Softly
Calls the Devil (Echo, November 2025) by Christopher Blake is the second
book about New Zealand cop Matt Buchanan. The first book was shortlisted for
the Best First and the Best Novel of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh awards.
Here Matt is
happier in his new job, an ostensible demotion from his high-powered Criminal
Investigation Bureau role to the rural community of Haast, where he is doing
routine small-town policing. After a year he’s settled in to the slower pace of
life and has grown to like the people of the area. Breaking up the intermittent
teenage party and warning the local pothead about his marijuana crop and
navigating the occasional traffic snafu is right up his alley these days.
Matt is good
friends with his predecessor Gus, who retired when Matt took over the job but
stayed in the area. Over a beer or two Gus tells Matt that he’s been looking
into an old case of murder-suicide that wasn’t what it seemed, and he wanted to
tell Matt about it some time. A day later Gus is found shot in the head. No
chance of a hunting accident. Matt had to wonder if Gus was killed because of
what he had learned about the old case. And just who heard Gus tell Matt he
wanted to hand off his research to him.
The murder
investigation was the province of the CIB and therefore out of Matt’s
jurisdiction but nothing kept him from looking at that old case, an especially
ugly story of a father killing his daughter and wife and then killing himself,
to try to find the new information that Gus had uncovered. It led him to a
forgotten commune and to an older gang, both of which had ties to some of the
present-day Haast locals.
Blake is a
serving police officer himself and he knows what he writes about, which gives
the story more than superficial realism. He runs the Behavioural Science unit
of the New Zealand Police in Wellington, see https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/new-zealand-cop-makes-stunning-killer-admission/news-story/d9aff330076fe36b13dcd1fa00ff9ff9.
I particularly like that Blake has made Matt a team player who follows the
rules and respects his management, who in turn appear to respect Matt. I am really
tired of the lone wolf cop.
What starts
out as a police procedural turns into so much more: a multi-faceted cold case, a
meditation on mid-life re-invention, a scenic tour around the Haast region of
the island, and a reminder that old sins can come to light long after the
evildoer thinks they are buried.
A complicated
and fascinating read. Highly recommended.
·
Publisher: Echo
·
Publication date: November 4, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 278 pages
·
ISBN-13: 978-1786585417
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4rP613P
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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