Porteous, A. A Political Affair. Calderdale: Kinglake Publishing, 2010
Andrew Porteous was a library assistant in the University of Otago Science Library when he wrote A Political Affair, which won the Kinglake Publishing Unpublished Author Award in 2010. Porteous had been writing plays for a number of years but decided on a whim to ‘have a go’ at a crime novel. Porteous’ Detective Lachlan Doyle investigates the high profile death of a young woman at the Prime Minister’s holiday home at Portobello. Doyle is expected to close the case quickly but his suspicions are aroused.
In Jane Woodham’s Twister a flu epidemic has struck Dunedin leaving a depleted police force. When a twister causes damage and flooding the body of a young girl is found exposed in Ross Creek Reservoir. Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd must investigate even though he has not yet recovered from the disappearance of his own daughter some years before. Woodham’s Dunedin is well drawn and very recognisable, from the characters to the geographical accuracy.
