The Children’s Pond
Tina Shaw
Pointer Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780473274023
The Faceless
Vanda Symon
Penguin Books, $30.00, ISBN 9780143567202
I am Rebecca
Fleur Beale
Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9781775535492
These books form a disparate collection apparently linked only by the words “compelling” and “thriller” appearing on the dustjackets of each, words which mislead and possibly confuse rather than inform. All three do have an element of suspense, and so become thrillers in the broadest sense, but the real link is that they are totally compelling in very different ways. Jennifer Lawn has identified New Zealand’s burgeoning crime scene, noting that our crime writers use fully realised local settings with confidence and it is, in part, the development of the settings which unites these three books.