Finn Bell

This is a surprisingly good novel from a relatively unknown author. The setting in New Zealand is fresh and the bits about the Maori culture and their conflict with the colonists are interesting.
The plot is tight and the action is well paced, making it a compelling read. The characters are beautifully crafted and will be remembered for long.
Apart from some lengthy philosophising and the lack of clarity about the killer's actual motives and methods, this crime thriller is very enjoyable indeed.… (altro)

This is my second read by author Finn Bell, after ‘Pancake Money’, and it has all the elements I had loved about the previous one. The plot is tight and the lead characters are very well developed. The narrative is atmospheric, drawing the reader into the scenes with vivid descriptions. The mystery is kept up until the absorbing climax.
My only issue with this fast paced thriller is that almost every character of some importance expounds some philosophy or the other, impeding the flow of the story.
Apart from that, The Easter Make Believers is an enjoyable crime thriller with a great plot, some engaging characters and a refreshing setting in the Southern New Zealand.… (altro)

All novels by Finn Bell have guaranteed two things. Wonderful sense of place, and morally ambiguous characters. As it is with THE LOST DEAD where we have three Maori boys, wanted criminals, on the run, barely one step ahead of the cops and the gangs they have annoyed along the way. There is also a missing, young woman, somebody one of these young lads is thoroughly infatuated with, and determined to find. Then there's the huge earthquake, that causes massive landslides across the isolated Southern Alps region of New Zealand. Everyone is scrambling around looking for victims trapped by those landslides, nobody thinks to look for a perpetrator at the same time.

This is the fourth novel by NZ Author Finn Bell, all of which are set in the glorious far south of New Zealand, and from that connection they form a loose series. The characters however, are different in each novel, but the consideration is often the same. Moral ambiguity with cops and crooks equally compromised, equally under pressure, under threat in all sorts of ways.

The scenario Bell is exploring here is particularly interesting, as it sets a gang of three against a confident, cunning serial killer, that the cops don't even realise is in their midst. Bell sets up, as he frequently does, an interesting moral tussle, with a more forceful personal analysis of society's failings in a postscript to the novel.

Perhaps it was the serial killer voice, which, although well done, really needs to contribute something more than just menace these days, perhaps it was that the plot felt a little more coincidental than in earlier books, that made THE LOST DEAD a good, rather than sock endangering read. Having said that, anything this author writes is well worth reading if you're interested at all in edge characters, and driving pace, underpinned by the grey that is all too frequently encountered when it comes to good, bad, and human nature.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/lost-dead-finn-bell… (altro)

This is my first book by Finn Bell, but he definitely has a way of writing thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat. I loved the way the author was able to carefully add information about his country in order to make the story more detail-oriented and believable. I was able to guess some of the story before it happened, but for the most part, the mystery at the end came as a surprise to me, and I loved it. The intricacies of the murders were unlike other books in the same genre, and I know I’ll be looking forward to reading more works by this author.… (altro)