{"title":"Michael Bennett","description":"MICHAEL BENNETT (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. He is the author of the crime novel Better the Blood and the nonfiction book In Dark Places, both of which won Ngaio Marsh awards, making him the first writer to win the award for both fiction and nonfiction. He is also the author of the young adult graphic novel Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas which, along with Better the Blood, was a finalist for the New Zealand Book Award.","products":[{"product_id":"return-to-blood-a-hana-westerman-thriller-paperback","title":"Return to Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eBetter the Blood\u003c\/i\u003e, the gripping second novel in a crime series starring Māori detective Hana Westerman, in which the discovery of human bones in the dunes of New Zealand upends a long-ago murder conviction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter 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 Tātā 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 Paige, a high school classmate who was murdered more than twenty years ago and hidden in the dunes overlooking the sea. A Māori man with a previous record was convicted of the crime, although Eru never believed he was guilty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen her daughter finds another young woman's skeleton in the sands, Hana soon finds herself awkwardly involved. Investigators suspect that this is Kiri Thomas, a young Māori 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eExpanding the range of vivid characters who made Michael Bennett's first book, \u003ci\u003eBetter the Blood\u003c\/i\u003e, so appealing, and offering a shocking twist at the end, \u003ci\u003eReturn to Blood\u003c\/i\u003e takes readers further into Māori culture and traditions as it engages us more deeply into the story of Hana Westerman.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102775677151,"sku":"9780802165299","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/PV9K6LL0At9780802165299.webp?v=1781087335"},{"product_id":"carved-in-blood-a-hana-westerman-thriller-hardcover","title":"Carved in Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Barry Award nominee and Ngaio Marsh Award winner of \u003ci\u003eBetter the Blood\u003c\/i\u003e, a new thriller bringing danger ever closer to Hana Westerman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Detective Inspector Jaye Hamilton stops at an Auckland liquor store for a bottle of champagne, it is supposed to be celebratory: his daughter Addison has just gotten engaged. Instead, he is suddenly gunned down at the register by a balaclava-clad assailant in what appears at first to be a random act. The getaway car is quickly recovered, containing the cell phone of a young Māori man, Toa Davis, who is immediately the object of an all-out police search.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJaye's ex-wife, former Māori detective Hana Westerman, asks in on the investigation. Her instincts suggest that the vehicle was meant to be found, and that Jaye had been targeted. The gun used in the assault is distinctive, and she learns that a local gang leader, Erwin Rendall--who had threatened Hana in the past--owns such a weapon. After Davis turns up dead, the hunt for Rendall is on. When he slips through the dragnet and escapes the country, and in the wake of Jaye's death, Hana decides to rejoin the force, acknowledging that she now has unfinished business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSkillfully plotted, inviting readers ever further into the appreciation of Māori culture, and with vibrant characters determined to overcome tragedy with resolve, \u003ci\u003eCarved in Blood\u003c\/i\u003e takes Michael Bennett's highly-praised series to new heights.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102835511519,"sku":"9780802164544","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/lhiuqOa2_r9780802164544.webp?v=1781087445"},{"product_id":"better-the-blood-a-hana-westerman-thriller-paperback","title":"Better the Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand's indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Māori screenwriter and director\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA 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 \u003ci\u003eutu\u003c\/i\u003e--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, \u003ci\u003eBetter the Blood \u003c\/i\u003eis the debut of a remarkable new talent in crime fiction.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50104841306335,"sku":"9780802162656","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/WGM_5rui-09780802162656.webp?v=1781111427"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/michael-bennett.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}