Lucky Thing

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE NED KELLY INTERNATIONAL CRIME AWARD 2026****LONGLISTED FOR THE NGAIO MARSH AWARDS 2026**'Tom Baragwanath is an excellent writer . . . a powerful, action-packed tale of "pain and malice, anger [and] hate" The TimesWhen brilliant young student Jessica Mowbrie is left in a coma after being abandoned in a remote patch of New Zealand bush, the local Masterton police don't have a clue what happened. Isolated and under-resourced, the detectives struggle even to begin piecing it together.Police records clerk Lorraine Henry will not accept that Jessie simply had a lucky escape. She thinks whoever hurt her needs to be hunted down, and worries that her employers are a bit hopeless.As Jessie's life hangs in the balance, it looks as if Lorraine will do the hunting. She's not getting any younger, of course. But she has all the police records at her fingertips - and as much information about who hates who as anyone in their small town. Plus, she's used to being under-estimated. And you should never under-estimate a middle-aged woman with justice in her sights . . .In this follow-up to his award-winning crime novel Paper Cage, Tom Baragwanath delivers another bone-deep exploration of life in the margins of small-town New Zealand.'Quietly devastating, with a strong sense of place, this is noir rooted in realism' ipaperPraise for Paper Cage'A protagonist who is impossible not to root for . . . breathtakingly compelling' Daily Mail'An astonishing debut with a wonderfully flawed character . . . full of heart and determination' James Oswald, author of All That Lives