Hunting Blind | Paddy Richardson

I'm so glad I've discovered this author. Richardson is a Newzealander, writing from the city of Dunedin and she has set this gripping story in familiar territory around the city of Dunedin, Central Otago, Kaikoura and the West Coast.
It is the story of a family in Wanaka,who at a school picnic, lose Gemma their four-year old daughter. It is devastating for the family and the community. No trace of her is ever found and the general belief is that she drowned in the lake. Stephanie, her older sister, becomes the main narrator of the rest of the book as she studies in the city of Dunedin to become a Psychiatrist. In one of her rounds she comes across a woman who eventually reveals her sister disappeared in the middle of the night and was feared drowned. She mentions a teacher who was friends of the family at the time...on a hunch Stephanie takes leave from work and wanders around the South Island hoping to answer some questions and come to terms with what she fears happened to Gemma. It is totally gripping and I couldn't put it down.
Totally engaging, intelligent and gripping (what DID happen?) this book is very well written. For those who have traveled in the South Island, the landscapes, town and cities described are familiar and the story takes on different dimension for being so recognizably set in New Zealand. I highly recommend this story and will look for her other books to read.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Tinkers | Paul Harding

This is the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I try and read as many Pulitzer winners as I can so I can 'meet' authors I may not have read before. With 'Tinkers" I was underwhelmed. It describes the last few days of George's life where he is bed ridden and surrounded by relatives. He drifts in and out of consciousness and in the drifting revisits his life's story and more poignantly his relationship with his father, Howard.
George grew up on a New England farm which just made ends meet. His brother Jo seems to have had some mental illness, his mother worked hard to keep things going with the help of George and his two sisters. The Howard was an itinerant salesman to rural properties and suffered from epilepsy. Whether it was this illness or another condition is unclear but he had weird sensory hallucinations which he wrote in a notebook as he traveled through the countryside. He also muses a lot on his own father, a preacher whose mental state deteriorates to the point where he tells his congregation the Devil isn't all that bed. He is ousted by the parishioners and put in a mental institution
George struggles to relate to his father, and as his father's mental state deteriorates George is more and more confused in his emotions towards him. As an adult he became a clock repairer and he compares the intricacies of clocks to the intricacies of life and of his own family.
In his last few minutes of life we discover that Howard left his family and remarried and started a new life. He shows up at George's home and tires to reconnect but the impression is that George was distant and too removed to make any meaningful emotional connection with his father in the end.
There is a lot of reflection and musing on life and families and it is well written but I didn't feel it was a satisfying story and when finished it didn't linger in my mind at all.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Fame & Infamy | Ed Wright

I picked up this pocket book at an airport when I finished my book too soon. It is part of a series called Pocket History of which I have two others. They are gorgeous books to hold, small 'pocket' size with fabric covers. Lovely. This one is "History's most shocking frauds, scandals and intrigues". It is very well written and each chapter dedicated to someone in history who was a fraud or a scandalous figure or just bizarre.
Wright starts off with Caravaggio's life of passion and art. Tchaikovsky, Fatty Arbuckle, the Petrovs, Lord Lucan and Jim Bakker are among those written about. There is a lot to learn in each chapter about human behaviour, and how each person had an Achille's heel they wrestled with and succumbed to. These wee books are much better than your average airport read and I will try and get more of the series.

The other books I have in this series are "Good Girls don't make History" and "Obscure Events that Shaped History."