Ripples on the Lake

by Dawn Rotarangi

A taut, tightly-written paranormal thriller about what happens when a Pakeha family unwittingly invoke an ancient tohunga's curse. When an out-of-it Billy Delaney steals coins from a sacred rock on the shores of Lake Taupo to buy a hamburger late one night, he has no idea what he is about to unleash upon himself and his immediate family. But then Billy has always been trouble, and when the oldest of Lucy Delaney's children, Saffron, steps in to try and take care of him yet again, trouble swarms over the Delaneys like bees on a honey pot. First Saffron and Billy's young niece suffers an horrific traffic accident, leaving her in a coma, balanced between life and death. Then the Delaneys begin to die horribly, one by one. It is left to a disbelieving Saffron and an unlikely ally, Nick - the burnt out war photographer trying to piece his life back together in a country backwater - to try to appease the wrath of the ancient tohunga Tama Ariki, whose quest for utu for his slain mokopuna echoes down the years. Set in and around Lake Taupo, the author creates a subtle web of superstition and the supernatural, bringing together both Maori and Celtic imagery to create a paranormal adventure that is pure Aotearoa.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It gets straight in to the action.
Based around a family of grown siblings - four girls (main character Saffron) and one guy (gambling brother Billy) - with no parents. I felt the author just left that info there for you to understand the connection in their family unit without needing to spend the first four chapters introducing every detail of the characters individually. It's set over only a few days so it really doesn't leave a lot of time for those details anyhow.
I could maybe have had a couple more pages at the end, just to round out things a little more (Like what happened to Gilbert?).
I'd certainly read another book by Dawn Rotarangi.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast-paced tale of spirits and revenge. And set in Taupo, which is nice - I'm relatively familiar with it, and it's always good to see a NZ location in speculative fiction.

There are some lovely creepy images here, it's as much horror as fantasy I reckon. That being said, the characterisation is wafer thin. Read it for action and creepiness and location instead.