A Madness of Sunshine, a review by Joanna

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A Madness of Sunshine

Nalini Singh

400 pages

Hachette NZ

Published December 2019

☀️☀️☀️

This is bestselling paranormal romance author Nalini Singh’s first crime novel, and her first book set in her native New Zealand. I’ve read all of her Psy-Changeling series, and really liked her other NZ-based thriller, A Quiet in her Bones, but it took me a while to get to this one. I enjoyed the mystery and the West Coast small town setting, but as ever got irritated by the repetitiveness of her writing style, and was slightly disappointed if unsurprised that this had to turn into romantic suspense, rather than being a straight mystery thriller.

After many years overseas, successful concert pianist Anahera has returned to the small coastal settlement where she grew up following the sudden death of her unfaithful English husband. Will is the town’s sole policeman, banished from Christchurch after the trauma of a previous case got too much for him. Both are damaged and angry, but when a young woman goes missing, they must come together to uncover the dark secrets that haunt picturesque Golden Cove.
I don’t read much NZ centred fiction, although am trying to remedy that. The plot here starts off well, but becomes progressively less plausible, with some fairly contrived twists. It’s a bit slow – the first half of the book is taken up with the search for missing Miriama, as information about our protagonists’ pasts is drip-fed to us, but it’s obvious from their first meeting where they’re headed. There’s lots of descriptions of the untamed bleakly beautiful scenery, contrasted mentions of the hidden violence plaguing the lives of many of the town’s women. I liked the Māori references and phrases and attempts to convey the uniqueness of the setting.
What got tiresome was the way Miriama’s beauty and liveliness was referenced every single time she’s mentioned – how every man there (except Will, obvs) lusted after her and even the women were somehow entranced by her loveliness, even her own aunt – and that was why it was so important that she be found. As if they wouldn’t have bothered looking for her if she were plain. There’s also an uncomfortable amount of victim-blaming that you don’t expect from a female author. I was going to round this up from 3.5 because it’s Nalini, and because I was engrossed enough to finish it within a day (admittedly a wet one with nothing else happening!) but on reflection I’m rounding down, because there’s nothing terribly original here from a mystery POV, and the repetition did spoil it for me. However, I would recommend it to people who enjoy romantic suspense and are interested in the NZ setting.

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