I’ve just moved house and half of my books are still in boxes – mostly ones I have read already and know I won’t want to reread in the next 12-24 months, as they might need to stay in boxes that long. So for this late entry in Murder/Mystery Monday of my bookshelf spotlight, I’m picking a volume from my unread bookshelf, and back with another kiwi author. This week’s pick is The Quiet People by Paul Cleave.

I periodically look through Kete Books to see what NZ books are coming out, and this is how I found The Quiet People. It sounded interesting. Since I haven’t read it, all I can give you is the blurb:

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch love their job. Why wouldn’t they? The crime novelists get to travel the world promoting their books. In interviews they often joke that if anybody can get away with murder, it’s a crime writer – after all, if you can devise the perfect crime in a novel, surely you can plot one in real life.

Then their young son, Zach, goes missing. At first sight, the evidence shows a stranger took him from their house – but isn’t that the way crime writers would stage it to look? The police think so. As do the media. And the public. Soon, Zach’s disappearance captures the world’s attention. As the death threats roll in, and as hundreds protest outside their house, the question is asked over and over: have the Murdochs finally decided to prove what they have been saying – that they can commit the perfect crime?

And now that I have typed that out and reminded myself how interesting it sounded, I’m thinking maybe I need to try and squeeze it in to my February TBR.