
Better the Blood
Hana Westerman, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Miriama McDowell
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Richard Te Are
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By:
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Michael Bennett
An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Maori screenwriter and director
A tenacious Maori 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 Maori Chief.
Hana realizes that the murders are utu—the Maori 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.
©2023 Michael Bennett (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, UKListeners also enjoyed...




















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Although i have doubts about the effectiveness of love & words in dismantling a system built on violence where words have been used mostly to justify the actions of colonizers all over the world, this novel did paint a picture of how personal forgiveness should be sought & given & backed by actions that actually mean that the same offense will not be made by that person.
The narrators were wonderful & the fluent use of te reo Māori made the book shine even brighter as performed.
Also loved that the characters were multi-generational, allowing for many povs of the same situation. This really filled out the dimensions of the story as too often, making room for alternate views that felt truly organic & unforced.
all in all, 10/10 - would highly recommend :)
Colonialism Is The Real Villain
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Great book , well told
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Excellent story by a new author
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Captivating and thought-provoking.
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characters and setting
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Well Worth the time. Wonderful Novel
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Fantastic book!
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What it means to be Maori
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Enlightening
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A good mystery from a land far from my own
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