New Zealand Ideal Setting for Mystery

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh, 46, makes the case for New Zealand’s place atop the world of mystery and thrillers, in a story published by CrimeReads.

“Several years ago, I was sitting in a café with a group of fellow New Zealand writers, discussing books we’d recently read,” Fiji-born Singh writes. “With several of us, me included, working on thriller or suspense projects, we meandered onto the subject of thrillers and mysteries set in Iceland, as well as Norway and neighbouring countries.

“And it struck us that New Zealand covers all the same bases as a setting for noir.

“What better place to set a thriller than this isolated group of islands in the Pacific so far from the rest of the world that it is a mystery in and of itself?

“My first thriller, A Madness of Sunshine, was partially inspired by a moment of aloneness I witnessed from the window seat of a bus traveling from one remote South Island town to another.”

Original articles by Nalini Singh, CrimeReads, November 21, 2023.