Review: The Policewoman by Justin W.M. Roberts
★★★★ 
Most novels set in the future have some element of distance to them, where the technological advancement or dystopian elements are so far removed from the present that the book becomes escapist in nature. However, there are also those books, like The Policewoman by Justin Roberts, that paint a portrait of the world that may lie in our not-so-distant future. The dramatic, over-the-top elements of this novel are certainly evidence of the author trying to make an impact, but there is still a grisly realism to the tale that will leave readers haunted and jumpy long after they finish […]
Wine Into Water by Ray Keating finds Pastor Stephen Grant navigating the treacherous world of counterfeit winemaking. A student of wine himself back in his CIA days, Grant is tasked with uncovering a counterfeit ring, which also involves dead restaurateurs, as well as members of his investigative team. Part thriller and part mystery, Wine into Water is full of action, suspense and an electric cast of characters – both villainous and heroic – that will satisfy fans of crime thrillers.
Author Finn Bell’s exciting New Zealand thriller about a missing girl and a suicidal disabled man on a mission opens with a quote from Hitler about God. This powerful start is surprisingly the exact scene-setter for what can only be described as an unforgettable, cutthroat fable that examines ego and self-obsession in the face of murder. All of this in a book set in New Zealand, it’s unlikely readers will have picked up anything quite so original in this genre for some time.
The Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. Devine is a terrorist thriller following Matt Couper, a security contractor who’s stationed in Iraq in 2003. There he saves the life of Tara Nasrim, an Assyrian teenager, a memory which haunts him years later. When she shows up in New Zealand five years later, their lives become as complicated as war-torn Iraq – thrust into a struggle with a Islamic terrorism. It’s a book about the power of faith versus the seductive pull for many of fundamentalist dogma, and how to maintain love in this increasingly complicated and dangerous world.
