OBSERVER: Bookshop Detectives
Not many author duos would have as fascinating past lives as Louise and Gareth Ward (pictured.
The two New Zealand-based authors have just released their second novel together, a crime noir book called The Bookshop Detectives 2: Tea and Cake and Death.
The book’s protagonists are ex-police officers Garth and Eloise, who run their own bookshop.
In real life, Garth and Louise are ex-police officers who met at their training academy in the UK. And these days they are proud independent publishers and owners of bookshops in Napier and Hawkes Bay, on the North Island of New Zealand.
But that’s where the paths of the real bookstore owners and the fictional bookstore detectives diverge.
In the new book, Gareth and Louise hit trouble when several customers are poisoned ahead of the annual trivia night fundraiser. So our heroes draw on their backgrounds as ex-police officers to tackle and solve this heinous crime.
In real life, Gareth and Louise know a lot about crime and books, and Louise even has a real-life murder arrest to draw on for veracity in her fiction, so it made sense for them to combine their artistic efforts and create this cosy crime genre.
They take turns writing chapters and then getting feedback from each other, which leads to some amusing quips in the book.
The authors have just visited Australia, headlining a special series of Penguin Noir events in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The Bookshop Detectives 2: Tea and Cake and Death is published by Penguin and available now.
Julie Houghton