New Zealand author Tom Baragwanath burst onto the crime fiction scene with his award winning debut Paper Cage. That book used a crime procedural, led by an unusual protagonist to explore the legacy of colonialism in New Zealand. The protagonist was Lorraine Henry, filing clerk in the police station of the small New Zealand community of Masterton. Baragwanath brings Henry, her police colleagues and the town of Masterton back into focus in his follow up Lucky Thing.
Lucky Thing opens with the discovery of a girl in the bush. Jess Mowbrie was left in the bush, bashed and in a coma. It turns out that she had been at a party being thrown by Stu Kelsons, the son of one of the local landholders. Jess and her family are seen as coming from the wrong side of the tracks while the Kelsons are local royalty. Lorraine, who knows Jess’s family (she knows everyone), and has a historical connection to the Kelsons, cannot help but get herself involved in the investigation, particularly when the chief is injured. And it is one that will expose long held fault lines in the town.
Lucky Thing is another resonant and engaging work of crime fiction from Baragwanath once again anchored by an unlikely protagonist. Lorraine is no Miss Marple but she does fall into that mould of the elderly lady in town who is underestimated and underappreciated by those around her. While Lucky Thing does not quite have the thematic depth of Paper Cage it does still deal with some wider issues of class and money and cements Baragwanath as a crime writer to watch.
Lucky Thing by Tom Baragwanath
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