It was too late for introductions. You don't shake hands with a dead man; especially one whose fingers and thumbs of both hands had been severed at the first joint. Phil Rudolph of Auckland CID knew he had the job ahead of him as he took stock of Anton Clegg Chairman of the Board of Air-Chill Cold Storage strapped in his chair in his private office at 3am on a disturbing Sunday in the middle of winter. Here was a man who was going nowhere other than the morgue from a place that res...

Paul Walker, head teacher who when happily married to the love of his life, became widowed after twenty seven years. For three years he shouldered his grief, being unable to accept another woman into his lonely world, until he was drawn to the rescue of Sylvia Livingstone, a maiden in distress who was also facing challenging times with her life in crisis. With a mutual attraction the backgrounds of two devoted people are exposed in a traumatic revelation that focuses on the rehabil...

Retired Chief of Detectives Phillip Maynard finds life difficult to handle following the death of his wife after forty-five years of marriage. When waking in hospital from a near-death experience, he is told a young man brought him to the emergency department. Of course, it could only be young Robert Gardener, whom he had met recently. Keen to repay Robert for saving his life, Phillip goes to Robert's home to meet his mother Andrea. When accused of trespassing and told that Andrea ...

Terror and violent death haunt the remote wilderness of the Catlins, deep in New Zealand's South Island. An animal kills only for food—but the killer in the Catlins is no animal. This is something far more dangerous… and far more deliberate.Gloria Stuart is found murdered in her isolated farmhouse in the Clutha Valley, the victim of a savage attack. Her husband, Angus, is discovered nearby—unconscious, bloodied, and drunk. The verdict is swift: guilty. Life...

Joseph Scott entered the school of life in February 1990, the younger of two brothers. In this vast classroom of experience, he learned to live, to laugh, to forgive, and to grieve—but love? That was something he was born with. Guided by an innate kindness, Joe navigates adulthood carrying the love he holds for his family, facing the challenges and joys that come with caring for aging parents. Familiar Surroundings invites readers into Joe...

A gripping family saga of love, heartache, war, crime, and retribution.The share market crash of October 1987 shook the lives of many New Zealanders—but none more profoundly than Teddy Starling, a childhood immigrant brought to those shores in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II.Teddy was just ten years old when his father, Staff Sergeant Eddie Starling, was fighting with the 18th Battalion of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force against the might of Erwin Rommel's ...

The dramatic disappearance and subsequent death of socialite and art critic William Bond Walshe when his pleasure cruiser The Owl was wrecked off the Devon coast was neither an accident, nor a random killing. It was a premeditated and precise act of murder planned by much sought after criminal Glenys Hasting. Glenys had fled New Zealand with hundreds of millions of NZ dollars accrued by a syndicate of criminals who themselves were unable to avoid the law before paying the ultimate ...

Charlie Lampton was a star; Master of the House and as he proclaimed on stage, 'the best innkeeper in town,' but he was a slave to his destiny as he lost his wife through a ruptured marriage, his house through the pressure of a massive mortgage and everything he owned to the hands of thieves. With life at its lowest things were destined to get worse when his best friend and theatrical understudy died in suspicious circumstances. It was then a chance meeting with retired Sydney poli...

In retirement in Winter's Song sheltered accommodation fot the aged Adam Mulberry found each of his aged companions had an untold story to tell. Fascinating anthologies of their life experiences, which he slowly extracted from them as respect and confidence grew between them. It had been hard at first, but gradually for many of them Adam had compiled a file of their personal happenings in his laptop. Each of these senior persons was a walking history book which in some cases went b...

Brad Mason had never known a father's love. Whenever he raised the question his mother's answer was always the same. 'He was a good man.' Tilly Mason was a hooker on Kings Cross. Brad left Sydney on her death to seek seclusion in the outback of Australia. Trees, a paddock, a stream, no electricity, and no people, all this enabled him to fulfil his dream; play guitar and paint. His landscapes were good. Lester Arnold, an ex-patriot Nashville musician, recognised the potential of Bra...

From London to New Zealand Laurie Davidson spent twenty five years travelling the world with his guitar pumping out his music as a busker on the cobbles and in the markets, wearing the personal injustice heaped upon him like a badge of honour. There was no other way. He was a proud man and took the social rejections on the chin, picked himself up and was straight back into it. When down and out there was but one way for him to go and that was up and he wouldn't be stopped. Four years of pr...

His dream was Eden Park - Number 10 jersey. His nightmare Mt Eden Prison - cell block 10 with a promising All Black rugby career shattered. A sentence of a life behind bars can do much to change a man's thinking. 'A grave miscarriage of justice,' were the words on the paper the Minister of Justice had handed to Terry Stamp when it was decided after fourteen years of incarceration he had not killed his wife. 'Go home, my man. Start your life again. You have plenty of good years rema...