Impressive first novel is being launched at UBS, Dunedin on Thursday

This most impressive first novel is being launched at UBS, Dunedin on Thursday of this week by its publishers, Rosa Mira Books & Makaro Press. 
I was captivated, reading it in several long sessions over two days. I guess you could call it a cross between crime fiction and family drama.No matter how you define it, it is a superb piece of writing.

I hope the author is already at work on her next novel and that she will keep Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd as her protagonist in future titles.

Dunedin, in the grip of an unseasonal flu, is a city under siege. Then after five damaging days of rain, a twister rips through, exposing the body of a missing schoolgirl in Ross Creek. Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd is the only one who can lead the investigation, despite unresolved sorrow over the disappearance of his own daughter nine years earlier. 
Sultry weather broods over the beleaguered city as suspects are sifted and pressure mounts for Judd to solve the crime. Meanwhile his wife, Kate, tries to find the courage she needs to tell him the secrets she's been nursing for too long – including one about the disappearance of their beloved Beth. 

About the author:

Jane Woodham moved to Dunedin from London in 1998. Her work has twice been shortlisted for the BNZ Literary Awards, and published in both New Zealand and the UK. In 2014 the New Zealand Society of Authors granted Jane a mentor-ship with local crime writer Paddy Richardson, who worked with her on the final draft of Twister. Jane likes to swim, garden and cook, and is a fair-weather surfer. 

Twister is her first novel.

Print edition - Makaro Press - ISBN 978 0 9941299 3 2   $30.00

E-book  - Rosa Mira Books - eISBN 978 0 9941017 9 2  $13.00

e-book cover