When a well-known detective novelist runs a weekend course for wannabe writers at her cliff-top home in the Marlborough Sounds, the 'theory' of murder is on the agenda. But when a real dead body arrives in her cable car, things turn serious. Can Duggan separate 'fact' from 'fiction' before flattery completely clouds Constable Peach's judgement?
Life is good for the newly re-married Joanne Taylor. She runs a successful diving business in the Marlborough Sounds with her new husband, Michael, whom she adores, and her business partner Fraser, whom she trusts. But her new found happiness is shattered when her daughter mysteriously disappears, and the ransom notes begin to arrive?
A beachside camping ground attracts a lot of visitors, especially trim and tanned young tourists from Eastern Europe. How convenient then, that the Manager has his workshop located right next to the shower block, to provide the setting for a murder reminiscent of the famous Psycho scene?
Did he fall or was he pushed? When a popular student doesn't disembark from the Interislander ferry with the rest of his sports team, Duggan enlists Peach's help in going 'back to school' to uncover the reason behind the young man's disappearance. Suicide? Or Murder?
Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, is about to host an international symposium on spiders. But when one of the Museum's curators is found impaled on stag horns in a storeroom, it's up to Duggan to cut through a web of deceit and identify the killer.
Set in the world of Llama trekking and forestry gangs, DUGGAN shows brawn and brains when dealing with a body found in a burned-out car. With the able help of Constable Peach, and the reconstruction skills of pathologist Jennifer Collins and forensics expert Kevin Abercrombie, the woman's identity is slowly revealed, but not that of her killer.
When a beloved Pitbull terrier suddenly turns on it's owner and savagely attacks her, Duggan is called in to investigate. His suspicions about this 'accident', and his detailed investigation, reveal several people who have reason to be grateful for her death...
When workmen discover a 'skeleton in the closet' of an old house being moved, Duggan and Constable Peach are called in. Their investigation soon reveals that the dead body is just one of a number of 'family secrets' that need unlocking before the truth can come out.
(based on a story by Steven Page) An army survival exercise, on a remote island in the Marlborough Sounds, certainly doesn't live up to its name when a Sergeant is found brutally murdered. In a tense psychological thriller Duggan pits himself against the rugged terrain AND an unwritten 'code' that sees the remaining three soldiers quickly close ranks in front of 'outsiders'.
Does finding one of the chefs 'accidentally' locked in the freezer signal that the airline catering business has become totally cut-throat? Or has a love triangle proved a recipe for disaster? It's up to Duggan and Peach to answer these questions, and find out why the dead man had his fingers in so many pies?