The Survivors digs into some extremely dark areas of humanity, it never reads as too bleak. There are many moments of humanity and light. Braunias confesses he was “among the worst in the business” at traditional court reporting, with its focus on news, total accuracy, and distilling the day’s events. Instead, he was “immediately attracted to the background music of every trial – high comedy, low awfulness, the songs of death”. But now he says he’s putting away his true crime pen. 

This will be his final such book. It’s a fitting swansong.

[This review was first written for Deadly Pleasures magazine in the United States]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Vivid and violent... a haymaker of a read" - review of CLETE by James Lee Burke

CLETE by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Clete Purcel - private investigator, former New Orleans cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and detective partner. But he has a troubled past. When Clete picks up his Caddy from a local car wash, only to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose—and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

As Clete traces the connections in this far-reaching criminal enterprise, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past, hires Clete to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths link back to a heavily tattooed man who lurks around every corner. Clete experiences shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questions Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave hear rumours of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined. 

For decades James Lee Burke has not just been on crime writing’s top shelf, he’s been the equivalent of a ‘locked in the cabinet for special occasions’ bottle; among the highest quality you can find. Fortunately we all get to read him, if we wish. Burke, who turned 88 in December, is aging like a fine bourbon, or a Tom Brady or LeBron James, continuing to perform at the highest levels far beyond when most have retired. His Civil War saga Flags on the Bayou won last year’s Edgar Award for Best Novel; Burke is the first American to win ‘the Oscar of Crime Writing’ thrice. 

Now in Clete, he brings us a fresh take on his beloved series starring Dave Robicheaux.

Also last year, the great author SA Cosby, one of a newer generation of writers who could take the baton from James Lee Burke as the crime genre’s best, posed a question on social media about the toughest characters in mystery fiction. Interestingly, many prime contenders were sidekicks, such as Mouse from Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins books or Joe Pike from Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole tales. 

And of course another character to get plenty of mentions was Clete Purcel himself, the long-time friend and ‘podner’ of aging Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux. Or as Burke has described him over the years: an ‘albino ape’ in a porkpie hat, a trickster of folklore, a quasi-psychotic jarhead who came back from Vietnam with a chest full of medals and memories he never shared. 

In Clete, Burke takes us inside the viewpoint of this ‘archangel in disguise with strings of dirty smoke rising from his wings’. After his car is ransacked by thugs tied to a Mexican cartel, Clete decides to trail the culprits; meanwhile he’s hired by mysterious Clara Bow to investigate her slippery ex-husband. Then there’s deaths that seem linked to a heavily tattooed man. A hallucinating Clete and Robicheaux hear rumours of a lethal new drug perhaps tied to the thugs who destroyed his car. 

Clete is a great read, especially for longtime fans of Burke’s work. While it centres ‘the sidekick’, in the same way that Michael Connelly’s book starring Mickey Haller or Renee Ballard can give us a fresh perspective on Harry Bosch – an outside view rather than through the eyes of the longtime hero - Burke’s terrific change-up also gives readers a new perspective on Clete and Dave both. 

Vivid and violent, Clete skitters along on Burke’s masterful prose, soaks us in its Louisiana setting, has more murky layers than a swamp, and gives readers long-time and new a haymaker of a read.

[This review was first written for Deadly Pleasures magazine in the United States]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Masterfully draws us into a twisting, sordid tale" - review of NOTES ON A DROWING

NOTES ON A DROWNING by Anna Sharpe (Orion, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Alex knows she risks getting fired from her law firm if she takes on another unpaid case, but when she hears Rosa's desperate voice at the other end of the phone, she knows she has to the body of Rosa's shy teenage sister, Natalia, has been dragged, lifeless, from the Thames. Alex can't help but think of her own missing little sister. She knows how a lack of answers can eat you alive.

Kat has worked hard to become Special Adviser to the Home Secretary, and is eager to finally put the dark and tragic part of her past behind her. But when she discovers a series of cover-ups, she begins to wonder whether her seemingly perfect new boss could be involved. Then she she's shocked to discover a letter that raises worrying questions about a girl found drowned in London... Natalia.

There are complex and painful reasons for Alex and Kat not to work together, but when it becomes clear that there are powerful people involved in Natalia's death, and that other girls are at risk, Alex and Kat must overcome their differences to find answers. Will they save the girls and discover the truth? Or will the high-powered players in this game stop Alex and Kat for good? 

Readers looking for a superb thriller that offers characters that’ll make you care and a propulsive narrative threaded with some very disturbing real-life issues should rush to read Notes on a Drowning, the first contemporary tale from British lawyer and author Anna Sharpe, who’s previously written several excellent historical crime and Gothic novels as Anna Mazzola.

In Notes on a Drowning, ‘Sharpe’ masterfully draws us into a twisting, sordid tale of legal intrigue, power and corruption. Already starting to fray due to workplace and personal pressures, determined lawyer Alex is roped into more pro bono work – the bane of her boss’s life, who is trying to keep the firm afloat and needs fee-paying clients. It seems a simple if frustrating request from a pal: could Anna act for the family at an inquest into the drowning in London’s famed Thames River of Natalia, a teenage immigrant from Moldova. A tragic accident fuelled by partying, alcohol and drugs, say the police and others. But resolution isn’t so simple for Natalia’s family, and soon enough the facts and official story don’t add up for Alex, either. Or is she just projecting the trauma and suspicions raised by her own younger sister’s disappearance in Japan, many years ago? A mystery still unsolved.

Past and present collide when Kat, an ambitious special advisor to the British Home Secretary who is trying to forget her own history, becomes involved after stumbling across documents with troubling information that contradicts what she’s been told. But can Alex and Kat trust each other, let alone dig into the truth behind Natalia’s drowning, when many powerful people want the case closed.

While ‘Anna Sharpe’ may be a new name to crime readers, the author has already proven herself a strong storyteller with several terrific historical and Gothic tales, and Notes on a Drowning may take her to an even higher level. It’s an excellent modern-day thriller powered by taut storytelling, several fascinating characters, lots of intrigue, fears, and tough issues. A cracking, if disturbing, tale.

[This review was first written for Deadly Pleasures magazine in the United States]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

A riveting read with a fascinating heroine - review of ECHO

ECHO by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer, Dec 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.

Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.

Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice—and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything. 

Edgar and Anthony Award nominee Tracy Clark returns with a tense third instalment in her acclaimed series starring Detective Harriet ‘Harri’ Foster that raises questions about the ongoing impact of trauma and loss, and the fine line between justice and revenge. 

On a frigid February morning, two college girls discover a near-frozen body of a young man in an empty lot, leading to Harri and her Chicago PD colleagues investigating tragedies present and past at Hardwicke House, the home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society. Matters quickly become complicated, as the victim is Brice Collier, the scion of billionaire Sebastien Collier, who owns Hardwicke House and is a major benefactor to Belverton College. An absent father, who still wields plenty of power.

What does it mean that Brice’s death looks a lot like a student hazing gone wrong, 30 years before? 

As she navigates the lies and obfuscations of many involved, Harri must also deal with a shadowy figure who taunts her about how corruption led the way to her former partner’s suicide, and seems to want to play a dangerous game that threatens to upturn Harri’s work and personal life. And with the police department refusing to further investigate her partner’s death, Harri is left frustrated. 

Dangerously ready to boil over. 

Clark crafts a very good read; a riveting tale that quickly lures you in and then has great narrative drive throughout several twists and turns, as well as plenty of substance. Harri, the only black female detective in a male-dominate police force, is an intriguing series heroine, with plenty to unpack along the way. Talented and determined, with a stubborn streak that could cause issues. 

Clark doesn’t shy away from the impact of police work on Harri and her colleagues as they face dark deeds on a daily basis. The constraints, the policies, the stresses and pressures and power plays that can derail or shackle investigations. There’s a growing ensemble feel too, as others in the squad and surrounds have key roles to play, and bring added depth rather than being mere foils for Harri. 

Overall, Echo is an excellent read in a strong series that may leave many readers, like me, wanting plenty more of Detective Harriet Foster and her colleagues and friends. Recommended.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"A feminist thriller that's an intriguing sophomore novel" - review of LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND by Jacqueline Bublitz (Emily Bestler Books, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender—and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime.

Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women—one of whom might just hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

Kiwi author Jacqueline Bublitz, who’s split her life between Taranaki in New Zealand and Melbourne in Australia, garnered wide acclaim for her trope-busting debut, Before You Knew My Name, a feminist literary thriller that explored the all-too-typical ‘murdered women found in a NYC park’ story we’ve often seen, especially on TV dramas, from a fresh perspective. 

That of the victim herself, and the bystander who finds the body. 

Critics and reader praise, sales, and awards flowed, including Fiction Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and double-ups at the crime-loving Davitt Awards in Australia and Ngaio Marsh Awards in New Zealand. Also a shortlisting for the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel in the English language that year; Bublitz was the only female author, and only debut author, to make the shortlist. How do you follow that as a first-time effort? 

Well, now Bublitz is back with another fascinating standalone that rakes over some similar ground – true crime obsession and the wider impact of misogynistic murders – while being its own story. In Leave the Girls Behind, New York bartender Ruth-Ann Baker is on high alert after a young girl goes missing from her hometown in Connecticut. Awful memories stir of Ruth-Ann’s best friend Beth being abducted and murdered by popular music teacher Ethan Oswald almost twenty years before. Ruth-Ann always felt Oswald had more victims, but Oswald died in prison, so he couldn’t have committed this new horror. But still, it stirs Ruth-Ann’s past trauma. 

She always felt Oswald had many more victims, and perhaps an accomplice. The local police in Connecticut, along with counsellors and her parents, didn’t believe her. Especially when she told them she was certain of her beliefs because of Beth’s ghost, and the ghosts of other murdered girls who visited Ruth-Ann; looking for help, looking for justice. Could Oswald have had help? Is the current perp somehow linked to what happened many years ago? Or is it just geographic chance, compounded by voices in Ruth-Ann’s head? 

Bublitz takes readers on an at-times bewildering ride into Ruth-Ann’s life, obsessions, and trauma, as well as across the globe as Ruth-Ann decides to take action and follows tenuous leads to New Zealand and Norway, looking for links to Oswald and her ghostly girls. But is our unreliable narrator trying to help a missing girl in the present, ones from the past, or herself?

Bublitz has conjured another fascinating tale that is likely to stick with readers long after the final page. A story about the messy ripples that are cast by violence, and fear. Ongoing trauma and how that manifests. Leave the Girls Behind is not the easiest read, though Bublitz writes well and the text flows smoothly even as the story is murky. Like Australia’s famed breakfast spread, Vegemite, it may divide readers, while leaving a strong aftertaste either way. An intriguing, impressive sophomore novel. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"A character centric ride through modern America" - review of GUIDE ME HOME

GUIDE ME HOME by Attica Locke (Viper, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Texas Ranger Darren Mathews has handed in his badge. A choice made three years before, which served justice if not the law, means that he may now stand trial. And his mother - an intermittent and destructive force in his life - is the cause of his fall from grace.

And yet it is his mother's reappearance that may also be his salvation. A black girl at an all-white sorority at a nearby college is missing, her belongings tossed in a dumpster. Her sorority sisters, the college police, even the girl's own family, deny that she has disappeared, but Sera Fuller is nowhere to be found. A bloodstained shirt discovered in a woodland clearing may be the last trace of her. And Darren's mother wants her son to work the case.

Disillusioned by an America forever changed by the presidency of Donald Trump, Darren reluctantly agrees. Yet as he sets out to find a girl whose family don't want her found, it is his own family's history that may be brought painfully into the light. And a reckoning with his past may finally show Darren the future he can build.

For me, Texas-born Attica Locke's superb 2017 thriller Bluebird, Bluebird, the first in her series starring black Texas Ranger Darren Mathews, may be one of the best novels of the past decade, with its rich storytelling and incisive observations about dangerous rhetoric emboldening a white supremacist underbelly desperately clinging on in America.

Five years after its excellent sequel, Heaven My Home, we now have a fitting finale to an outstanding ‘Highway 59’ trilogy. With the legal consequences of past choices still hanging over him like a sword of Damocles, a bourbon-soaked Mathews hands in his badge. Then his mother, who’s played a key role in his many troubles, reappears. Apparently sober, wanting his help to find what’s happened to a black girl missing from the all-white sorority where Darren’s mother now works.

Disillusioned by how law and justice are being twisted in Trump’s America, Mathews reluctantly agrees, only to uncover a snake’s den of deceit, and discover far more about his own family history.

Locke once again soaks readers in the East Texas setting, and the humanity and frustrations of good people trying to live and operate in an unjust world. Mathews is confronted not only by the mystery of a missing girl who everyone – even her family – seems to insist is okay, but the mystery of his mother, and his accepted narrative of his own past. 

Locke takes readers on an emotional, character-centric ride through a slice of modern America, where the prejudices and divisions of the past are stirred up and shaken out in various ways in the present.

While it's a little disappointing Locke has said that Guide Me Home will be the final Darren Mathews tale, for the foreseeable future at least - after originally planning a longer running series - overall it is an excellent read and a fitting finale to a terrific trilogy that captures, all to scarily, some of the simmering realities of a nation changed, or perhaps just revealed, by Trump's 'MAGA' inciting runs for President. 

Top shelf. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Ngā mihi o te tau hau (Happy New Year)

volunteering with homelessness charity Crisis in London on New Year's Day, wearing my Michael Connelly charity t-shirt, which was also to raise funds for a LA homelessness charity

Ngā mihi o te tau hau (Happy New Year), everyone! 

I hope as we turn the calendar from 2024 to 2025 that you have been having a good festive season and are looking forward to a new year full of joys, adventure, and love... and lots of good and great books!

Kia ora 2025. Man, time flies. I remember being a wee kid, working out how old we'd be in the year 2000! Now we're a quarter century past that. Calendar changes are often cause for reflection, eh? Whether we consciously mean to, in terms of making some resolutions etc, or not. 

As I was walking to the tube in the pre-dawn London darkness yesterday, it struck me that I was spending the last day of 2024 doing pretty much the same thing I was doing on the first day of 2024, volunteering with a great group of people at Crisis, a homelessness charity that operates throughout the UK. And today I kicked off my new year by doing the same, somewhat appropriately with a nod to my love of crime fiction by wearing one of my 'Harry Bosch' t-shirts, which has a great message on it. 

"Everybody Counts, or Nobody Counts," is Harry's credo throughout Connelly's fantastic series. 

Michael Connelly wearing one
of the special charity t-shirts

Not bad words to live by. My t-shirt got several positive comments from our guests (rough sleepers) at Crisis today. Perhaps fittingly, I'd actually bought it a few years back when Michael put them up for sale to raise funds for a homelessness charity in Los Angeles. It's a growing issue in many places. 

It's my sixth 'Christmas' volunteering with Crisis. If I couldn't be back 'home' in New Zealand for the holidays, I was very grateful to be ending my year and starting a new one by spending my time doing something to help others, with some great people - fellow volunteers and our guests, once more. 

You can read more about Crisis and the work they do, and how my own eyes were opened by my time volunteering there over the years, in a post I did to start the year, for the Murder is Everywhere website. 

Last night and early this morning before I went on shift I was thinking about all the different kinds of 'New Year's Eves/New Year's Days' I've had throughout my life. 

For more than 20 years, from when I was a new entrant at primary school, my New Years' were always in the Top of the South Island of New Zealand, whether camping by the beach in Kaiteriteri or hanging out with family and friends. Throughout school, university, being a young lawyer, and even my first years of travels, I'd always be home or return home to the Nelson-Tasman region for the holidays. Looking back, as Fred Dagg used to sing, "We don't know how lucky we are". It's a pretty great part of the world to get to call home. 

My first overseas New Year's Eve and New Year's Day was, funnily enough, still a summery one, in Colonia (Uruguay) with my girlfriend and a couple of law school pals, who were randomly passing through Buenos Aires at the same time as us, as 2007 ended and 2008 began. We took the ferry to another country for some fun beachside celebrations and shenanigans. 

Summery New Year's Eve celebrations in Uruguay

Since then it's been a real mix of home and away, from an Egyptian feast with snakes and table dancing in Luxor on New Year's Eve, to US summer camp reunions when I'm just off the plane from a Christmas in Lapland, to 1 January sunrise walks with my daughter around New Zealand rivers and vineyards or quiet parks in COVID-era London or through Kauri forests in Northland.... 

On the first day of 2025, as I unwind from another Crisis shift, I'm grateful for it all. Even the bumps and bruises along the way, in among many joyful moments. 

To all my pals reading this, I hope that however 2024 went for you, that 2025 brings you plenty of joy, adventure, and love. Time flies, and life changes, but it can be full of lots of good things along the way. In the small moments as much as the bigger ones. Here's to a great year of crime and thriller reading, and many other good things for us all. 

Hugs and aroha - Craig S

"Storytelling mastery and a fitting finale" - review of CITY IN RUINS

CITY IN RUINS by Don Winslow (HarperCollins, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Sometimes you have to become what you hate to protect what you love. Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich.

The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman – a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with.

Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far. When he tries to buy an old hotel on a prime piece of real estate with plans to build his dream resort, he triggers a war against Las Vegas power brokers, a powerful FBI agent bent on revenge and a rival casino owner with dark connections of his own.

Danny thought he had buried his past, but now it reaches up to him from the grave to pull him down. Old enemies surface, and when they come for Danny they vow to take everything – not only his empire, not just his life, but all that he holds dear, including his son.

One of the modern greats of crime writing has bowed out in style, as City in Ruins again showcases the storytelling mastery and talents of Don Winslow. His latest not only caps his terrific ‘City’ trilogy about Irish American tragic hero Danny Ryan, but his writing career, as Winslow turns his talents to real-life political battles in the USA. 

Following the events of City on Fire, where Danny Ryan barely survived a New England turf war between Irish and Italian crime families, and City of Dreams, where his attempts to go legit in Hollywood brought further pain and loss, City of Ruins starts with him entwined in the casino industry in Las Vegas. 

He’s settled and happy, raising his son, but Ryan's ambitions bring his past into play, and once again threaten all he loves.

Inspired by Virgil’s poem about a soldier who fled the fall of Troy and became ancestor to the Romans, there’s certainly something timeless, epic, and sweeping about Ryan’s odyssey through turbulent times, cut-throat industries, and deadly feuds. 

City in Ruins is as ambitious as its hero; superior crime writing full of tension and depth. An outstanding novel in of itself, it offers even more to readers who’ve devoured the first two books.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.