Review: The Bookshop Detectives, by Gareth and Louise Ward

Provincial bookstores vary in foot traffic, but quite the community hub can be found in Havelock North's Sherlock Tomes. Stocking influencer lifestyle guides amongst Fiona Kidman and Catherine Chidgey, it caters for all who might pay a visit. There are romances of the calibre promoted on Tik Tok, non-fiction works on Adlerian psychology, a broad children's section, and vegan travel books. Pollen wafts through the open door and the interior has a distinctive aroma of paper dust and furniture polish. It is the second home of long-time married couple, owners Eloise and Garth Sherlock, both former police officers and firm bookworms. Huddling close at their heels is dog Stevie, keeping his people in line.

Sherlock Tomes won New Zealand Bookshop of the Year two years previously and prides itself on its up-to-date and varied stock. The knowledgeable team includes booksellers and stockists who organise book launches and associated literary events. A community book group complements, keeping the world of books and creativity ticking along. Ageing artists, the erudite homeless, and young goths are frequent visitors, as are casual travellers.

When our story opens, an unprecedented book event is being planned, setting Eloise into a flutter. The elusive Isabella Garrante, a world-renowned author, desires to launch her latest novel in their humble store. The invitation is more of an obligation and includes few details. It is embargoed under threat of litigation, so in effect the couple are planning blind.

In these early pages, portioning out more information about Garrante or her books' appeal would have been helpful, so we could engage more enthusiastically with the suspense as it builds. We learn she is a crime writer of great repute, but little more. Eloise brainstorms launch ideas, capturing well the daily chaos that forms the heart of running such a business.

The plot strands quickly multiply. Beyond the easy harmony existing in The Village at Havelock North hovers a shadow, pain and questions in its shade. There is a resurgence of interest in a cold case. 17-year-old Te Mata High school girl, Tracey Jervis, has been missing since 1999, mystery swirling around the culpability of various men. Her school bag had been abandoned, her textbooks dumped. Her mother and many others still live locally, including local gang the Black Dogs, ferocious in their threats, and unsavoury property developers. Clues are dropped. Our resident detectives are eager to jump on board and wade through the speculation.

Like the Sherlocks, the novels’ authors are police officers turned book shop owners. Gareth and Louise Ward, too, are originally from England, and have made their home in Hawke's Bay, complete with dog. This work is the first in The Bookshop Detectives series and the authors' collaborative enjoyment is evident. There are in-jokes as they reference themselves and the literary territory they know so well. With Dead Girl Gone they have laid the groundwork for the setting, atmosphere, and regular ensemble cast. While a little slow at the start, and with multiple characters flung onto the scene, it becomes less hectic as we familiarise ourselves with the individuals. The point of view is shared between Garth and Eloise as they count down to a thrilling event, all the while doubly preoccupied with the Jervis case.

Though the constant changing between the two narrators complicates attention, the first-person perspective keeps us well engaged. The story takes unexpected turns through false leads. Characters are not who they seem, where much boils away under the surface and through the years in ostensibly peaceful smalltown New Zealand.

The Wards have set down a firm base from which to launch their detective series. Eloise and Garth are surely capable of keeping their neighbourhood in good form as they dig through the civil smalltown facade to the gritty menace that lies beneath. Reviewed by Jessie Neilson