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4.0 

Return to Blood

By Michael Bennett
Return to Blood by Michael Bennett digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

From the author of Better the Blood, the gripping second novel in a crime series starring Māori detective Hana Westerman, in which the discovery of human bones in the dunes of New Zealand upends a long-ago murder conviction

After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career as a detective in the Auckland CIB. Hoping that civilian life will offer her the opportunity to rest and recalibrate, she returns to her hometown of Tātā Bay, where she moves back in with her beloved father, Eru. Yet the memories of the past are everywhere, and as she goes for her daily run on the beach, Hana passes a local monument to Paige, a high school classmate who was murdered more than twenty years ago and hidden in the dunes overlooking the sea. A Māori man with a previous record was convicted of the crime, although Eru never believed he was guilty.

When her daughter finds another young woman’s skeleton in the sands, Hana soon finds herself awkwardly involved. Investigators suspect that this is Kiri Thomas, a young Māori woman who disappeared four years earlier, after battling years of drug addiction. Hana and her daughter Addison are increasingly captivated by the story behind this unsolved crime, but without the official police force behind her, Hana must risk compromising her own peace and relationships if justice is to be served.

Expanding the range of vivid characters who made Michael Bennett’s first book, Better the Blood, so appealing, and offering a shocking twist at the end, Return to Blood takes readers further into Māori culture and traditions as it engages us more deeply into the story of Hana Westerman.

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22 Reviews

4.0
“A thriller set in rural New Zealand Tātā Bay two hours from Auckland, we follow three + timelines. The first takes place about 5 years before the current one and follows Kiri, a girl who gets caught up in drugs and is murdered. In the other we follow Hana, a former detective, mother to 18 year old Addison and close with her dad, Eru. When she was young, a young girl Paige Meadows was murdered. On a walk her daughter finds a dead body (Kiri), and Hana gets sucked back into trying to help solve the crime. All three are Māori, there are Māori words and terms interspersed (with a translation), which really adds to the authenticity of the story and the setting. I think going to deeper into the Māori world and practices is really what makes this book shine. I really appreciate the well balanced non-binary character PLUS 1, who is Addisons friend. The book is mostly narrated by Hana and Kiri (which makes sense), and interspersed with Addison, but then sometimes we get small bits written from other characters which feels messy. Some characters aren’t as well developed unfortunately. The murder investigation isn’t as well paced and the end feels rushed. I would read another book by the author that wasn’t a thriller.”

About Michael Bennett

MICHAEL BENNETT (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. He is the author of the crime novel Better the Blood and the nonfiction book In Dark Places, both of which won Ngaio Marsh awards, making him the first writer to win the award for both fiction and nonfiction. He is also the author of the young adult graphic novel Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas which, along with Better the Blood, was a finalist for the New Zealand Book Award.

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