New Kiwi crime: THE TAROT MURDERS

Ebook publishing and online distribution have certainly opened up new avenues for authors beyond the traditional print publishing houses, and allowed new writers to get a foot in the door. Some end up being hugely successful, while most pen tales for a smaller group of readers.

Either way though, they're creating something new, and putting it out there for others to enjoy. And that's a great thing.

I've been very pleased to see that along with the larger publishing houses picking up a number of contemporary Kiwi crime and thriller writers (and published NZ authors in other styles increasingly dipping their toes into the worlds of murder and mayhem), there are lots and lots of Kiwi authors writing mysteries and publishing online.

Here's the latest one I've discovered.

THE TAROT MURDERS by Lila Richards
When a series of bizarre murders based on major trumps of the Tarot rocks the usually staid city of Christchurch, the panel members of radio show The Psychic Connection are drawn into the case when it seems panel member James Myerson may be involved – or even the murderer.

Detective Sergeant Declan Kelly arrives in Christchurch, on sick leave after being wounded during a stakeout in Queensland, and adds his weight to the Psychic Connection panel’s investigation of what the press is calling the Tarot Murders. The murderer’s calling card, The Magician, left with each new victim, offers a sinister clue to the killer’s identity – if only the panel can solve it in time to prevent the death of one of its own members.

The author: Lila Richards lives in half an old villa in Kumeu, a rural small town outside of Auckland, New Zealand. She moved there following the Christchurch earthquakes, and shares her villa with her cats Poppy and Jeeves, works part-time as a sub-editor for the New Zealand Meteorological Service, and dotes on her five grandchildren. Along with writing and a love for reading eclectically (current favourites include Regency romances and 1950s horror), Richards sews, embroiders, collects owls and vintage paraphernalia, and sporadically enters the Middle Ages as part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (an international medieval recreation group). Richards began by writing romance-tinged urban fantasy novels, about vampires, but her most recent books, VICIOUS CIRCLE and THE TAROT MURDERS have been crime fiction (psychological thriller and murder mystery), featuring DS Declan Kelly and a radio panel dealing with the supernatural.

THE TAROT MURDERS became was released in January 2015. You can read an excerpt here.