From the Far North to the wild West Coast, Fiona Sussman meets three authors of gripping crime thrillers in distinctly NZ settings: Zoë Rankin (The Vanishing Place), Chris Blake (Softly Calls the Devil) and Catherine Lea (The Deeper the Dead).

What makes these isolated towns in some of NZ’s most remote spots such fertile ground for these crime writers?

Which unique characteristics of their settings did they draw upon to create their atmospheric and menacing works?

And, when depicting real people and places (particularly in close-knit communities), how did they navigate the line between fact and fiction?

Join them to find out.