Review: NO PRISONERS

NO PRISONERS by Ellis Blake (Moa Press, 2026)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Hannah Lyon is a brilliant, celebrated physicist, employed by a think tank outside of Albuquerque to question the very nature of how the world works. And her husband is missing. But not only is she struggling to cope with his sudden, baffling disappearance, no one believes her when she insists that Adam would never just leave. He was a loving husband, but more than that, a devoted father. He would never leave their young son Joe behind. 

Detective Aloysius Hunt assures Hannah they’re doing everything they can to find Adam, but Hannah doesn’t trust him. Lou Hunt has done nothing but stonewall her at every turn. 

With no help from the authorities, Hannah is on her own to find Adam and bring him home, but uncovering the truth means revealing dark secrets in her husband’s past, and her own. Secrets better left buried. 

Hannah Lyon is a physicist; at one point in No Prisoners, she tells her young son, Joe, about the balance of energy in the universe — and how that balance can break down close to a black hole, allowing the appearance of radiation being emitted outside the event horizon. The heart of this novel is a little like that — when the laws that govern Hannah’s life start to break down spinning her into a black hole of doubt, are there enough traces left for her to explore what is happening, and why?

Hannah was a researcher at an interdisciplinary research institute, happily married to Adam, a mathematician. Admittedly he had been having a hard time with his work, but he and Hannah doted on their son, enjoying their lives while managing his type 1 diabetes; a team of three. But after Adam drove off one day and never returned, Hannah begins to discover things about her past, her husband, and herself.

The novel begins as things are starting to fade away. A bobcat: “the face simply vanished from the scope”; dropping Joe off at school: “The bobbing satchel diminished to a blurred pixel, one among hundreds, and then he was gone, absorbed by the perfect random motion of the schoolyard crowd”; her job: her department having already melted to an “office of one”, was starting to completely slip away from her. “If businesses are going to give us money, they want at least the suggestion that it’s an investment. Not just a way to glimpse the apocalypse.”

Searching for answers with her heightened awareness of the volatility of some things she thought were permanent, Hannah becomes aware that: “Every day there were more faces of the disappeared.” A significant loss is that of her ability to trust. In the aftermath of Adam’s disappearance, she has had a frustrating relationship with Detective Aloysius (Lou) Hunt. Despite Hannah knowing she is being followed, and that she and Joe are in danger, Hunt comes across to her as dismissive and unbelieving.

Hunt is managing his own health insecurity, if not to the standard that would satisfy Helen, his wife. He feels guilt about his attitude towards Helen, he is partnered by a smelly dog called Milo, and he adores his daughter Jen, who is disabled and a talented artist. But the reader’s sympathy for Hunt occasionally teeters: “Hunt sometimes wondered to what extent high blood pressure and heart issues could be attributed to guys getting nagged half to death by their wives.”

However, the more we read about Hunt, the more complex his intentions and actions become. Both his and Hannah’s efforts to find Adam, or at least what has happened to him, eventually converge: “If you want to keep getting nowhere by yourself, fine. But if you want help from someone who’s been a cop for most of his life …”

Then some of Hannah’s findings suggest answers may be found closer to home, and “her whole world had been reconfigured”. Her biggest hurdle is allowing herself to collapse into trusting someone who might help her. Amusingly, the only person she does trust without thinking about it, is her colleague/friend Carson Powel — a successful thriller writer.

“Did things appear with clarity simply because every now and then randomness looked meaningful, or because your life had an architecture to it.” Throughout the book, Hannah uses her analytical skills to investigate Adam’s disappearance, and to distinguish between solid information and chimeras, but eventually she finds herself being as deceptive as she suspects others are being, lying to protect the possibility that her perfect family might still somehow coalesce again.

No Prisoners is smart and engaging. Hannah and Hunt are great characters to weave a plot around, they are both conflicted and complicated. Hannah’s analytical skills are occasionally boosted by her instincts, and the trajectory of Hunt’s life pushes him into suddenly re-considering some of his choices. “Part of your brain never ran on logic, but that didn’t mean it was never right.”

I really enjoyed No Prisoners. It is both a thrilling crime novel, and an exploration of two people discovering their true nature; the lines they will not cross. Ellis Blake is the pseudonym of well-known #YeahNoir author Ben Sanders, and Sanders’ style of writing — crisp and intelligent — is unmistakable: Hannah looks in on her sleeping son: “A hand raised and curled beside him, like the fading gesture of a great idea.”

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Review: SOMEBODY ALWAYS COMES LOOKING

SOMEBODY ALWAYS COMES LOOKING by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press, 2026)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

When Luca and Katie meet on a beach in Malaysia, the attraction is immediate. What’s more, it turns out both are from New Zealand – they live only blocks from each other thousands of miles away back home . Only they’re not the only two sensing a vibe—somebody is watching them. Somebody who enjoys leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

When the tables are turned, and Luca and Katie end up burying the man who was going to kill them, they find a bag of cash in his room. It’s a life changing amount. But with a bag of cash comes two questions. Does anything ever good come to those who take it? And is there a way to smuggle it back into New Zealand?

And, of course, with a bag of cash there’s always a given—somebody always comes looking. Sometimes a lot of somebodies… For Luca and Katie, coming to face to face with a serial killer is the least of their problems…

“Whatever was in that bag — It was worth killing for.”

Paul Cleave’s Somebody Always Comes Looking proved to be the perfect choice for the first thriller I have read in quite a while. It has all the best thriller elements: moral ambiguity, people’s lives flipping in an instant through greed or need, a relentlessly twisty plot, and of course plenty of nail-biting thrills. Not far into the novel, three people find themselves at a Malaysian beach resort — two having amended their plans to be there, one with malicious intent. All three have their lives suddenly veer off into unexpected, and tragic, trajectories. Two of the three are New Zealanders: Luca Carpenter is a wannabe writer whose chosen career has wrecked his relationship of four years; Katie Sanderson is going through a messy divorce, boring herself and those around her with self-pity.

Both Kiwis find themselves capable of acts previously unconscionable, not only that — capable of dubious self-justification: “Yes, she did something wrong, but not bad.” On the side of law and order, sort of, are Omar Khan, an excellent policeman who sums up events and possibilities very quickly, and his partner Fariq Bakar. They are eventually as ensnared in events as the two foreigners, and the centre of the action moves from a jungle fringed beach outside Kuala Lumpur to a remote farmstead outside Christchurch — with manipulating forces working in various other locations, all keen on revenge, or to get their mitts on money.

If “he’s learned one thing, it’s that wherever the money goes, a world of shit follows” — as the thrust of the main protagonists’ actions veer from one extreme to the other, the reader wonders whether the random kindness of strangers (“To help you, and to repent, and if it costs us our lives then that is a price we must pay”) can ever beat the calculated determination of international crime gangs. Cleave gives all the main protagonists back stories that explain their extreme behaviours. As is often the case in his works, one of the main characters is his den-of-iniquity Christchurch — this time holding its own against the horrors of the Malaysian jungle. Both having treacherous terrain, boggy from being drenched in torrential rain at any moment. Both home to terrifying lethal animals — “shiny eyes with no soul behind them”, “The horns come at him … Like a shark fin splitting the surface of the water.”

Luca is a wannabe writer who spends a lot of time seeing his reality through the lens of ideas for his writing, and I couldn’t help but consider the amount of time Cleave must spend on contemplating ever more gorier and peculiar ways of killing people as he walks through his world. What holds the relentless plot twists and macabre turns of events together is the human vulnerability of his protagonists. Somebody Always Comes Looking is compelling, repelling, and a page-turner from start to finish, and it has a great ‘the nightmare not quite over’ ending. 

Intrigued? Give it a read – Paul Cleave really is a master of #YeahNoir.

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

"A terrific read from a terrific storyteller" - review of THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE

THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE by Sarah Pinborough (Orion, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s happening again... Anna Maybourne feels trapped in Harper’s Creek, a nowhere town of dusty farmland plagued by drought, known for the murders of two young women who died exactly three years apart. The presumed murderer, killed as he tried to escape the police, was known as the Farmhand. But Anna, new in town and caring for her grandmother with dementia, wonders if the closed case is actually unsolved.

As the three-year anniversary of the last Farmhand murders nears, Anna’s younger sister worries it could happen again and she and her friend might be next. Anna’s grandmother’s experiences odd paranoid episodes, and she claims to know things about the girls who died.

Anna begins to think her grandmother may be the key to discovering the truth about the murders. Something strange is happening in their old house, Grandma knows more than she should, and instead of being over, the mystery seems like it’s starting again.

Expect the unexpected is a handy mantra for anyone reading a Sarah Pinborough tale. The British bestseller often plays in the no-man’s lands between genre boundaries, rising to global notoriety thanks to a smash hit Netflix adaptation of her head-spinning thriller Behind Her Eyes. 

Now, in They Say A Girl Died Here, Pinborough turns her considerable talents to smalltown American rural noir. A place of flickering curtains, fading lives, and tightly held secrets, despite the ‘everybody knows everybody’ community mythology. 

Anna Maybourne has moved to drought-stricken Harper’s Creek with her mother, younger sister, and grandmother. Three generations living in an old farmhouse in their grandmother’s old hometown, hoping it may help with her dementia. 

While sweeping what happened to Anna at university under the rug. Just like many in the town are trying to move on from the murders of two local teenagers, Lila and Bonnie, exactly three years apart. 

That case was closed, the police say they shot the killer, but whispers linger, and fears grow as the three-year anniversary looms. Anna becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened, especially when she uncovers links very close to home. 

What is her Grandma trying to tell her, in among her rambling thoughts and writings? 

Pinborough crafts a tremendous, feminist rural noir that begins like a slow-burn exploration of people and place, with fierce, wounded characters at its heart, before ramping up to a suitably Pinborough-esque finale. A terrific read from a terrific storyteller.

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.

"Joyfully upturns expectations" - review of MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT

MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT by Alessandra Ranelli (Baskerville, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

In modern Vienna, the infamous Hotel Orient glitters at the heart of the city, luring lovers inside for an evening of debauchery. Behind its velvet curtain, cameras are forbidden, aliases are required, and every guest has something to hide.

For those seeking illicit liaisons, Sterling Lockwood is the perfect concierge. Sultry and poised, she's the ultimate keeper of secrets, including her own. But when dawn breaks and two of the anonymous guests are found dead in their suite, Sterling must break the Orient's sacred code of discretion, turning detective to find a killer and clear her own name.

Alongside Fernando, her quick-witted friend and bellhop, Sterling steps beyond the hotel's stained-glass doors, venturing from grand coffee houses where power whispers between porcelain cups, to dimly lit bars where the curious seek rapturous oblivion, and risking everything to solve an impossible case.

With her corsets and curves, trail of lovers, and mysterious past, Sterling Lockwood would have made a fine femme fatale in a classic crime novel. Instead the night concierge at an infamous Vienna hotel is the captivating heroine and amateur sleuth at the heart (or loins?) of Alessandra Ranelli’s debut whodunnit, Murder at the Hotel Orient. 

It’s a fantastic read that joyfully upturns expectations; draped in some timeless Golden Age mystery threads, while weaving in plenty of raunchiness and modern sensibilities too.

Sterling is a keeper of secrets; of the hotel guests, and her own. At the Hotel Orient, cameras are banned, aliases are required, and every guest has something to hide. But when two guests are found murdered, including one of her past lovers, Sterling must go beneath the falsehoods to find the truth. Inveigling herself into the official investigation alongside police detectives Andreas and Beata, a male-female duo who each make her pulse race, can Sterling keep her own dangerous secrets hidden as she digs into the private lives of others? Ranelli, a Vienna-based American author, writes with zing and spark; there’s a strong sense of personality and style in Murder at the Hotel Orient.

Ranelli crafts a strong sense of the world of her story, bringing Vienna to life from its bureaucracy to swingers clubs, alongside a fascinating cast of characters. There’s plenty of craft and cleverness beneath the seductive façade too. Highly 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.

"Another good read in a very good series" - review of THE CROSSROADS

THE CROSSROADS by CJ Box (Head of Zeus, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When Joe Pickett is shot in the line of duty, his daughters must work together to find his attacker. Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always her husband Joe is unconscious after being shot in the head.

He was found slumped behind the wheel of his pickup at a crossroads linking the ranches of three powerful families. Each have reasons to want the Wyoming Game Warden dead, but with no witnesses, no one knows who pulled the trigger.

As Joe clings to life, Marybeth keeps watch while their daughters – Sheridan, Lucy, and April – play the role their father cannot, investigating each family to expose long-held grudges and reveal the truth.

Diving into a new novel starring Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett has become something of an annual tradition for plenty of crime readers over the past quarter century, as CJ Box’s likable protagonist, wild settings, and some fascinating storylines and family dynamics have built up a large following since an excellent debut with Open Range back in 2001.

Family has always been vital to Pickett; he’s something of an antithesis of the troubled, loner detective we often see in the genre (though he regularly works alone, and still finds plenty of trouble along the way). In The Crossroads the Pickett family has to come together in a way they never have before, when Joe is shot in the head on a road near the ranches of three powerful families.

While Marybeth keeps watch over her husband, barely clinging to life in hospital, their daughters Sheridan, Lucy, and April turn investigators, digging into the families and trying to work out who wants their Dad dead. In the 26th Joe Pickett novel (to go along with several short stories, and two good seasons of a sadly short-lived Paramount+ screen adaptation, starring Michael Dorman as the titular hero), Box throws readers a bit of a googly, mixing in familiar aspects with new.

With Box’s usual star somewhat sidelined – something that admittedly could frustrate some series readers, while others may really enjoy the change-up Box pitches - other characters come more to the fore, and the author once again demonstrates his very fine touch for rural landscapes and life, and the people and pressures that come with it. Another good read in a very good series.

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.

"Atmospheric, character-centric historical mystery" - review of THE BURNING GROUNDS

THE BURNING GROUNDS by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta, where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear. The body is that of a popular philanthropist and patron of the arts. A man, who was, by all accounts, beloved by all. So what could possibly be the motive for murder? 

Though out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case, and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of cinema when his investigation leads him to a film the victim was funding.

Meanwhile Sam's former colleague, Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a vanished photographer, one of the first women in the profession. When he discovers the missing woman is somehow linked to Sam's murder investigation, the two men are forced to work together once again—but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?

After scooping a host of accolades for his contemporary standalone thriller Hunted - most notably both the 2025 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and 2025 British Book Awards (aka the 'Nibbies') Crime & Thriller of the Year, Scottish-Bengali author Abir Mukherjee makes a welcome return to his ancestral homeland and the historical mystery series where he first made his name, with The Burning Grounds, a terrific sixth novel in his Wyndham and Banerjee series set in 1920s India. 

Mukherjee does an exquisite job transporting readers through space and time, and soaking us in the atmosphere of times - the place, people, and politics, as the British Raj was still in control but in decline, and India was moving towards eventual independence. You can almost smell the smoke from the burning ghats and feel sweat trickling as we traverse Calcultta (now Kolkata) and beyond with Sam and 'Surrender-not', the duo that give this historical series plenty of heart among the mysteries. 

In The Burning Grounds, both are still recovering from the events and fallout from the previous book, The Shadows of Men, which saw Banerjee framed for murder, imprisoned, and accused of terrorism. It's an uneasy reunion, a few years later, as cases and dangerous circumstances bring the former friends back into each other's orbits. But can they trust each other, after all that has happened? 

At a time when the country seems on the brink of tearing itself to pieces, and they're each roiling through their own self-sabotaging or self-destructive tendencies, two puzzling cases offer some salve. 

Mukherjee crafts a very good mystery tale that is enriched by his great touch for character and setting. There's plenty of intriguing historic details and perspectives to please history buffs, but not too many where they overwhelm or stall the plot. The Burning Grounds is a propulsive tale that will have pages whirring, but it doesn't feel 'thin'; there's a nice mix of depth and detail, of humanity and whodunnit. 

Overall, this is a very good read that will likely please newer readers to the series, while also delivering plenty for long-time fans. Mukherjee has shown with Hunted that he also has a good touch for contemporary tales, but hopefully there's still plenty of mileage left in the investigations and adventures of Detective Sam Wyndham and fellow sleuth Surendranath 'Surrender-not' Banerjee. 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.

"The LeBron James of crime fiction" - review of IRONWOOD

IRONWOOD by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.

 

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.

 

An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.

Michael Connelly has been entertaining readers and impressing reviewers and awards judges for more than thirty years now, and thankfully shows no signs of easing up. With new audiences also coming to his Los Angeles-set tales through the Ballard and Lincoln Lawyer screen series, alongside ten outstanding seasons of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy starring Titus Welliver as Connelly’s relentless investigator and first-ever series hero, Connelly last year introduced a new series detective. 

We first met LA County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell in Nightshade, where he was serving on scenic Catalina Island, among the other ‘broken toys’, and doggedly pursuing the truth behind the body of an identified young woman being pulled from the local harbour - despite being sidelined from the murder investigation being led by his nemesis. Now in Ironwood, Stilwell is confronted by a murder that hits very close to home, after he and his deputies Ramirez and Quigley are ambushed when a tip-off about late-night drug trafficking at a remote airstrip goes horribly wrong. Benched while an internal inquiry is underway, Stilwell can’t sit still. Determined to find out who set up his deputies, he starts his own off-the-books investigation, while also looking into an item of recently turned in lost property that he ties to a woman who reportedly went missing on Catalina Island four years ago. 

Both new and longtime fans of Connelly’s storytelling will find plenty to savour in Ironwood, which expands and adds extra threads to the ‘Bosch universe’ he has built over the past 30+ years on page and screen. It’s a propulsive, one-sitting kind of read that doesn’t feel ‘thin’ or breeze by too quickly; there’s depth to the characters and sense of place, alongside intriguing storylines. Stilwell has many of the qualities we’ve come to admire in Connelly’s other key heroes – Harry Bosch, ‘Lincoln lawyer’ Mickey Haller, crime reporter Jack McEvoy, and Renee Ballard – in terms of his determination to uncover the truth and find justice, no matter the personal cost, while also having his own traits. 

In Ironwood, Stilwell is fully welcomed into the Connelly universe, briefly encountering Bosch, then working on the case of the missing hiker with Detective Ballard and her LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit. Both cases get increasingly complicated, and dangerous. Meanwhile Stilwell must still deal with other policing and political matters on the island, including spraypainted monuments and vandalised grapevines. Less life-and-death, perhaps, but vital to his tenure nonetheless. Overall, Connelly spins another very fine yarn, blending cases and characters into a propulsive, satisfying tale and a climax that will have readers wanting another Stilwell book asap. 

The 2023 recipient of the MWA’s Grand Master Award, Connelly in a way is like the LeBron James or Tom Brady of American crime writing – continuing to not only perform at a high level, but evolve and lead the way even as younger, exciting new voices are welcomed to the mystery and thriller genre, and ‘change the game’. A masterful story from a masterful storyteller. 

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.

"Sharp dialogue, unforgettable characters" - review of THE FINAL SCORE

THE FINAL SCORE by Don Winslow (HarperCollins, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

In six all-new short novels written with the trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal), this repeat New York Times bestselling author serves up a collection of tales sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.

With a foreword written by award-winning crime author Reed Farrel Coleman, The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive collection of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow's prowess as a living legend of the genre.

Masterful storyteller Don Winslow has shown in The Border and The Cartel that he can write epic literary crime novels that tilt the scales around 700 pages, maintaining multi-layered, crisp and compelling storytelling throughout (unlike some bloated tomes from other bestsellers). Now, in The Final Score he underlines that he’s also a dab hand at pitch-perfect short stories; intense tales, memorable characters, high-pressure situations.

In the titular tale, a legendary thief on the cusp of a life sentence plans an audacious casino heist to secure the financial future of those he loves. Elsewhere, we meet an ambitious teen looking to raise college funds by delivering illegal liquor to his town’s residents (“The Sunday List”), two gangsters before a hit sharing breakfast and reminisces (“True Story”); a promising cop facing a life-changing dilemma for love of family (“The North Wing”); and surfer-private eye Boone Daniels and his crew - who feature in earlier Winslow novels like The Dawn Patrol - battling with the high-maintenance, drug-addicted film star they’re hired to protect (“The Lunch Break”).

All building to the lengthiest story, “Collision”, where a moment of madness unfurls a whole new life for a high-achieving hotelier and family man. Short story collections can be tricky to review, as often quality can vary, and different readers may prefer different tales, but in Winslow’s case he knocks it out of the park each and every time. Sharp dialogue, unforgettable characters, tight storytelling.

The Final Score is a delightful buffet of humanity caught up in dark deeds where every morsel is moreish. A treat for long-time Winslow fans, and great entrée for those new to his talents.

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.