Return to Blood : from the award-winning author of BETTER THE BLOOD comes the gripping new Hana Westerman thriller

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 From the author of Better the Blood, the gripping second novel in a crime series starring Mori detective Hana Westerman, in which the discovery of human bones in the dunes of New Zealand upends a long-ago murder conviction. After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career as a detective in the Auckland CIB. Hoping that civilian life will offer her the opportunity to rest and recalibrate, she returns to her hometown of Tt Bay, where she moves back in with her beloved father, Eru. Yet the memories of the past are everywhere, and as she goes for her daily run on the beach, Hana passes a local monument to Grace, a high school classmate who was murdered more than twenty years ago and hidden in the dunes overlooking the sea. A Mori man with a previous record was convicted of the crime, although Eru never believed he was guilty. When her daughter finds another young womans skeleton in the sands, Hana soon finds herself awkwardly involved. Investigators suspect that this is Kiri Thomas, a young Mori woman who disappeared four years earlier, after battling years of drug addiction. Hana and her daughter Addison are increasingly captivated by the story behind this unsolved crime, but without the official police force behind her, Hana must risk compromising her own peace and relationships if justice is to be served. Expanding the range of vivid characters who made Michael Bennetts first book, Better the Blood, so appealing, and offering a shocking twist at the end, Return to Blood takes readers further into Mori culture and traditions as it engages us more deeply into the story of Hana Westerman