Recently arrived fiction from Aotearoa New Zealand
New Zealand authors have had a rich and varied 2025, and we're starting the new year on a high note with a selection of cosy mysteries, fantasy, domestic dramas and crime. Enjoy!
Three dogs, two murders, and a cat - Rodney Strong
Getting in on the cosy crime juggernaut, this is a light by engaging whodunnit set in Wellington, that introduces Nicolette Briggs, a detective who 'doesn't do humans'. Specialising in cases of animal cruelty and missing pets, Nicolette's quiet life is disrupted when a poisoned cat case spirals into a double homicide investigation. A mystery that deftly balances quirky characters with the genuine tension of a police procedural. If you're a fan of Richard Osman, S.J Bennett or Rita Mae Brown, this local addition to the genre is a must read.
Hoods landing - Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi)
Gathered for Christmas in the rural fringes somewhere south of Auckland, the Gordon women navigate a familiar dance of friction and comfort, but this year, the air is heavy with a secret: Rita is preparing to tell them she has cancer. Moving fluidly between the ghosts of the past and an uncertain present, Hoods Landing captures the tapestry of rural New Zealand life, a polished and thoughtful debut.
To bleed a crystal bloom - Sarah A. Parker
Orlaith, a trauma survivor encased in crystal as a child, lives in isolation at Castle Noir under the protection of the High Master, Rhordyn. Their toxic, highly-angsty relationship centres on a daily ritual where she provides him a drop of her mysterious blood. Plagued by PTSD, Orlaith is confined by her own fears, treating her protective tower as a mental prison but as political pressures mount, she is forced to confront the world and a demanding suitor. Another dark reimagining, this time of the Rapunzel fairytale, and the first in a new series from the author of the Moonfall series.
A far better thing - H.G. Parry
Sydney Carton was stolen by the faeries as a child and forced into a life of servitude to the cruel Faery Realm. The kind-hearted Charles Darnay is the changeling left in his place. Shuttling between London and revolutionary Paris during the Reign of Terror, a bitter and self-loathing Carton sees a chance for revenge against the fae who ruined his life. His actions are driven by love for Lucie Manette and a desire to right the generational wrongs caused by the fae's interferences. Parry, a New Zealand author of several successful fantasy novels blends historical fiction with traditional, ruthless faerie lore in this reimagining of Dickens', A Tale of Two Cities.
All her lives - Ingrid Horrocks
Horrocks centres her first work of fiction around the 18th-century feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, whose historical struggle for autonomy serves as a lighthouse for the modern characters. An intergenerational short-story collection that acts as a profound meditation on womanhood across three centuries, with a narrative spanning from 1795 to the present day, weaving together the lives of diverse women—from a WWI nurse returning to a New Zealand farm to a queer student in 2000s Berlin.
A gap in nature - Elspeth Sandys
The story begins in the aftermath of WWII in a small North Island community. May Nicholls, an English immigrant, becomes emotionally distant from her husband upon his return from the war, focusing her entire world on her young son, David. This intense, suffocating bond eventually causes David to flee to London in the 1960s to start a career in television and decades later, David's daughter Chloe travels to New Zealand to uncover the truth about the father she never really knew, to piece together the gaps in her family history, and break the cycle of trauma. Sandys, the author of multiple novels, two memoirs, short story collections and plays turns to writing to process her own trauma, perhaps making her the perfect person to write about breaking the intergenerational cycle.
The humiliation of Millicent Salmond - Jenny Lynch
A darkly witty collection of 22 short stories by Jenny Lynch, the former editor of the NZ Woman’s Weekly. Moving away from her journalistic roots, Lynch explores the darker corners of human behaviour through stories ranging from a fed-up housewife plotting a heart-attack-by-menu to a domestic tyrant’s shocking discovery and a calculating cat named Dick Turpin. Each tale is designed with a sharp 'sting in the tail' and a heavy dose of sly, observational humour.
Such a perfect family - Nalini Singh
In Such a Perfect Family, Tavish returns from an errand to find the Prasad family home in flames, his new wife, Diya, barely alive with multiple stab wounds, while the rest of the family is presumed dead. As the sole outsider and a man with three former lovers who died under suspicious circumstances, Tavish becomes the prime suspect. To clear his name, he must investigate the Prasads himself, discovering that their perfect façade hides a rot far darker than his own secrets. In between writing some of the world's favourite paranormal romance novels, Singh also pens fantastic, edge-of-your-seat crime novels.
