Better the Blood

Hana Westerman, Book 1

By: Michael Bennett

Narrated by: Miriama McDowell, Richard Te Are

An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Maori screenwriter and director

A tenacious Maori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription.

Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to an historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Maori Chief.

Hana realizes that the murders are utu—the Maori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer.

The pursuit soon becomes frighteningly personal, recalling the painful event, two decades before, when Hana, then a new cop, was part of a police team sent to end by force a land rights occupation by indigenous peoples on the same ancestral mountain where the Chief was killed, calling once more into question her loyalty to her roots. Worse still, a genealogical link to the British soldiers brings the case terrifyingly close to Hana’s own family. Twisty and thought-provoking, Better the Blood is the debut of a remarkable new talent in crime fiction.

©2023 Michael Bennett (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, UK

Captivating and thought-provoking.

Beautifully written, I was left wanting to know more and do better in my own efforts to strive for a more equitable future.

Excellent story by a new author

Introduction for me to history of New Zealand woven into the fiction of a riveting murder mystery told by those who have the ability to speak the Māori language. This is an excellent start for this new author and I hope he continues to write more stories of New Zealand in this vein. A series would be great!

Colonialism Is The Real Villain

I haven’t read much about the Māori people but this book made for a wonderful primer of key cultural points.

Although i have doubts about the effectiveness of love & words in dismantling a system built on violence where words have been used mostly to justify the actions of colonizers all over the world, this novel did paint a picture of how personal forgiveness should be sought & given & backed by actions that actually mean that the same offense will not be made by that person.

The narrators were wonderful & the fluent use of te reo Māori made the book shine even brighter as performed.

Also loved that the characters were multi-generational, allowing for many povs of the same situation. This really filled out the dimensions of the story as too often, making room for alternate views that felt truly organic & unforced.

all in all, 10/10 - would highly recommend :)

Great book , well told

This story jumps right in and you can’t put it down. The reader is wonderful though I had trouble with her accent in the beginning. I really enjoyed the native history of the people of New Zealand. Bravo!!

Well Worth the time. Wonderful Novel

Once again the Indigenous people are taken advantage of, butchered by greater numbers & inhumanity. The novel is brought into the present century seamlessly and is well worth the one takes to listen to it.

Fantastic book!

I loved this book. A compelling story about a criminal, a family, love, and injustice. Miriama McDowell’s narration is absolutely perfect. I want more from this author and this narrator.

Enlightening

This novel was amazingly written and a great suspenseful book. I learned a lot, and could not put it down.

A good mystery from a land far from my own

Seeing a complex story through the perspective of a culture very different from my own