Carved in Blood: A Hana Westerman Thriller

I was excited to be able to catch up with Hana and her family in a new installment of this series from New Zealand. One of the things that I enjoy about this series are the footnotes that Bennett includes on Maori words, customs and traditions. I don’t know if the audiobooks provide that, but I can’t imagine how well that comes across in the audio version.The book summary pretty much lays out the first half of the story. Addison, Hana and her ex-Jaye’s daughter, announce that she and Plus 1, her non-binary partner, are getting married. On his way home, Jay decides he wants to buy champagne for the upcoming engagement party and stops into a local store and is shot while trying to save the store manager during a robbery. He’s critically wounded and on life support. However, what the book summary doesn’t mention is that the robbery was a probably a cover and that Jaye was the target. This is not a spoiler because it was revealed really early in the story.There are the secondary stories of Hana rejoining the force so she can join the investigation into Jaye’s shooting. She also recruits another ex-officer, Sebastian, who she has a long-standing friendship with and new intimate relationship with. There is another one with Addison, who works as a volunteer at Gen Helpline, an anonymous call in service for teens. One of her call ins seems to know something about Jaye’s shooting. So, Addison and Plus 1 recruit Stan to help them find this caller. Stan is an officer who was injured in the last installment and is now on desk duty. Stan is working hard to get back on active duty from his injury and has started using drugs (steroids) to build his strength (he lost the lower part of his leg and has a prosthetic leg). Stan is suffering from sleep deprivation and PTSD, both of which are made worse with his drug use.Most of the story flips back and forth between the different storylines and their respective involvement and relationship to the shooting investigation. There is also the shooter, who Bennett has kind of made it seem like it’s the shooter that the police are pursuing. However, I’m having my doubts. I suspect that Bennett is setting up the reader for a shocking reveal in the end.The continuing character development of Hana and her family was well done along with Stan and Elsa Williams, who was the DI that was transferred to Auckland to head the investigation of Jaye’s shooting. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline interesting. The writing was good too, and once again, I enjoyed the background of the Maori people and customs. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.3 that I will round down to a 4star review.

I loved the first book of his with these characters, book number 2, i gave it a 4.5. So was looking forward to reading this but somehow it didn't work for me, it lacked the depth of the other book and while it was nice to check back in with the characters and their evolution, it didn't grab me. I will try his other books 3.5

Jaye goes to a liquor store to buy champagne for his daughter's engagement party but the store is robbed and in the process he's gunned down by a man wearing a balaclava and will be left fighting for his life. The main suspect is a young maori man, Toa, who does small jobs for a well-known drug dealer and the car plus his prints and phone are strong proof of his involvement. However, his girlfriend swears he's being set up. Hana, Jaye's ex-wife, will work on the investigation non-stop, after she's sworn again into the Police Force. They'll discover that maybe the main object at the liquor store was not the money in the till but the targetting of Jay (he had worked undercover in the past) and they'll find who is responsible, but will they be able to put him behind bars? Will Jaye survive his ordeal? Besides the mystery/police procedural Carved in Blood, is an in-depth portrait of New Zealand's culture and problems/prejudice with Maori nation.I thank the author, his publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.