#BlogTour-‘The Ringmaster’ by Vanda Symon

About the book…

Massive thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things for having me on the Orenda Books blogtour for ‘The Ringmaster’ by Vanda Symon

The heart-stoppingly tense next instalment in the richly atmospheric, bestselling Sam Shephard series … for fans of The Dry

`Vanda Symon is part of a new wave of Kiwi crime writers … her talent for creating well-rounded characters permeates throughout’ Crimewatch

`It is Symon’s copper Sam, self-deprecating and very human, who represents the writer’s real achievement’ Barry Forshaw, The Guardian

Death is stalking the South Island of New Zealand

Marginalised by previous antics, Sam Shephard, is on the bottom rung of detective training in Dunedin, and her boss makes sure she knows it. She gets involved in her first homicide investigation, when a university student is murdered in the Botanic Gardens, and Sam soon discovers this is not an isolated incident. There is a chilling prospect of a predator loose in Dunedin, and a very strong possibility that the deaths are linked to a visiting circus…

Determined to find out who’s running the show, and to prove herself, Sam throws herself into an investigation that can have only one ending…

Rich with atmosphere, humour and a dark, shocking plot, The Ringmaster marks the return of passionate, headstrong police officer, Sam Shephard, in the next instalment of Vanda Symon’s bestselling series.

Sam Shepard has balls. This is mentioned more than once in ‘The Ringmaster’, Sam’s second outing, where she has been ceremoniously chucked to the bottom of the pile in her police department for infringements detailed in her first outing, ‘Overkill’ by her superior officer, D.I Johns. And she is given plenty of opportunities to use them in this serial killer mystery set in New Zealand.

Vanda Symon cleverly hints at the fact that Sam has behaved in a way contrary to the expectations of how a police officer, a female police officer should behave, and keeps Sam unrepentant and continuously hard working, no matter what menial task she is given.

In fact, it is because of these menial tasks which she attacks with gusto due to her sense of pride in doing her job, not to prove anything to any one else in an intenselt patriarchal profession, that she finds the link between the murder which opens the book and the travelling circus which has arrived in her home town of Dunedin.

Following a shocking opener where precision and skill is used to scare the wits out of the reader, short, sharp chapters echo Sam’s precise and keen detecting skills as well as her dialogue, establishing her as a whip smart woman , friend, detective and family member.

Within  the very first chapter, Vanda Symon has captured the essence of the killer who is hunting his prey in plain sight, with hints that he has done this before and getting better at his ‘work’. This is followed swiftly by the introduction of Sam, establishing her place in the police force and her particular way of working.

She has been sent to disperse a crowd of social justice warriors, protesting against a circus with live animals -their unique USP is locking one of their members inside a lion cage . Her swift and cleverly hilarious way of diffusing the situation strikes you right off the bat as a character you want to go for a drink with.

Unlike many other women detectives, Sam seems pretty happy with her lot in life, she has friends and family and a life-she doesn’t seem to have been laden with the issues which are presented in many female led, crime novels and which, to my mind, undermines their characters. It’s almost as though a trade off has been made-you cannot be an exceptional police officer without sacrificing some essential part of yourself, or the thing that makes you female.

Sam, however, proves herself again and again as she faces down situations which would make a grown man cry in some stunning set pieces which were so well represented you could see exactly how they would unfold on the small screen.

As the detectives establish that there is a potential serial killer on the loose, they not only have to deal with a terrifified public thanks to a departmental leak, they are tackling the media perception of the crimes and the police themselves which is no easy task.

At the same time they are having to deal with the impact of the circus, societal perceptions of this as a form of entertainment, as well as the crimes whilst maintaining public safety and confidence levels. This is brilliantly conveyed by the interpersonal banter of the detectives, the dialogue shines as exemplary in creating a sense of urgency as well as time, place and familiarity.

The set up is very different from any crime novel I have read before , it feels as though you are eavesdropping on a series that has been going on for decades rather than a second novel, Vanda Symon’s voice is assured, loud and absolutely her own.

A Ringmaster is defined as a ‘person who directs the circus performance‘, and in this instance there several ways in which this could be interpreted.

It could be the killer, it could be Sam, it could be Vanda herself who is the ringmaster.Often the perception of a ‘circus’ is of something wild and death defying,brightly coloured and exotic brought into the mainstream to challenge and reinforce day to day normality. It allows you to step outside the monotony of daily life and into the brightly coloured big top and be within touching distance of talents that do not get recognised by society at large which places little to no value on the peripatetic lifestyle of circus folk.

And yet, paradoxically, every time the circus rolls into town , we queue up and imagine, for a brief moment, what it would be like to pack things up, run away from our boring lives and go on the road with them.

Touching distance is a close as we’ll ever get, however, and in ‘The Ringmaster’ , Vanda Symons creates the opportunity for us as readers to get close enough to smell the sawdust and greasepaint but without the sickly feeling of overdoing the condy floss and hotdogs. She presents trope after trope of detective fiction and shoots them down with an elephant gun in the form of Sam Shepard,packs a lot of story into a relatively short book which establishes her as a forerunner in the crime scene. Her sense of place and creation of atmosphere cannot be faulted.

As for who is wearing the top hat and cracking the whip in this performance, that is for you to read ‘The Ringmaster’ and decide for yourself.

About the author…

Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from
Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland
branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard
series has climbed to number one on the New Zealand bestseller
list, and also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for best
crime novel. She currently lives in Dunedin with her husband and 2 sons.

Links-https://www.sandiwallace.com/spotlight-on-nz-crime-writer-and-soon-to-be-dr-vanda-symon/

Twitter @vandasymon

@Orendabooks

@annecater