Major book retailer Paper Plus says it will not stock an upcoming book about the deaths of the Kahui twins.
The book, Breaking Silence: The Kahui Case, was written by journalist Ian Wishhart and the twins' mother Macsyna King.
Paper Plus chief executive Rob Smith today said the bookseller had received a "significant volume" of feedback about the book online, in stores and at its support office.
The company had also consulted its franchise holders to "understand their position on the subject".
"The prevailing opinion is that our stores do not feel comfortable selling this book and our customers do not want to buy it," Mr Smith said.
"This is certainly not about censorship or Paper Plus taking the moral high ground. We are simply listening to our most important stakeholders and acting in accordance with their feelings."
Chris and Cru were three months old when they died of deliberately inflicted head injuries in 2006. Their father, Chris Kahui, was acquitted of their murders in May 2008. His defence claimed that the injuries were caused by Ms King, who has also denied the killings.
An Auckland inquest into the deaths has been hearing evidence from four paediatrics and pathology specialists over the past two days.
A fast-growing Facebook group has called for people to boycott the book.
The group, which has 26,000 "likes", says Ms King will profit from her story and dozens of subscribers abused her for her part in her sons' deaths, after they were admitted to hospital with terrible injuries.
Wishart, editor of Investigate magazine, told NZPA yesterday Ms King would not get a cent of royalties from the book, due out at the end of July.
He wrote the book after Ms King contacted him last year. She did not trust journalists but wanted to tell her story, he said.
Wishart said the Facebook criticism and boycotting books was not the answer.
"Information is the life-blood of a free society and we need to know as a society what went on in the Kahui case."
Everyone was after answers but the people against the book were basing their argument on a couple of 500-word newspaper articles, he said.
Wishart said Ms King would "be the first person in the country to admit that she's not the world's greatest mother and that the decisions she made, the life choices she made led to self destruction".
"I don't think she deserves the oprobrium that has been flung at her. They have heard the best the defence lawyers could do for Chris, we've all heard that, they will now hear Macsyna's side of the story and then people can start to make intelligent debate."
