Author(s): Dawn Rotarangi

NZ historical fiction

A taut, tightly-written paranormal thriller about what happens when a Pakeha family unwittingly invoke an ancient tohunga's curse. When an out-of-it Billy Delaney steals coins from a sacred rock on the shores of Lake Taupo to buy a hamburger late one night, he has no idea what he is about to unleash upon himself and his immediate family. But then Billy has always been trouble, and when the oldest of Lucy Delaney's children, Saffron, steps in to try and take care of him yet again, trouble swarms over the Delaneys like bees on a honey pot. First Saffron and Billy's young niece suffers an horrific traffic accident, leaving her in a coma, balanced between life and death. Then the Delaneys begin to die horribly, one by one. It is left to a disbelieving Saffron and an unlikely ally, Nick - the burnt out war photographer trying to piece his life back together in a country backwater - to try to appease the wrath of the ancient tohunga Tama Ariki, whose quest for utu for his slain mokopuna echoes down the years. Set in and around Lake Taupo, the author creates a subtle web of superstition and the supernatural, bringing together both Maori and Celtic imagery to create a paranormal adventure that is pure Aotearoa.