“The Spanish Garden is about memory and how it serves and deceives us. It is about the casualties of war, both the dead and the living, and the need to acknowledge the unnamed and the disappeared. It is about buried secrets and their patient wait to be told. “But it is also about the beauty of places which unite people, and how we are marked for life by the youthful experience of intense love and passion, even, or especially, when it is lost.” One day, one life, one hundred years. On a hot summer morning, in a garden overlooking the Kaipara Harbour, Sidney King reluctantly prepares to mark his 100th birthday. In the same moment, on the opposite side of the world in Spain, a discovery is made which could unlock a mystery that has haunted him for 80 years. Volunteers disinterring skeletons of Spanish Civil War victims unearth a locket which has its own story to tell. As the day’s tides advance and recede and visitors, welcome and unwelcome, arrive and depart, the old man walks with his ghosts, reliving episodes from his long life. He is also forced to confront, for the first time, the secrets buried within the land upon which he has created his famous garden. Set on a single day in 2016, in a time when the deadly political divisions of the past are being redrawn, The Spanish Garden tells a story of memory and loss, the generational impact of war, the fatal history shared between two families, Pākehā and Māori, and a man’s enduring obsession with love.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 10-05-2023

Move over, Jack Reacher, here comes Frank Winter The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America carries the Double Jeopardy clause. This states that no man, having been acquitted of a crime, shall be tried a second time for the same crime. Frank Winter, a retired county sheriff and former hard-boiled Boston detective with a soft center, is living in curmudgeonly retirement with his beloved dog, Dolly. But when his daughter’s killer is released on parole, Frank’s back, a man on a mission, and it’s yesterday once more. But first, Frank’s got a bunch of favours to call in. Throw in a rookie minder cop who’s great with computers but scared of guns, and help from the desirable Destiny, whose past is even murkier than Frank’s… well, you just know things will go according to plan. Strong characters, well-paced action, dark humour and cracking dialogue make Double Jeopardy an old-school crime novel with a surprisingly modern twist.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 264

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 24-05-2023

Dunedin, 1890: Suddenly orphaned at the tender age of twenty, Greer Gillies is reduced to working as a humble servant at Larnach Castle, a far cry from the dreams she held before. As she struggles with the stark reality of grief, she finds her journey has only just begun as the decade proves transformative for women’s progress. As she grapples with affairs of the heart, betrayal, the threat of lost love and social upheavals, Greer’s resilience shines through. She becomes a symbol of courage, daring to pursue her dreams, follow her heart and find her place in a world that promises a better future. Spanning the last decade of the 19th century, this page-turning saga explores the healing power of friendship while celebrating the pivotal role women played in one of New Zealand’s most turbulent eras.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 11-03-2024

THE CHILLING NEW MASTERWORK FROM THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER* Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King's most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a Midwestern town. Stephen King's HOLLY marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly's gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr Mercedes to Bill Hodges's partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King's new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries. When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl's desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harbouring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie's disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmanoeuvre the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King. 'I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr

Bind: paperback

Pages: 448

Dimensions: 253 x 151 mm

Publication Date: 05-09-2023

Criminal psychologist Nellie Prayle loves solving murders. The more complicated, the better. But when a professor of astronomy is found dead at Tekapo’s Mt John Observatory during its internationally-attended 50th anniversary conference celebrations and Detective Jack Simmons calls on Nellie to help with the police investigation, she soon realises that this is not your typical murder – and nor are these your usual suspects. As Nellie and Jack venture into the Dark Sky Reserve in Aotearoa New Zealand’s beautiful Mackenzie Country, they uncover a universe of rivalries, infidelities and emotional turmoil that pushes people to the edge. International intrigue and a tangle of motives unfold against a glittering backdrop of bright stars in this gripping tale of crime and passion, and as Nellie knows only too well, nothing in the world of academia is straightforward...

Bind: paperback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 22-03-2024

1943 Bletchley Park, England Mae Webster, immersed in the clandestine world of codebreaking at Bletchley Park, is recruited to help unveil a spy who's on the brink of exposing Britain's most guarded secret: the cracking of the Enigma code. As war rages around her; Mae's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in love with the enigmatic New Zealand war photographer Jack Knight. Their relationship develops at pace, but tragedy strikes when one of Jack's photographs risks unmasking an elusive double agent. 1989 Belin, Germany Rachel Talbot, a globetrotting photojournalist, ventures into the heart of a fractured Berlin in search of the Stasi officer whom her beloved grandmother Mae blames for betraying their family. Rachel finds herself entangled in the East German uprising and is irresistibly drawn to a charismatic activist. As the Cold War threatens to boil over, Rachel races to expose a traitor before it's too late.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 372

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 23-02-2024

If one considers what happened in war-time Greece in 1941 to have been the curtain-raiser, then the subsequent battle in Crete can best be described as the main event. This sequel to the well-received The Rabbit Hunter again focuses on Second Lieutenant Neil Rankin and his platoon of fictional soldiers from the New Zealand Division as they are pitched headlong into the real events of the Battle of Crete. A largely New Zealand affair under the command of a New Zealand general with the key sector held by New Zealand troops, it could even be seen as Hitler’s first defeat. When the battle opens, it is man against man, individuals pitting their wits against an implacable enemy, resulting in the New Zealand soldiers suffering the kind of reaction that is now internationally recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both thrilling and tragic, The Battle of Crete sets the bar for realism in war fiction.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 456

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 18-03-2024

Over a long, hot Christmas in Australia, Throwing Muses frontwoman and critically acclaimed solo artist Kristin Hersh considers her future as a songwriter, asking herself questions such as, is it possible to create music and not show off about it? How can artists establish and refine a following without becoming part of the commercial problem? And just how many times is it healthy to watch It's a Wonderful Life in three weeks? In The Future of Songwriting, Hersh chooses to interrogate these questions through dialogue. From in-depth conversations with a comedian friend about the similarities between songs and jokes, via fruitful visit to Sydney's 'bone museums', to a revelation from a herbal healer in New Orleans, she delivers a fierce, funny and existential meditation on the art of the song - and its future.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 128

Dimensions: 114 x 178 mm

Publication Date: 22-02-2024

Isaac Newton was a man driven by a passion to unlock the secrets of the universe. But those were God’s secrets, and in the 1660s, England was a dangerous place for a young scholar who dared to challenge God’s supremacy – a world that also believed in the devil and the power of magic. But Isaac’s quest to understand the universe would not be silenced, even when tempted by darker impulses and a passion for Alice Cutler, whose life is threatened by a disciple of the Witchfinder General. A desperate Isaac, a seeker of knowledge but also a young man in love and fearing his life is falling apart, is driven to scientific creation and choices with fatal outcomes. This beautifully imagined novel examines one of our great historical myths and follows Newton’s path to becoming the Greene Lyon, alchemy’s symbolic creature who devours the sun. A compelling story that explores the tensions between the thirst for knowledge and the consequences of desire, Greene Lyon will haunt you long after the apple has fallen from the tree.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 30-05-2024

Landfall is New Zealand’s foremost and longest-running arts and literary journal. Published twice a year, each volume showcases two full-colour art portfolios and brims with vital new fiction, poetry, cultural commentary, reviews, and biographical and critical essays. Bringing together a range of voices and perspectives, from established practitioners to emerging talents, Landfall is an exciting anthology that has its finger on the pulse of innovation and creativity in Aotearoa today. Landfall 247: Autumn 2024 announces the winner of the Landfall Young Writers’ Essay Competition, an annual competition that encourages young, up-and-coming writers to explore the world around them through words. Landfall 247 will feature the winning essay, alongside the judge’s report from Landfall editor, Lynley Edmeades. Landfall 247 also includes essays from the 2024 collaboration between Landfall and RMIT University’s nonfiction/Lab. These trans-Tasman essays, written in collaboration between New Zealand and Australian writers, focus on the theme of ‘making space,’ and what it means to use writing as a tool to create space for different voices, perspectives and ideas.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 208

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 27-05-2024