New Zealand Crime

In the first part of this audiobook, you will learn about extinct animals that used to call New Zealand home.

Arthur Taylor is New Zealand's best known, most influential and colourful career criminal. A household name, he was paroled from prison in 2019 after more than 38 years behind bars. His life story is nothing short of remarkable. He has more than 150 convictions ranging from bank robberies to fraud, theft, escaping and having weapons and explosives.

On 20 May 1999, the South Australian Police were called to investigate a disused bank in the unassuming town of Snowtown, in connection to the disappearance of multiple missing people. The police were not prepared for the chilling scene that awaited them. The officers found six barrels within the abandoned bank vault, each filled with acid and the remains of eight individuals. The smell from inside the vault was so stifling that the police required breathing equipment.

Why did Chelsea have to die on the most important night of Dani Sites' culinary career? Working for Raglan’s most affluent family, Dani was about to make a name for herself as the prestigious chef of the North Shore's highly anticipated Spring Equinox Soirée. But fate had it that the moment billionaire Bennett Bowing emerged from seclusion on the night of the dinner party, breaking his silence since his late wife’s passing, Chelsea, his potential next wife, is murdered. Dani not only needs to save her reputation and clear her name, but she also needs to stop ogling the billionaire’s ...

Ted's ex-wife is dead at the beach house he built. The police think he killed her. They're wrong. But can he prove it? Marcia took everything in the divorce—the house, the money, and nearly Ted's sanity. Now she's been found drowned in the remote New Zealand waters where Ted once found peace. The police have their suspect. The community has their gossip. But Ted suspects Marcia's secrets ran deeper than anyone imagined. When a second victim is poisoned, Ted realizes someone is cleaning up loose ends. With his daughter's safety at stake and his freedom on the line, he must navigate ...

Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend.

In December 1932, as the Depression tightened its grip, the body of a woman was found in Queens Park, Sydney. It was a popular park. There were houses in plain view. Yet this woman had been violently murdered without anyone noticing. Other equally brutal and shocking murders of women in public places were to follow. Australia's first serial killer was at large.

James was handsome, successful, wealthy. Lucy was besotted. When he offered her an all-expenses paid trip to a luxury lodge in an isolated part of New Zealand's beautiful Marlborough Sounds, she didn't hesitate. This decision would test her survival skills to the limit and open her eyes to a world she never knew existed. The contrast between Lucy's blind faith and the harsh reality she walks into sets the stage for a tense and eye-opening experience. You can sense the psychological layers here: trust, manipulation, isolation, and the chilling realization that love can sometimes lead you ...

"We are the people our parents warned us about" is the motto of the Bandidos, one of the world's most feared outlaw motorcycle gangs. For ten years, Steve Utah was a Bandidos insider. He arranged the security of their clubhouses. He 'cooked' ecstasy and ice for them. He was at meetings where interstate and overseas drug and weapons smuggling was planned. He saw stolen military weapons being sold. He witnessed vicious beatings, helped dump corpses.It all became too much and, in an attempt to regain control of his life, Utah resorted to the unthinkable....

"Steven F. Freeman chilling and suspense-filled novel turned into an engrossing read from start to finish. I liked Freeman's approach to the story and the strong characters. The boat crash at teh begnning sets the pace and tension in the story. All in all, a gripping and reveting read to the end!" Readers's Favorite One speedboat crash...15 victims...and 30 seconds before you die A jet-boat crash sets in motion a frantic investigation to find the saboteur. But with 15 fatalities, simply identifying the intended victim among the crowd proves a challenge. As the search for the killer ...

#1 AUSTRALIAN BESTSELLING MYSTERY & SUSPENSE SERIES — The newest Mick Hunter thriller is here! "Hunter just keeps getting sharper... the most cunning and accomplished entry yet in Chris Franklin’s pulse-pounding series." — The Saturday Times A coach crash in the heart of a brutal snowstorm throws Mick Hunter headfirst into a deadly standoff. In the remote town of Benmore, New Zealand, a courageous old man is defying corruption and cruelty—but justice comes at a cost. To survive long enough to take the stand, he’ll need protection. Because someone is coming for him: a ruthless ...

Penrose and Pyke go together like fire and kerosene in this first-in-series Victorian era mystery. Trouble’s brewing in the Devil’s Half Acre. A death in an alleyway, a tragic accident in a factory, rumours of a murderer loose on the streets. It’s enough to give a genteel lady a fit of the vapours. Fortunately, Grace Penrose isn’t one to swoon at the sight of blood. All she wants is the chance to become the first female doctor in the colony. Instead, she must confront the harsh realities of the city’s most notorious sweatshop. When the police prove reluctant to investigate the ...

Whether you know it as the ‘succulent Chinese meal’ video, or ‘democracy manifest’, chances are you have seen the video of baritone larrikin Jack Karlson getting arrested outside a Brisbane Chinese restaurant in 1991. The Guardian called it ‘perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the last 10 years’. When Karlson called crime writer Mark Dapin out of the blue, though, Dapin hadn’t heard of him. But there was enough that intrigued him about this theatrical outlaw to continue the conversation. Over the following months emerged a dark and complex past.

Captured in the 1930s before the words psychopath and pedophile were part of common vernacular, notorious serial killer Arnold Sodeman murdered four young girls with little thought of remorse. Without guilt, the evil serial killer strangled them to death with their own clothing and left their small bodies alone in the Australian brush, earning himself a chilling position in the annals of Australian crime.

A crime-based adventure set in Middle Earth territory in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Young Kiwi drifter Arch Quaid thinks he has landed the contract of his life when he’s hired to cull deer on a high country property in the South Island of New Zealand. He quickly changes his mind when he discovers he’s the hunted, not the hunter. Caught up in the middle of it all is his new love Janine, a beautiful Maori girl, who will likely be the killer’s next target if Arch doesn’t overcome the most daunting of odds. HIGH COUNTRY CONTRACT is a thrilling, fast-paced read brought to you by ...

Ammalie Brinks has just lost the three keys of her life’s purpose—her husband, her job, and her role as a mom, after her son went off to college. She’s also mystified to find herself in middle age: How exactly had that happened? The terrifying idea of becoming irrelevant, invisible, of letting her life slip away Into obscurity, has her driving distracted through Nebraska with a broken plastic fork in her tangled hair.

In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of 10 children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands had died suddenly and the Crown, convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic, put her on trial an extraordinary four times in order to get a conviction, to the horror of many in the legal community. Louisa protested her innocence until the end.

Myer lives on a NZ mountain farm with her border collie, chickens, sheep and her faithful horse, Mustard. She hunts and forages, and barely leaves the mountain, only venturing into town to stock up on provisions once or twice a month.

After 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 Tata 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.

Whispers of misconduct swirl around Grace Penrose, when a prominent surgeon has a fatal seizure on their moonlit stroll together. Grace and the victim are on opposing sides of a feud over hospital services for women. How could she refuse his invitation to resolve their differences in private? When he dies despite her attempts to save him, and his unusual symptoms further implicate her, it’s not only her personal and professional reputation at risk. As the case becomes ever more baffling, the only thing Grace needs more than Charlie Pyke’s sleuthing skills is his uncanny knack of ...