Kaikōura Rendezvous
by Stephen Johnson
This novel is well named because the theme of the book is a rendezvous of many characters.
The human characters include Saffron an elderly Oxford professor with a witchlike ability to predict the passage of storms. A major player is Gita, a tropical cyclone relentlessly moving South and destined to smash into the tourist / fishing village of Kaikōura threatening the town and the nefarious plans evolving within it.
As time progresses the author provides brief updates on the progression of the numerous characters with their individual but interlocking motivations. This technique controls the format of the book as the reader rapidly moves between plot and sub plot caused by the motivations and diversity of the key players.
Within a motor home called Kwozzimoto reporters from Australia searching for a newsworthy story about the impending storm are in the process of uncovering an unexpected series of events with personal implications.
Meanwhile at sea a damaged Cypriot ship called the Hopline was carrying an additional small cargo that wouldn’t be found on any legal inventory. The ship’s master intended dropping this package where a Kaikōura fishing vessel named WOFTAM (Waste Of Fucking Time And Money) owned by a failed commercial fisherman would try to retrieve it and exchange it for a potential payment that would make sense of the remainder of his life. But a tropical cyclone is smashing into the coast with unprecedented ferocity and there’s a group of heavies in town. Others emerge with a more than casual interest in the cargo as well as an investigator, with a history, and a local police force inexperienced, and out of their depth, in dealing with the unfolding events.
As the title of the book implies these events converge to a final and fatal rendezvous in Kaikoura where the complexities and the numerous sub plots become resolved, for good or ill, within a crime based underworld few of us would ever experience in real life. Those interested in exploring these clandestine stories where motivations and personalities clash would probably enjoy “Kaikōura Rendezvous”.
The book is printed in paperback and has been written by an author who clearly knows the area where the novel is set.
by Stephen Johnson
This novel is well named because the theme of the book is a rendezvous of many characters.
The human characters include Saffron an elderly Oxford professor with a witchlike ability to predict the passage of storms. A major player is Gita, a tropical cyclone relentlessly moving South and destined to smash into the tourist / fishing village of Kaikōura threatening the town and the nefarious plans evolving within it.
As time progresses the author provides brief updates on the progression of the numerous characters with their individual but interlocking motivations. This technique controls the format of the book as the reader rapidly moves between plot and sub plot caused by the motivations and diversity of the key players.
Within a motor home called Kwozzimoto reporters from Australia searching for a newsworthy story about the impending storm are in the process of uncovering an unexpected series of events with personal implications.
Meanwhile at sea a damaged Cypriot ship called the Hopline was carrying an additional small cargo that wouldn’t be found on any legal inventory. The ship’s master intended dropping this package where a Kaikōura fishing vessel named WOFTAM (Waste Of Fucking Time And Money) owned by a failed commercial fisherman would try to retrieve it and exchange it for a potential payment that would make sense of the remainder of his life. But a tropical cyclone is smashing into the coast with unprecedented ferocity and there’s a group of heavies in town. Others emerge with a more than casual interest in the cargo as well as an investigator, with a history, and a local police force inexperienced, and out of their depth, in dealing with the unfolding events.
As the title of the book implies these events converge to a final and fatal rendezvous in Kaikoura where the complexities and the numerous sub plots become resolved, for good or ill, within a crime based underworld few of us would ever experience in real life. Those interested in exploring these clandestine stories where motivations and personalities clash would probably enjoy “Kaikōura Rendezvous”.
The book is printed in paperback and has been written by an author who clearly knows the area where the novel is set.
Review by Peter Thomas
Title: Kaikōura Rendezvous
Author: Stephen Johnson
Publisher: Clan Destine Press
ISBN: 9781922904454
RRP: $36.95
Available: Paperback and eBook; Clan Destine Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Mighty Ape, The Little Book Shop
Author: Stephen Johnson
Publisher: Clan Destine Press
ISBN: 9781922904454
RRP: $36.95
Available: Paperback and eBook; Clan Destine Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Mighty Ape, The Little Book Shop
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