Containment

Dunedin’s favourite young police officer Sam Shephard is drawn into a perplexing investigation when a series of shipping containers wash up on a sleepy New Zealand beach, and then a body is discovered…

‘Fast-moving New Zealand procedural … the Edinburgh of the south has never been more deadly’ Ian Rankin

'If you like taut, pacy thrillers with a wonderful sense of place, this is the book for you’ Liam McIlvanney

‘A sassy heroine, fabulous sense of place, and rip-roaring stories with a twist. Perfect curl-up-on-the-sofa reading’ Kate Mosse

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Chaos reigns in the sleepy village of Aramoana on the New Zealand coast, when a series of shipping containers wash up on the beach and looting begins.

Detective Constable Sam Shephard experiences the desperation of the scavengers first-hand, and ends up in an ambulance, nursing her wounds and puzzling over an assault that left her assailant for dead.

What appears to be a clear-cut case of a cargo ship running aground soon takes a more sinister turn when a skull is found in the sand, and the body of a diver is pulled from the sea … a diver who didn’t die of drowning…

As first officer at the scene, Sam is handed the case, much to the displeasure of her superiors, and she must put together an increasingly confusing series of clues to get to the bottom of a mystery that may still have more victims…

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‘Vanda Symon’s work resembles Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum … she knows how to tell a good story and the NZ setting adds spice’ The Times

‘It is Symon’s copper Sam, self-deprecating and very human, who represents the writer’s real achievement’ Guardian

‘Antipodean-set crime is riding high thanks to the likes of Jane Harper, and fans of The Dry will love Vanda Symon’ Red Magazine

‘With a twisty plot, a protagonist who shines and beautifully written observations of the cruellest things … this is crime fiction at its best’ Kiwi Crime

‘Atmospheric, gripping and incredibly satisfying’ Random Things through My Letterbox

‘Raw, honest, punchy and smirky … if you enjoy a quick-firing, fast-moving tale with a tight storyline, then Containment could be for you’ LoveReading

Vanda Symon is a New Zealand crime writer, TV presenter and radio host, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series has been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for best crime novel.