Burning the Evidence

- Blurb -

An unforgettable historical novel comes from Auckland newcomer Terri Kessell. She combines a novelist's skill with a historians exciting research into early NZ history ' the murderous affray of the burning of the Boyd. This transfixed the world of 1809 when a clash with Maori seeking revenge ' utu ' resulted in one of the most famous fires in maritime history. For years the world's sailing ships stopped visiting New Zealand's Bay of Islands and surrounding ports, such was the fear engendered. One woman survived and witnessed the whole affair through to the end. Young Englishwoman Ann, feisty and altogether, has been sent out to the horrors of Sydney's penal colony. Her crime: stealing a piece of linen. How she eventually escapes the horrors of this convict-world and gets caught up in a new and terrifying chapter in New Zealand's history is the backbone of the strongly told narrative. But it is Ann's very special character that makes this a book hard to put down and hard to forget. She heads a cast of men and women on both sides of the Tasman whose interactions push the boundaries of the usual historical novel. Burning The Evidence is different, and it is true.