Better The Blood

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.

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF BETTER THE BLOOD COMES ANOTHER CASE FOR NEW ZEALAND'S BEST INVESTIGATOR, HANA WESTERMAN. ‘Another cracking, page-turning journey into another culture’ VAL McDERMID Two murders. Two decades apart. One chance to get justice. Hana Westerman has left Auckland and her career as a detective behind her. Settled in a quiet coastal town, all she wants is a fresh start. The discovery of a skeleton in the dunes near her house changes everything. The remains are those of a young Māori woman who went missing four years before, and Hana has a connection to the case. Twenty years ago, a schoolfriend of hers was found buried in the exact same spot. Her killer died in prison, but did the police get the wrong man? And if he was innocent, then why did he plead guilty? No longer part of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Hana turns to her ex-husband Jaye, a high-flying Detective Inspector, for help. But when he cuts her out of the investigation, she realises that she will have to find the answers she needs on her own. But in digging deeper, she sets herself on a potentially fatal collision course with a killer. PRAISE FOR BETTER THE BLOOD: 'A tensely plotted, gritty crime novel that has the courage to force us all to rethink our relationship with the past' Vaseem Khan 'Stunning . . . a gripping mystery, complex and memorable characters, and timely social and cultural commentary. Don’t miss it' David Heska Wanbli Weiden 'As page-turning as it is eye-opening' Ambrose Parry 'Opens a unique window onto a fascinating Antipodean society as only world-class crime fiction can' Deon Meyer 'A striking debut and a significant addition to Indigenous literature' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) '[A] stellar series launch. Bennett is a writer to watch' Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'A remarkable new detective' Daily Mail '[A] highly addictive read' My Weekly 'So chilling' Crime Monthly

Teenage polio survivor Rowan Collier is caught in the crossfire of a secret war against "the unfit." It's 1922, and eugenics—the movement dedicated to racial purity and good breeding—has taken hold in America. State laws allow institutions to sterilize minorities, the "feeble-minded," and the poor, while local eugenics councils set up exhibits at county fairs with "fitter family" contests and propaganda. After years of being confined to hospitals, Rowan is recruited at sixteen to play a born cripple in a county fair eugenics exhibit. But gutsy, outspoken Dorchy befriends Rowan and helps her realize her own inner strength and bravery. The two escape the fair and end up at a summer camp on a desolate island run by the New England Eugenics Council. There they discover something is happening to the children. Rowan must find a way to stop the horrors on the island...if she can escape them herself.

THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES • Everyone is talking about A Good Girl's Guide to Murder! With shades of Serial and Making a Murderer this is the story about an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect. Everyone in Fairview knows the story. Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger. And don't miss the sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood! "The perfect nail-biting mystery." —Natasha Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Selected for The Globe 100 Books in 2013. With the 2013 CBC Massey Lectures, bestselling author Lawrence Hill offers a provocative examination of the scientific and social history of blood, and on the ways that it unites and divides us today. Blood runs red through every person’s arteries and fulfills the same functions in every human being. The study of blood has advanced our understanding of biology and improved medical treatments, but its cultural and social representations have divided us perennially. Blood pulses through religion, literature, and the visual arts. Every time it pools or spills, we learn a little more about what brings human beings together and what pulls us apart. For centuries, perceptions of difference in our blood have separated people on the basis of gender, race, class, and nation. Ideas about blood purity have spawned rules about who gets to belong to a family or cultural group, who enjoys the rights of citizenship and nationality, what privileges one can expect to be granted or denied, whether you inherit poverty or the right to rule over the masses, what constitutes fair play in sport, and what defines a person’s identity. Blood: The Stuff of Life is a bold meditation on blood as an historical and contemporary marker of identity, belonging, gender, race, class, citizenship, athletic superiority, and nationhood.

We would like to share a wild idea with you. An idea that holds immense beauty. The essence of it is not new, by all accounts it is an ancient concept, but it has been forgotten. In our ever-changing world and with encyclopedias of knowledge at our fingertips, this wisdom has slipped through the fingers of collective consciousness. The idea is wonderful in its simplicity, life-changing in potential and is this: women are cyclical. A woman's body and mind experience regular biological changes every month and these cause very real shifts in energy, emotions, and even perspectives. Whether or not anyone is aware of this beautiful process, it is unfolding every day in the life of every woman. We invite you to let the BLOOD book take you on an inner journey of discovery as we explore the secret source of female power: a woman's cyclical nature. A deeper understanding of these forces will unlock superpowers you never thought possible and pave the way to a more balanced, authentic, fulfilling life.

A prince, a miscreant, a warrior, a workaholic & one wild werewolf.Karter's been nothing but trouble since the day he learned to walk. A werewolf with a knack for f@#$*ng s#%t up, he's caused so much trouble that even his pack is tired of dealing with it. With his pack done bailing him out, Karter is left alone and with no one to care. If he doesn't get his life in order, he'll end up dead.When he's dragged in by the people who will happily put a silver bullet in his head, they give him an opportunity instead of death... to feed vampires -- aka a walking blood bank. To feed the enemy is unheard of, but with nowhere else to turn he reluctantly goes. Four vampires and one werewolf. What should be a disaster may turn into something so much more.Why can't he stop craving things that no werewolf should crave from bloodsuckers?(Warning graphic language for 18+, gay Paranormal haram, graphic scenes, vampire take on blood play㈴1;)

Includes Blood Debt and Blood Bank.