Better the Blood

"I read this thriller in January 2023 and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Taking a knife to a nation’s idyllic image, this debut puts a tragic fact in the center of a murder mystery: “Aotearoa/New Zealand is a paradise with an awful and bloody colonial history.” That past propels a series of shocking contemporary crimes 160 years after a brutal act against the nation’s Indigenous people. While some caution that “fire ignites more fires,” or “violence begets violence,” others demand no less than retribution. The senior officer running the investigation, Maori detective Hana Westerman, has long been caught up in these conflicts. Her white ex is the police chief, her daughter is an activist and her own family has been rocked by the underlying rifts."