New Kiwi crime: LEAVE HER HANGING

As I've shifted from six months of travelling in North America to settling back into New Zealand life this week, I've been catching up on a lot of what's been happening in the crime fiction world, both New Zealand and overseas. Right now I'm reading Paddy Richardson's CROSS FINGERS (excellent - I think it's Paddy's best yet), having just finished Paul Cleave's JOE VICTIM (enjoyed this immensely too).

Today I also came across a new voice in New Zealand crime writing - Harry St John, whose debut crime novel (the author has previously written some sci fi novels) LEAVE HER HANGING was published earlier this year. It's a young adult noir thriller, and I'm looking forward to giving it a read:

Ella Lewis is dead. Someone must pay. 
"I loved Ella. Now she's a corpse, cooling off in the morgue with a noose-shaped bruise around her neck. The cops say it's suicide. It wasn't suicide. I don't know who killed her, and I don't know why. But I'm going to find out, no matter what it takes. And when I'm face-to-face with the man who broke my world, I'm going to break him." 

In this tough-as-nails noir crime novel set in Auckland's dark underbelly, 17-year-old Jack "Spade" Miller must traverse a web of violence, love, and illicit sex in his search for justice. Only one thing is guaranteed: no one is walking away unscathed.

Hopefully I'll be able to give y'all more of a heads-up about the book, and what I thought of it, in the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime if you'd like to find out more, you can check out the author's webpage, with links to where you can get ebook or paperback versions on Amazon etc, here.