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Better the Blood

Hana Westerman: Book #1

by Michael Bennett

Length 9 hours 10 minutes

Language English

Narrators Richard Te Are & Miriama McDowell

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Bookseller recommendation

“What an intelligent, absorbing crime story! This is not just a captivating murder story set in New Zealand, it also dives deep into Māori tribal history and cultural identity. It’s like nothing I’ve read before - so good! A page-turner.”
— Anne • Newtonville Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Intense thriller with important history of colonization in Auckland, NZ and it's on-going effect on the brave, proud, and spiritual Maori people. Loved the thrill of the search for a serial killer by Hana Westerman, as well as the complexities of a mixed race family in current times. Author Michael Bennett does a beautiful job of creating empathy/understanding for characters - both 'good' and 'bad'. Readers Miriama McDowell and Richard Te Are were fantastic. Enjoyed on so many levels.”
— Kappy • HearthFire Books

Bookseller recommendation

“A spine chilling crime thriller set in Auckland NZ. It shows the history of injustices to the Mauri people and how those injustices continue in the present. It is a look at how the history has affected Hana Westerman, a female Mauri detective, who has risen in the ranks thanks partly because she toed the blue line 18 years earlier in action during a peaceful Mauri protest. This is a look at privilege, prejudice, family and choices against the background of a search for a serial killer.”
— Nancy • Fiction Addiction

Bookseller recommendation

“A grisly murder mystery with ties to early British colonialism in Aotearoa. Starts a little slow, but by the end, I couldn't listen to it fast enough! Definitely recommend for a Māori thriller/mystery - I can't wait for more installments in this series! ”
— Lauren • Chapterhouse Books

Bookseller recommendation

“I absolutely inhaled this book about a no-nonsense Maori detective who finds herself on the trail of New Zealand's first serial killer. It's an incredibly smart, chilling, and ultimately compassionate thriller about how the crimes of our ancestors can trickle down to poison the present with violence and how the decisions we make in the most pivotal moments stay with us throughout the years. It blends all the best hallmarks of a crime novel with a clear-eyed vision for what a thriller can be, and I cannot wait to read more of Hana Westerman's story.”
— Rebecca • Quail Ridge Books

Summary

An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Maori screenwriter and directorA tenacious Maori detective, Hana Westerman is juggling 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 a historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Maori chief.Hana recognizes the murders as utu—the Maori tradition of rebalancing, whether for a personal slight or, now, for a 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 realizes she is 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 questionher 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 thoughtprovoking, Better the Blood is the debut of a remarkable new talent in crime fiction.

Fiction Mystery & Thriller