North writer's novel on missing jet acclaimed

Northland author Scott Maka's e-book on the disappearance of flight MH370 created a storm of controversy.

A Kerikeri man's novel based on the disappearance of flight MH370 has been described as surprisingly good by an American reviewer who expected it to be "terrible and creepy".

Scott Maka released his e-book MH370 to a storm of controversy on June 8, three months to the day after the Malaysian Airlines plane vanished over the southern Indian Ocean with 239 people on board.

It was slammed by the wife of a missing Kiwi passenger, who said she was disgusted by the book and shocked it had been penned by a fellow New Zealander.

Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was on board, said she wished people would put their effort into helping find the plane rather than "making up these stories about it".

However, the book has received a warmer reception from the New York-based arts and news site The Daily Beast. Under the headline The Surprisingly Good Flight 370 Novel, senior culture editor Tim Teeman said he expected the book to be "terrible and creepy".

"You may dismiss its plot as hokey and in-a-thousand-ways insulting and crass, but it is also a gripping thriller, with an accompanying, far-from-dumb interrogation of faith and fanaticism," he said.

It was mostly written in speech, which Mr Teeman said was a shame because Mr Maka had an evocative turn of phrase, and had bravely included some humorous passages.

Mr Teeman said the book's heroine, Jane, bore more than a passing resemblance to the mysterious Mr Maka.

"Like him, she's a relentless backpacker, who teaches to raise funds to travel more," he said.

Mr Maka went to Kerikeri High School and worked in the Bay of Islands as a beekeeper and orchardist before leaving Northland to study journalism. He now lives in Malaysia but returns to Kerikeri and Whangarei to visit family.

Following the positive review he was hoping to have MH370 published as a printed book.

His next book, Once Upon a Cursed Shore, will be a historical novel based on the Boyd Massacre in Whangaroa Harbour in 1809.