Vanda Symon

A brutal home invasion shocks the nation. A man is murdered, his wife bound, gagged and left to watch. But when Detective Sam Shephard scratches the surface, the victim, a successful businessman, is not all he seems to be....

Mataura is a small town in rural New Zealand where, apart from the odd tractor theft, nothing very interesting happens. But when the body of a young mother is found washed up on the banks of the Mataura River, the small rural community is rocked by her tragic suicide....

Someone is terrorising the streets of Dunedin's Cannongate district, on New Zealand's South Island – and what began as a neighbourhood joke is turning into something far more disturbing… At first, underwear is stolen from washing lines. Then dead birds are left on doorsteps. Pets start...

On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation - the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican priest in Dunedin. The case has been a thorn in the side of the police hierarchy, and for her boss it's personal. With all...

Anarchy hits Dunedin when a cargo ship runs aground on Aramoana Beach amid a crowd of onlookers. One of them discovers a skull in the sand while desperate scavengers fight each other for the best of the bounty. Waking up to the chaos and hurrying outside to give the police a hand, Detective...

DC Sam Shephard is stationed in Dunedin CIB, a newbie at the bottom of the pecking order. When a young university student is found battered to death and floating in the Leith, she is pushed to one side by her boss and only given grunt work. Despite this, it is Sam who discovers that there has...

Max Grimes is homeless, living on the streets of Auckland – among the forgotten, the invisible. But now someone is hunting the homeless, killing them one by one. No one cares. Except Max. Trying to put his shattered life back together, Max is pulled into a deadly game when a face from his past...