*Currently on the Longlist for the Ngaio Awards!*
The Burke and Hare anatomy murders terrified Edinburgh in the 1830s – innocents smothered and packed fresh for the anatomist’s knife. Burke was publicly hanged before a crowd of thousands. William Hare, after turning king’s evidence against his erstwhile partner, was released. Somewhere south of Dumfries near the small river port of Annan, he was set down from a cart and told to walk on to England and never return. There, he disappears from history.
A decade later a whaler is left ashore in Port Nicholson. No whaling ship will sign him on so he walks around the harbour, comes to a stop on a scrap of coast called Ōkiwi Bay, and sets up a bush pub, of sorts, with a reputation for evil hospitality, and takes the name William Ōkiwi Brown.
His is the last stop on the coast track to the Wairarapa and there are those who come under his roof. Gentlemen musterers, travelling preachers, ex-soldiers. A sailor on leave, looking for a drink and a fight. There is young Mary Leckie, avoiding school and trying to keep her father sober, and a woman of unknown origin who lives there with Ōkiwi, taking his beatings as a wife.
When a body washes up on Ōkiwi’s beach, the witnesses are brought forward.
This novel is a work of fiction inspired by true events in the early days of colonial New Zealand.
Ōkiwi is out now, and available in all good bookshops. Details of how to get your hands on the old devil and read some reviews on the book page. Story and pictures from the launches here.
Cristina Sanders' blog 