Historical novel set around ENGLAND (Birmingham)
Thriller set amongst the homeless of DUNEDIN
2nd April 2026
Reaper by Vanda Symon, thriller set amongst the homeless of Dunedin.
Dunedin is a beautiful city on the South Island of New Zealand. But, if your only knowledge of the place was gleaned from Vanda’s work, then you could be excused for believing it to be one of the crime capitals of the world! She has written many a great thriller and police procedural set there.
Reaper is darker than some of her books. There is a population of homeless street people living in a less desirable part of Dunedin city centre. There is a debate about how they should be treated – moved on or handled with compassion and dignity. Many are ‘good people’ who have fallen on hard times. One member of the Dunedin citizenry believes he has the answer. He (the Reaper) decides to murder them one by one… He is cunning and ingenious in his methods. And, because they are ‘only’ street people, the murders do not produce much comment or police activity. Their deaths are disguised as natural causes in the midst of a harsh winter. One person, though, is tuned in to what may be happening. He is Max, an ex policeman, currently unemployed and of ‘no fixed abode’. He talks to a former colleague (and friend) who promises to raise his concerns.
Max is approached by the father of a young man who used to date his daughter. The young man had brutally killed the girl and then himself when high on drugs (as he tended to be a lot of the time). Max was angry and wary of the approach but agreed to help the father find the drug dealer responsible and confront him. But whose feathers might get ruffled in the process?
Suspicions for the murders then falls on Max himself. Has he been set up and if so, by who? Is it anything to do with his efforts to track down the drug dealer?
The book moves to a violent but satisfactory conclusion. Vanda has become one of my favourite writers of crime thrillers, and nothing in this, her latest book, does anything to change that opinion.
Tony for the TripFiction team
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