Reviewed by Carolyn McKenzie
An unidentified young girl is found dead in suspicious circumstances in an abandoned boat shed on Rangitoto Island. Detective Frank Smythe of the Maritime Police teams up with Detective Anahera Raupara of CIB to investigate. There is more to this than first thought after a second body is discovered. Anahera, while dealing with her own family crisis, finds herself emotionally involved. In a race against the clock to find the culprit before the body count rises, they find themselves delving into Auckland’s darker side and uncover an evil that has tentacles that stretch across the globe.
Set in Auckland, The Boat Shed follows The Jibe and is the next major case for Detectives Smythe and Raupara.
If The Boat Shed were an item on the TV news or in a newspaper, it would come with a warning: Some viewers/readers may find this content disturbing.
And the content of The Boat Shed is disturbing. The story revolves around the importation of children to service an apparently flourishing sex industry in Auckland. When a dead girl is found in a Rangitoto Island boat shed and another is found drowned a short distance away, Detective Frank Smythe of Auckland’s Maritime Police is called in to investigate.
The girls’ autopsies reveal prolonged deprivation and sexual abuse. Frank works with Detective Anahera Raupara from the CIB in a bid to identify the girls (aged 10 and 12 and both Nepali) and discover who is responsible for their deaths.
The investigation is both land and sea based. There are raids on illegal brothels, an adult nightclub, container ships and shady import companies. As well, Frank Smythe looks into the yachting community that frequents the bays around Rangitoto Island and studies tides and currents to determine how the deaths are connected. Solving this is a huge operation and The Boat Shed shows how, especially where children are involved, a number of investigative units will put their rivalries aside and work as a team to see the perpetrators punished.
Robyn Cotton’s knowledge of Nepal and the work being done there to save vulnerable children from being trafficked in the sex trade has inspired this book and it has been written with great sensitivity while at the same time the police work moves along at a good pace. Cotton reports that, according to India Today, 50 Nepali women are trafficked every day.
As a convenient sub-story line, Anahera discovers that her teenage son has been exploring pornography with his school mates, giving Cotton the means to drum home the evils of sexual exploitation.
So yes, The Boat Shed’s theme is disturbing, and all the characters involved in the investigation are justifiably upset and angered by what they discover, and highly motivated to solve the mystery. However, at times I found their indignation and sorrow somewhat laboured and repetitive. Less frequent expressions of grief and disgust would make this a tighter, more compact read..
This review was first published in FlaxFlower reviews, which focuses on in-depth reviews of New Zealand books of all kinds, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Flaxflower founder and editor Bronwyn Elsmore.
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