1. (1) The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)
The incredible story of Kiwi spy Pippa Latour. Latour, who died in West Auckland in 2023 aged 102, helped lay the groundwork for the D-Day’s success and the end of World War II by acting as a secret agent in France for Britain.
“I was not a James Bond-style spy,” said Latour. “I was a secret agent whose job it was to blend into the background and cause quiet chaos.” It was exhausting work; she was unable to trust anyone, had several code names, and was often hungry. It was desperately perilous, too. Many of the 13,000 SOEs were killed, including 14 women out of 39 in France. The average life expectancy of male wireless operators in France when she served was six weeks. Latour’s was a truly remarkable life all around, and The Last Secret Agent, co-written with Jude Dobson, is a clear and fluent account that continues to attract new readers. Read the review here. Dobson is working on turning the book into a screenplay.
2. (NEW) The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove by Erin Palmisano (Moa Press)
In her second novel, American-Kiwi Erin Palmisano takes readers to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. After the death of owner Tommy Cleary, who could never make the financial decisions necessary to keep Cleary’s Crab Shack in Maiden’s Cove in the black, his daughter Grace has a mountain to climb when she returns to her hometown from Phoenix, Arizona with her eight-year-old daughter, leaving behind her controlling estranged husband Richard.
The Listener’s review reckons Palmisano, a restaurant owner herself, again cleverly pairs delicious food and small-town romance, well-drawn colourful characters, drama and intrigue, and explores the life paths people take, why some can’t get out of a small town fast enough and why others never want to leave.
3. (NEW) Granny McFlitter Stitches Up a Storm by Heather Haylock & Lael Chisholm (Picture Puffin)
The latest in the Granny McFlitter series sees our champion knitter stitching back together her holiday campground after a pearler of a storm. “That night there was chaos – tents tossed to the ground,
the wind flinging fistfuls of leaves all around.” And there’s a bothersome goat, Guzzle, chasing after her tasty knitting. The publicists say: “Can our favourite champion knitter use her speedy needles to turn a stormy beach holiday into a triumph? With bouncing rhyme and exuberant illustrations from the award-winning Heather Haylock and Lael Chisholm, Granny McFlitter’s charming fifth adventure proves that even the wildest, stormiest vacation can be a triumph when you have knitting needles and a good angora jumper to hand!”
4. (NEW) Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
From the Listener’s review: “Wilkins confronts the much-promoted glow of retirement and reveals some harder-edged truths, both personal and general. The distinction between expectation and reality is telling. Delirious has suspense and pace.
“Mary and Pete live in a large two-storied house with a view of Kāpiti Island over the beach dunes. Both are in their late 70s and the future now looms in their thoughts. The expectations of others are clear: the couple will downsize and move into a retirement village.
“But this is no ordinary novel. While the pace of life seems easy and pleasant, the past has a way of returning. Events seldom run to plan. Mary’s and Pete’s son died in an accident forty years before, at the age of eleven. A sudden call comes from the Wellington CIB with the possibility of new information.”
5. (4) Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment by Monty Soutar (David Bateman)
Monty Soutar picks up the narrative where Kāwai: For Such a Time as This left off. As the Listener’s review notes , “The advent of muskets placed the power of fire and death into the hands of any iwi with the cunning, the connections and the economic capacity to possess them. In so doing, the musket undermined the foundations of Māori society, including the mana of the tohunga, upending their command of magic and their bond with the spirit world through its blind disregard for the sacred pageantry of war, death and the interweaving of these things with all that is tapu. This in turn paved the way for European missionaries to bring stories of a different god, a new perspective on faith and the sanctity of life, and irrevocable change. Soutar uses this narrative to explore the power of words, both the writings of men who claimed to be holy and the fractious ink of te tiriti, whose intentions remain contested to this day.”
6. (7) More Salad, by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Power (A&U)
The latest cookbook from sisters Margo Flanagan and Rosa Power, which promises more of the same tasty-looking food that delivered them previous bestsellers. Neither is vegetarian or vegan; they just encourage moderation in all things. Recipes go from raw to pan to oven, including desserts. They list swappable ingredients, tips and timesavers, and pairing suggestions. You’ll find recipes from the book here.
7. (RETURN) The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone, by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin)
“When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we’d made a terrible mistake. People warned us that e-readers were taking over. People warned us that we’d never compete with Amazon. The one thing they didn’t warn us about was the murders.”
And so begins this first joint novel from actual Hawke’s Bay booksellers Gareth and Louise Ward, a cosy murder-mystery that promises bookshop insider titbits and literary puns galore. The plot has Garth and Eloise and their dog Stevie, who, telling the story in alternate chapters, “are drawn into the baffling case of a decades-old missing schoolgirl. Intrigued by the puzzling, bookish clues the two ex-cops are soon tangled in a web of crime, drugs and floral decapitations, while endeavouring to pull off the international celebrity book launch of the century.”
A sequel is imminent.
8. (6) Aroha, by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
The wisdom of 52 Māori proverbs explained by psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder in this bestselling book first released in 2020. An extract:
“Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te moana – The life force is hidden in the sea.
“Powerful aspects of life are hidden in plain sight.
“This whakataukī stems from one of our famous ancestors from the north, Nukutawhiti. He cast his kura, his feathered cloak, into the Hokianga Harbour to calm the waters for safe passage. And this treasure remains there, out of sight, yet signifies the ancient presence of those that have gone before.
“This saying has given me strength so many times. I have always found it comforting because it speaks to the hidden magic of life.
“It reminds me of those things we feel intuitively but often ignore – we can choose to tune in to our gut instinct, for example, or wait until the messages become clearer and more obvious.
And it reminds me that we all have hidden powers inside us that we can too easily forget.”
9. (RETURN) Route 52: A Big Lump Of Country Unknown, by Simon Burt (Ugly Hill Press)
Simon Burt travels the back roads around Wairarapa and Southern Hawke’s Bay with a caravan in tow and natters to locals along the way. From the first chapter: “One of those visitors is Masterton angler Nick Jolliffe. Nick is around my age and has been fishing for as long as he can remember. He’s been plying the Mākurī River for over forty years. A natural storyteller (he’s a career salesman), Nick entertains me over a long black and a flat white at Masterton’s Trocadero Cafe with the history of his relationship with the waterway. He’s pleased I’m writing about the river – he’s not one to keep fishing secrets – and about the area in general. ‘Good on you,’ he says. ‘Fame for Route 52 is long overdue. It’s a big lump of country unknown.’”
10. (RETURN) Serviceman J, by Jamie Pennell (HarperCollins)
There’s a famous photo of NZ soldier and Victoria Cross winner Willie Apiata emerging from some grim fire fight, gaze and jaw fixed, looking like a still from a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. The bloke next to him is Jamie Pennell. From the publisher: “In 2011, following the Taliban siege on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, an SAS soldier identified only as Serviceman J was awarded New Zealand’s second highest military honour by showing outstanding gallantry in the face of danger. After eighteen years in the New Zealand SAS, ex-commander Jamie Pennell is now ready to tell his story.”
Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending March 1.
