Folded

FOLDED
Tina Clough
Lightpool Publishing

REVIEWED By JESSIE NEILSON

Tina Clough is a Swedish-born writer who is based near Napier. She specialises in crime novels and Folded is the third in her Hunter Grant series.

Hunter, a war veteran back from Afghanistan, is now married to young Dao, his partner in detective work as well as in domesticity. Dao, who is part-Vietnamese, spent her teens imprisoned by a brutal drug dealer and is thus traumatised and fearful of the outside world. She was found by Hunter, and though they are happy together, they must remain ever vigilant because of the situations in which they are immersed. In this book, girls and young women are being abducted, held hostage in an inner-city Auckland apartment, before disappearing, and our couple are called upon because of their experience at subterfuge in investigation.

Dao has come out of her shell over time and is willing to take on any possible leads, regardless of personal danger, perhaps seeing parallels to her own previous enslavement.

The story unfolds when one of these kidnappings is witnessed by physics student Mariko. During the incident she too is ambushed and imprisoned. Mariko uses an assortment of objects and methods, such as origami cranes, tiny pencilled handwriting, and physics textbooks, to signal the predicament. An office worker, Grace, bends down one day and picks up one such origami figure.

However, with police input, led by the irascible detective Inspector Bakker, the official investigation is anything but straightforward. Some of the witnesses or participants have histories either with the underground world or with the police and are now hesitant to use official channels. Several other people enlist themselves in private quests, including John Anderson, Mariko's wealthy American father, an untrustworthy businessman, as well as Hunter and Dao and their allies.

The plot becomes increasingly complicated as character details are released. While the action stays in Auckland, it changes locale. Dao and Hunter become the central figures in the book, although even Hunter is privy to only some of Dao's night-time investigative activities.

Clough prioritises characters and their relationships as she probes their interactions and motivations. Dao and Mariko develop into well-rounded and sympathetic characters. While the plot develops at a good pace, with slow reveal, perhaps secondary settings and characters could also have been elaborated upon. John Anderson is a fascinating villain, about whom we could learn more and Inspector Bakker promised good material if given space to narrate.

However, it would be impossible to cover all viewpoints, and Dao and Hunter do a great job of holding down their fort against thuggish infiltrators, while simultaneously taking on precarious missions in an original and thoroughly worthwhile work.

Jessie Neilson is a University of Otago library assistant

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