LucyO

It’s the 1980s and a suddenly jobless Bob Johnstone leaves London for New Zealand’s familiar terrain. Bob settles into his old Gran’s bach at Whitecliffs Valley, reviving dusty memories of school holidays as he contemplates what’s next for him. But how long can Bob roam the thorny tracks of his youth before the present intrudes?

Bob’s quiet retirement quickly goes all sixes and sevens, and he discovers no-one is who they appear to be. His return to Whitecliffs ignites a fuse that inflames hatreds—and passions—thought long extinguished. Bob finds the old Dutchman is bitter and vicious as ever, and clever Gran, though many-years dead, haunts Bob’s dreams. At the heart of it all is beautiful, red-haired Lucyo, whose reappearance is as mysterious as her death.

The country of Bob’s youth becomes a back track of murder and deceit, reaching from 1940s war-torn Holland to 1980s New Zealand, where crime, death, and romance flip Bob, quite literally, battered head over busted heels.

LucyO is a crime story laced with humor and romance where regular folk use wits and tenacity to unravel conspiracies and unmask evil. In LucyO, the men are smart, the women are often smarter, and the South Island is intense and surprising.