Missing Persons

by Steve Braunias

Twelve extraordinary tales of a collection of true crime writing by New Zealand's award-winning master of non-fiction.Former journalist Murray Mason, found dead in the Auckland Domain; the mysterious death of Socksay Chansy, found dead in a graveyard by the sea; the tragic disappearance of backpacker Grace Millane, victim of public enemy #1; the enduring mystery of the Lundy family murders... These are stories about how some New Zealanders go missing - the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2021

About the author

Steven Carl Braunias (born in New Zealand, to an Austrian immigrant father and a New Zealand-born mother) is a New Zealand author, columnist, journalist and editor.

extract from Wikipedia bio

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

PAPERBACK EDITION

This is familiar territory for Braunias, and I suppose this is a sequel of sorts to his thoroughly enjoyable, “Scene of The Crime”. In here he revisits some of the cases featured in that collection, but also writes about some new ones too, not least the murder of the English backpacker, Grace Millane, which gained global attention.

“Missing Persons” is a book which highlights the best and worst of the New Zealand justice system.
The amount of grey areas and inconsistencies in the Lundy case frightens me. It features some highly dubious evidence, not least the material produced by a Texan pathologist, using a kind of technique so obscure and mistrusted that apparently it has never be used anywhere else for a forensic criminal investigation. This also reminds you how important likeability factor plays in gaining in public sympathy which of course extends to the courts too.

Though surely the most shameful miscarriage of justice has to be in the case of Teina Pora, two juries found him guilty of a crime he did not commit and two juries were unable to reach a verdict with the real killer Malcolm Rewa. He languished in jail for two decades thanks to the lies and incompetence of all those involved in that saga. Elsewhere we get the fascinating story of the mysterious Murray Mason?...which was my favourite of the lot.

Of course these are stories filled with sadness, tragedy and trauma, and all of these seem more potent when they clash with the banality of the circumstances in which most of them occurred. We do get some respite from all the death and killing in the cases of Kim Dotcom and Colin Craig, which also have a dark comedy aspect to them.

We also get a flavour for the tedium and farce of court reporting and we’re reminded just how low dreadful criminal defence lawyers are willing to stoop to humiliate victims and protect the guilty.
Now if there is a country on earth which doesn’t have corrupt police officers and miscarriages of justice, then I have yet to learn its name, we see both in here, as well as showcasing justice working at its best.

NZ seems to have a treasure trove of top true crime books and this is another strong addition. This was a really good read, bustling with insights and mysteries aplenty. I always enjoy reading Braunias and he remains one of the most vital and engaging journalists working in NZ today and this is another fine piece of work.

[Rosetta Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. The journalist. The bad guys. The good guys. The peeking over fences and doors shut in his face. The wit. Many laugh-out-loud moments, though it had me getting up in the night to check the doors.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories behind headlines. #3wordbookreview

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that was some tough reading. Very tragic stories here of lives gone wrong. But superbly written by a Kiwi national treasure.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Missing Persons" left me feeling uncomfortable, uneasy and a little disturbed. It made me think about people and how we think we know someone, but yeah nah, - we don't really. People are different depending on who they are with. People have hidden feelings, secret shames, deep-rooted angsts that are unshared but lie at the base of all their behaviors. "Missing Persons" contains the stories of people who have died or disappeared, in tragic circumstances - and how all that came to pass. These are cases that are well known, highly profiled in the media. And you hear all that unfolds through the media and you think you know it all - but you don't, because you can't see inside someone's soul - you don't know what's going on inside someone's head.

[Fiona Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-treated exploration of some of New Zealand's most distasteful murders and missing persons cases, from one of our most astute reporters.

[Diane Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A very incongruent assortment of NZ true crime stories - I really could see no pattern or determinable connection between any of them. Strangely, very few of them were to do with the ‘missing persons’ hinted at by the title either. That is not to say this was not an enjoyable compendium. A lot of these cases were intriguing as I had never come across them before, and others proved interesting but more from a human interest perspective than for their criminal element. Many though were sparse in actual legal/forensic detail. If I were not living in NZ, there were a few that would have left me floundering for clarification. I guess that’s what this author’s differential is in terms of crime writing: as a journalist, he looks at cases in a very different way than a criminal ‘historian’ might, and indeed his talent lies in the peripheral details he appears to notice and highlight that others would not. Your enjoyment of this book will very much depend on which style of true crime recount you prefer.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Braunias is a brilliant writer and he's never better than when handling this sort of material - crime reporting, broadly - with his trademark mix of dispassionate reportage and deep-dive exhuming of humanity's darkest hour/s. Another superb volume of the writer very near his top game.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was interesting but the writing style drove me nuts.

[Jonathan Corfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose you couldn't help but wonder about what makes people the way they are if you sat in the High Court watching criminal trials. For people to even get to the High Court for such a thing something deeply significant has to have happened: a rape, a murder, over a million pamphlets being produced and sent throughout the country telling people you've done something you didn't. For all the flippancy of the last one, the court is a place where people's characters are laid bare and while continuous defamation litigation doesn't arouse much sympathy, there are still human lives exposed in the bright, intrusive light of public examination.
It makes for a fascinating study.
The title is slightly misleading. There are more murdered people in this book than missing ones, although the murderers themselves have something missing.
Awareness, empathy, hope in many cases. Steve Braunias writes with considerable insight and with humanity. He wants to see the human side of Jesse Kempson, Mark Lundy, Malcolm Rewa, Kim Dotcom and Colin Craig. He wonders why they do/did the things they did or (occasionally) didn't do. He records the circumstances, probes their characters and lets you make your own judgment.
Not the most uplifting book, not like the last one of his I read. No, this is a book that makes you look at the stranger in the cafe near you and ponder what darkness exists in their lives or whether the bloke in the car in front of you has a folded up body in a suitcase in the boot.
People are odd.
Not all of them end up in the High Court though...

[Barnaby Haszard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hardly ever read true crime, so why not turn to the master? Braunias always goes way beyond the facts to the social undercurrents, notably when the mum of a horrid convicted murderer makes a cameo at the end of one story over some beers with mates. Braunias gets New Zealand. But I'm struggling to see how Kempson's sentencing 'redeems' Grace Millane, as the final chapter heading suggests. The public still see her as the victim of an awful crime, a person who was loved and desperately unlucky, just as they always did.

[Gareth · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty good book although the title is misleading. only one missing person case covered. Expect this is the publishers fault though, not the author. Braunias puts his best kiwi-bloke spin which shines through.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoy his writing style in general, but the most almighty clanger of a typo on page 36 means I’m going to have to put the book down for a week to rest before I pick it up again. Who is your proof reader Steve?!

[Helen Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Steve’s writing and his ironic wit and the New Zealand stories of true crime and missing people make a great read. Interesting but also some sad and tragic cases.
However Colin Craig and Kim Dotcom’s stories provided some light relief!

[Klaas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good follow up to Scene of the Crime. Steve Braunias has a great empathy and gives us a glimpse of the human impacts, experience and suffering that goes well beyond the newspaper reports of crimes and mysteries that captivate New Zealanders.

[Tamsyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from one of my favourite NZ writers.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journalists take on some of NZ's famous deaths.
The story of Socksay Chansy really had me in tears - leaving a Koha for sleeping rough. Dude.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating read, a reminder that there are some really nasty people out there and also some sad individuals who just lose their way in life.

[Nicola Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a interesting collection of stories that Steve Braunias has reported on - mostly murder cases, so the title is a bit misleading. I thought it was well-written and easy to read, even though the cases and perpetrators themselves were distasteful.

[Amanda Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missing Persons throws a spotlight on some of New Zealand's most famous murders,mysteries and trials.
1 Grace Millane
2 Mark Lundy
3 Socksay Chansay
4 Malcom Rewa
5 Simonne Butler
6 Nigel Peterson
7 Kim Dotcom
8 Colin Craig
9 Anna Browne
10Murray Mason

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another instalment in the trilogy by Braunias. This one is just a solid as the first book, with the same repetitive nature with rehashing some more well-known crimes. However there were some little know other crimes to keep you interested.