Better the Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller

Better the Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller

Winner of the Ngaio Marsh First Novel Award An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Māori screenwriter and director A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to an historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Māori Chief. Hana realizes that the murders are utu —the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer. The pursuit soon becomes frighteningly personal, recalling the painful event, two decades before, when Hana, then a new cop, was part of a police team sent to end by force a land rights occupation by indigenous peoples on the same ancestral mountain where the Chief was killed, calling once more into question her loyalty to her roots. Worse still, a genealogical link to the British soldiers brings the case terrifyingly close to Hana’s own family. Twisty and thought-provoking, Better the Blood is the debut of a remarkable new talent in crime fiction. Praise for Better the Blood: Winner of the Ngaio Marsh First Novel Award Shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Barry Award Finalist for Best First Mystery or Crime Novel Longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine Named a Best Book of the Month by Amazon (Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense) “Michael Bennett’s crime fiction debut explores themes of colonization and Indigenous culture by way of New Zealand. A serial killer looking to avenge the 160-year-old murder of a Maori chief is pursued by police detective Hana Westerman, whose Maori ancestry makes the case personal.”— Christian Science Monitor “Stunning . . . With an incisive close third-person narration that digs into the thoughts and feelings of all of the players, the story commands attention from start to spectacular finish.”— Oprah Daily “A stunning and completely unique debut thriller . . . I cannot speak more highly of Michael Bennett’s ability as a writer to share his own heritage within the guise of a page-turning thriller that will keep you guessing, along with teaching you some little-known New Zealand history. I can only hope that this is the start of a wonderful and long-running series.”— Book Reporter “A stunning debut . . . Written with a sure hand . . . With perfect pacing and characters that gain detail and focus, Better the Blood is an excellent read . . . The beginning of a series to watch by a writer to savor.”— Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine “Thoroughly absorbing . . . Bennett writes about Māori culture and history with generosity and care, reflected in the final acknowledgments paid to those in his community who lent him additional insights and guidance. He also crafts a compelling detective in Hana Westerman . . . Under Bennett's strong command of tension in all directions, Better the Blood is a magnificently arranged confrontation with histories personal and public.”— Shelf Awareness “ Better the Blood is an astonishing debut novel, full of twists and vivid characters, but also with much more on its mind. It is a deep exploration into cultural identity and justice, into the unbreakable bonds between the present and the past. It captures a voice like none you have read before, and it’ll keep you thinking even as you rapidly turn the pages to its devastating conclusion.”— BookTrib “Extraordinary . . . Outstanding . . . The characters are exceptional, their motives and doubts all so magnificently drawn, so many of them strangers in a strange land in their own land.”— Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Press “A captivating crime story, an informative exploration of Maori culture through their history and language, and a pressurized (and very contemporary) family drama between mother and daughter.”— ArtsFuse “When it comes to thrillers, I am hard to please. But Michael Bennett’s new novel Better the Blood amazed me. I cannot wait to read more . . . Captivating . . . Stunningly good.”— Ashley Riggleson, The Free Lance-Star “A stellar series launch set in contemporary New Zealand . . . The narrative moves at a quick pace. Immersed in modern-day technologies and with a keen sensitivity to cultural issues, this is a finely crafted page-turner.