Acknowledgements
These stories have been revised, reshaped and in most cases entirely rewritten from their original publication in the New Zealand Herald, Metro, North & South and the Sunday Star-Times. One of the abiding pleasures of working in journalism is the opportunity to learn from the best in the field; my thanks and gratitude to the editorial guidance and professional expertise of staff at those newspapers and magazines: Shayne Currie, Jared Savage, Tim Murphy, Chris Reed, Simon Wilson, Virginia Larson, Cate Brett, Miriyana Alexander, and the incomparable Donna Chisholm.
Finlay Macdonald has been my best friend since I left adolescence for early adulthood at the age of 30. His commissioning of this book, and our conversations about its thinking and its intent, are the latest evidence of his support and also his rare intelligence.
My thanks also to Rachel Dennis and Kate Stone for their skill and attentiveness in helping to shape the book and its contents.
Writing a book separates the author from their family. I was a remote creature preoccupied with thoughts of violent crime while I wrote this book, but my heart always was and always will be with Emily and Minka.
About the Author
STEVE BRAUNIAS has won over 30 national writing awards as a journalist, satirist, author and television writer, including fellowships to Oxford University and Cambridge University. He works for the New Zealand Herald, and is the proprietor of Luncheon Sausage Books. He lives in Te Atatu with his partner and their young daughter.
Also by Steve Braunias
Fool’s Paradise (2001)
How to Watch a Bird (2007)
Fish of the Week (2008)
Roosters I Have Known (2009)
Smoking in Antartica (2010)
Civilisation: 20 places on the the edge of the world (2012)
Madmen: Inside the weirdest election campaign ever (2014)
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2015
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
harpercollins.co.nz
Copyright © Steve Braunias 2015
Steve Braunias asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. This work is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA
National Library of New Zealand cataloguing-in-publication data:
Braunias, Steve.
The scene of the crime / by Steve Braunias.
ISBN 978-1-77554-083-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-77549-120-0 (ebook)
1. Murderers—New Zealand. 2. Violent offenders—New Zealand.
3. Criminal psychology. 4. Criminal investigation—New Zealand.
I. Title.
793.31993—dc 23
Cover design by Christa Moffitt, Christabella Designs
Cover image by shutterstock.com
