Joan's picks: Kawai : For Such a Time as This and Dark Rooms

Kawai : For Such a Time as This by Monty Soutar. New Zealand fiction, first in a planned trilogy. In the 1980’s a young Maori man visits his elderly relative in the remote east North Island, wanting to learn the stories of his ancestors, at which point the book moves to the mid 18th century and recounts the story of the young man’s tipuna, the legendary warrior Kaitanga, after whom his marae’s whare puni has been named. The descriptions of tribal life, the hierarchy of society (from Chiefs all the way down to pononga, captured slaves), arranged marriages, utu and warfare, and the way of living at that time are really engrossing. I loved it and am keen to see the next two in the series. 

  

Dark Rooms  by Lynda la Plante - another in the prequel series for the Jane Tennison novels - which started all those years ago with Prime Suspect which of course was both a brilliant book and great TV, but in recent times Lynda has been interested in exploring Jane's earlier story, in the years when she first entered the police force, and now in this new one is a newly minted Detective Inspector. She's sent to a new precinct were of course misogyny is rife and she has to figure out how to forge her own way - whilst being caught up in a case where the body of a young girl is discovered in a disused air raid shelter in the garden of a now derelict house - from which a family saga unravels, which Jane finds herself square in the middle of. This is one we prerecorded a few weeks back but it didn’t make it to air which is quite helpful as the books for this weekend have been delayed and needed something in a hurry. 

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