Twister author Jane Woodham By Jane Woodham
A black funnel churning in from the sea and smashing into the town The weather brings to the surface of the local creek the body of a teenage girl who has been missing for just a few days The chief investigator in the Wenlock case has succumbed to the flu and so the case is handed over to DSS Leo Judd And the case brings with it the memory of his own daughter who went missing nine years earlier Is Leo the best person for the job That is what the local paper asks. On the surface this is a police procedural but there is a lot going on In the nine years since Beth disappeared Leo Judd s marriage has become increasingly sterile and his wife Kate is contemplating leaving him Leo is unaware of this but doesn t know what to do to improve things anyway There are several leads in the Tracey Wenlock case and as they are being investigated another girl disappears Judd s investigation keeps pointing to the same person as being involved but he seems to be well alibied. This novel is an impressive debut by a new New Zealand author I hope we see of her.
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Good crime plot based on real people in DunedinTight plot with Interesting interrelationships between believable characters Yes read another by this author Not sure of the significance of twister but all tied together in the end 9780994129 Dunedin in the grip of an unseasonal flu is a city under siege Cats are being tortured and gay men viciously targeted Then after five damaging days of rain a twister rips through exposing in Ross Creek Reserve the body of a missing schoolgirl Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd is forced to lead the investigation despite unresolved sorrow over the disappearance of his own daughter nine years earlier. Sultry weather broods over the city as suspects are sifted Pressure mounts for Leo to solve the crime and to face his grief and for Kate to tell the truth about leaving Leo and about the secret she s nursed since the hour their beloved Beth disappeared Twister author Jane WoodhamIn late February Dunedin has a flu epidemic but also unusually muggy heat followed by 5 days of torrential rain And finally comes the twister but it is a little difficult to see this one as the beginning of a series 9780994129 it s always nice to read a novel set in one s hometown with its descriptions of familiar landscapes and places and lots of local things thrown in woodham captures dunedin s small town alternative feeling very well and populates it with a colourful cast of characteres the plot moves along at a good pace while at the same time allowing development and reflection for the main characters she manages to tie up the many different strands quite nicely at the end although i have to say without giving too much away that i found the final answer of what had happened to beth pretty unconvincing other than that a couple of rather jarring uses of the wrong character name whoops it is a very good read 9780994129 Twister was my first choice for a holiday read this summer This is Jane Woodham s debut novel and not only is it my favourite genre crime fiction but it s also set in my home town Dunedin Aotearoa New Zealand This is the kind of crime novel I like emphasising the characters and their interrelationships investigating their motives and providing a mystery to solve Twister is deceptively simple and easy to read but there s a lot going on in it Woodham has skillfully woven the plot and all the sub plots together and everything is satisfyingly tied up at the end including the red herrings The characters are well developed particularly protagonist Detective Senior Sergeant Leo Judd and his wife Kate whose daughter and only child disappeared nine years earlier The discovery of a teenage girl dead at Ross Creek reserve brings up a range of emotions and reactions for Leo who s heading the investigation as foul play is suspected and for Kate who has a secret of her own that Leo is unaware of The reader gets good insights into Judd through flashbacks into his childhood in England The sense of place is strong visual and authentic I love the inclusion of so many cool Dunedin references the Robbie Burns statue Taste Nature organic shop St Clair Salt Water Pool Peque o the Monarch the woman with blue hair and a small dog going upstairs to the jeweller s I d love to see another crime novel featuring Leo Judd and set in Dunedin and look forward to what this author will come up with next 9780994129 Twister entered my radar months ago while searching around for hot new mystery novels by Australian women writers I m rather pathetically participating in the Australian Woman Writers Challenge this year Jane Woodham is not Australian she s originally from England and has lived in New Zealand for nine years but that s the beauty of poking around on the internet or in the library sometimes books find you My initial efforts to procure a print copy didn t pan out but I recently dusted off my eReader for a trip and looked at Kobo s website again and was happy to see they now carry the book Twister is an excellent read one that kept me up way too late even when I was sick. The novel has just the right amount of police procedural details for my taste meaning that the story didn t get bogged down by them Most of the work portrayed is good old interviewing of witnesses and suspects as well as a reenactment Judd makes some deductions and has flashes of insight that help him piece things together This is the first mystery I ve read set in New Zealand so it was fun looking up colloquialisms and place names What wasn t fun is the bullying and violence against girls women and gays which seems never ending in this world but at least now a days womanizers and homophobes are presented as the bad guys that they ve always been While there is a rather violent scene in the novel it is not gratuitous but shows how quickly things can get ugly among teenagers when one boy is simply being himself There are several instances of people not seeing things throughout the novel and this scene in particular shows how confusing and paralyzing it can be when people do see for the first time The choice Budgie eventually makes made me gasp but it rings sadly true. Woodham writes on her website that Twister is as much a story about a detective as a detective story which is right on the money In fact Judd s personal story may have been of a bit interest to me than the crimes under investigation but its hard to tell as they re so deeply intertwined twisted together you might say The main personal relationship which is between Judd and his wife Kate as well as her lover Rea is tense and had me rooting for everyone involved Rea was their former neighbor and a good friend to both Judd and Kate but moved away years ago It s complicated but oh so believable. I enjoyed how memories from Judd s youth come into relevancy without seeming staged but as a organic process Watching the characters grow through their trials and life changes left me with a feeling of hope for them and maybe even for humanity in general I d gladly read from Woodham and hope she finds an audience here in the U. S 9780994129 Set in Dunedin New Zealand local writer Jane Woodham obviously loves the place that she lives in Incorporating a lot of local landmarks geographical elements and a strong sense of place TWISTER is her debut novel featuring DSS Leo Judd and a series of investigations into everything from animal torture to gay bashings and the death of a young schoolgirl. Starting out in an apocalyptic style Dunedin is gripped initially by a flu epidemic and then after five days of biblical rain an unusual twister rips through the place causing havoc and exposing the body of a missing schoolgirl in a local creek DSS Judd is the lead investigator on the case a difficult position for him to be in after the unsolved disappearance of his own daughter nine years earlier He also isn t overly aware that his marriage is teetering on the edge with his wife Kate contemplating leaving him to move in with her lover Rea. TWISTER is extremely heavy on the personal elements particularly the will she won t she moving out of Kate Rea is an old family friend neighbour and somebody with who Kate shares a very big personal secret She s much forthright than Kate and applying hefty pressure for a decision to be made and them both to be able to move on This thread inserts itself into the investigative aspects of the book in such a hefty manner that it does frequently take over although for those that are interested in inter personal relationships and the pressures of coming out after many years of heterosexual relationships that might well be an interesting aspect It could also result in an enormous amount of flicking searching constantly for the crime threads in what felt at times like a romance novel. Whilst the character of Kate is definitely a little on the wishy washy side that of DSS Leo Judd is stronger They are both obviously still deeply affected by the disappearance of their daughter but for Judd there s that professional disappointment as well as the personal loss The fact that he s never been able to resolve what happened to his daughter gives this current investigation a little of an edge although again that can sometimes be a little washed out by the real estate conversations and the gardening and the swimming and everything else. Because of the byways side alleys and distractions liberally inserted into the action in TWISTER this is definitely not a novel for those for whom plot and resolution are everything in their crime fiction reading For anyone who is looking for something with all of those complications with the emphasis on personal elements and with such a strong sense of place it would be well worth a look: In the long aftermath of loss his wife Kate has grown out of their marriage but she hasn t told Leo yet Or that she s going to move in with her lover Rea.http www.austcrimefiction.org revie 9780994129
| Twister author Jane Woodham By Jane Woodham |
| 9780994129 |
| English |
| 330 |
| ebook |