Crime mystery set in New Zealand by Vanda Symon

Submitted: 1st March 2020

Containment set in Dunedin

A crime mystery where setting plays a major role. This is the story of a crime which could only take place in a coastal town: a container of goods gets washed up on a Dunedin beach and the looters swarm in. Detective Constable Sam Shepherd tries to stop the thefts, but then is knocked out by one of the looters. Her problems have only just begun, however…

For then a body is found on the beach and there are links to that goods container…

Best to read The Ringmaster before reading this as although a stand alone, there is a running thread from this and Overkill.

Crime mystery set in New Zealand by Vanda Symon

Setting: Small town New Zealand

BookTrail Travel to the locations in Containment

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This is really starting to become one of my favourite crime series. Book three and I am totally invested in the characters, plot and of course setting. The setting is particularly crucial to these books as it’s so intrinsically woven into the novel on every level. The crimes, the investigations, the work force of the police, the characters who live in the small town…..all fit perfectly and can I say even complement each other? It’s a very nice mix of all you could want from a cracking crime mystery.

Containment is the title that means so much. The story centres around a container that washes up on a Dunedin beach. That gets violent as looters come to try and scavenge what they can. There is also a bizarre death as a diver is found dead and the trail goes all the way back to that.

The strange state of affairs continues with the discovery of a body that comes ashore. The body is that of a diver but it’s soon apparent that the man was stuffed into the suit after his death. He didn’t die from drowning either. Shephard has a lot on her hands and has been injured after the looting on the beach.

BookTrail Travel to the locations in Containment

Now, despite all this, you might think that this is another police procedural, a study of a small-town, a New Zealand infused crime thriller. Well, it is all this and more. Sam really is the star of her own show. She’s funny, self-deprecating and does like to beat herself up about things! IT’s her commentary on her own life, what she does day and day out, her background and her sense of humour that makes the books for me, and makes her who she is. Some books narrated by the main character can become inward-looking but not this one!

That’s not to say that the supporting cast is any less appealing. Maggie is her best friend with the voice of reason and she complements her friend Sam well. I think we all wish we had a friend like her!

There’s a lot to like in this book. I have to say that I have never quite ‘enjoyed’ seeing a body recovered from water in a book before. This is a gruesome scene for sure (Try not to be eating when you read it). However, it was the humour and sensitivity attached to it that made me smile. The novel is very visual and very atmospheric so there’s a great sense that you are zooming into scenes when it matters and seeing events with a bird’s eye view the next.

A new favourite author for me. The language of Containment and the skill of the author captures the setting of Dunedin and the Aramoana coast perfectly. It’s definitely on the BookTrail radar to go there for real!