THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

J. R. Lonie’s The Woman in the Spotlight is an ambitious and atmospheric work of historical fiction that situates personal ambition, artistic integrity, and moral courage against the tightening grip of Nazism in early 1930s Berlin. Set at a moment when German cultural life was vibrant yet already imperilled, the novel offers a tense, psychologically layered exploration of how artists survive—and resist—when creativity itself becomes politicised. It is a slow-burn historical thriller that places performance, both literal and metaphorical, at the centre of survival

From building a childhood hoard of Dalek toys in 1960s South London to establishing himself as one of the most respected chroniclers of Doctor Who, David J. Howe’s life has unfolded in parallel with the series itself. In this lively and reflective memoir, Howe charts his progression from wide‑eyed young viewer to trusted authority, sharing rare perspectives on the programme’s development across more than sixty years. He invites readers behind the curtain of pivotal moments in Doctor Who history, from the birth of fan conventions to the creation of influential reference books, while weaving in personal experiences such as collaborating with Jon Pertwee on his autobiography and witnessing the rise of the BBC’s merchandising machine.

War in the Middle East seems endless. Journalism in this space has become jaded. It's the same old churn. Politics, negotiation, war, death, carnage, reconciliation, dispute, fight, war, carnage, reconciliation. Over and Over.  If you are paying attention, then you'll notice the cycle is starting again. The war in Gaza, in Iran, and 'gawd knows' where else. It's over and over again. It jades every journalist who goes running into the fire looking for the flames. They get burned for sure but still want to own matches.  Phoebe Greenwood’s Vulture is a darkly comic, deeply unsettling debut that turns a forensic gaze on the moral economy of war journalism. While the novel is often discussed as a satire of foreign correspondence, Greenwood’s own reflections make clear that its true subject is not simply the media industry but the psychic cost of witnessing—and consuming—catastrophe. Drawing on Greenwood’s years as a Middle East correspondent, Vulture interrogates how amb...

Set during a sweltering summer in 1966 California, The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives opens with a premise that is both startling and quietly intimate. Elizabeth Arnott centres her novel on three women—Beverley, Elsie and Margot—whose husbands were convicted serial killers, binding them together in a friendship forged from shared shock, trauma and public scrutiny. What follows is a tense yet deeply compassionate psychological thriller that shifts the focus away from the crimes themselves and onto the women left behind to navigate their aftermath. Years after their husbands’ convictions, Beverley, Elsie and Margot are attempting to rebuild their lives, though none of them are quite sure what that rebuilding should look like. They are stared at, whispered about, and endlessly judged by a society obsessed with the same question they privately ask themselves: How could they not have known? Arnott, an award‑winning journalist who also writes historical fiction as Lizzie Pook, explores the...

In February 1987, a school bus accident in Hawke’s Bay changed many lives forever. The bus rolled down a steep bank, killing five people — students Kate Hutchinson and Belinda Pittar, teachers Julie Watson and Phillip Knight, and the driver Cedric Goucher — and leaving several others injured. Among them was 16-year-old Sally Wenley, who survived but was rendered paraplegic. The Crash is Wenley’s return to that moment and, more importantly, to the decades that followed. Before the accident, Wenley was a standout all‑round athlete — leading her school’s First Eleven cricket and hockey teams, ranked at the top of the squash ladder, and preparing to compete in her first triathlon. Photo Supplied : Massey University Press Wenley introduces her younger self as a “driven, fun-loving and at times naughty sports prefect,” a teenager whose identity was built around movement, independence, and ambition. The sudden violence of the crash shattered not only her body but the straightforward future sh...

(To paraphrase, darlings) There’s a dead body in my living room.  I’ve not called the police because it was I who stabbed him. Seven times in all. The truth is, it’s surprisingly difficult to dispatch someone with a vegetable knife.  In case you’re wondering, the dead man is not my husband. I do resent our pitiful sex life and his woeful lack of ambition, but I wouldn’t murder him for it. Not yet, anyway.  Right now, I have far more pressing concerns: scheming to get my daughter into the perfect school; buying my dream home in Hampstead; and disposing of a corpse.  A woman’s work is never done. I’ve created the perfect life – and I’ll kill to keep it. Domestic bliss, it turns out, is hard work—especially when it involves concealment of homicide between juice boxes and party hats. A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage introduces readers to Lalla Rook, a wife, mother, and logistical genius whose life plan is as meticulous as it is morally unencumbered. All she ...

Bonded is the fourth instalment in Ian Austin’s Dan Calder crime series, and it raises the stakes dramatically—both professionally and personally—for its weary, driven protagonist. Drawing inspiration from a real‑life story that borders on the unbelievable, the novel combines international crime, domestic turmoil, and one of the rarest objects on earth: the fabled Plate 77 Penny Red postage stamps, long regarded as the holy grail by serious philatelists.  The story opens in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), where Detective Dan Calder has recently returned from the UK with his family. Home should be a place of refuge, but Calder’s personal life is shattered. His wife lies in a coma, his young son battles ongoing medical complications, and Calder himself is barely holding things together. Overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted, he relinquishes what remains of his domestic responsibilities to a patient nanny and throws himself head‑first into police work—because it’s the only place left wher...

Christopher de Hamel’s The Migrants is a richly layered, deeply reflective memoir that folds personal history into the long, improbable journeys of medieval manuscripts — and it does so with the authority of a man who has spent a lifetime handling the world’s most precious books.   De Hamel is not merely a storyteller; he is one of the world’s leading experts on illuminated manuscripts, with a career that spans decades at Sotheby’s and later at Cambridge University, where he served as Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library. Few living scholars have physically handled as many medieval manuscripts as he has, and that tactile intimacy — the weight of vellum, the scent of parchment, the shimmer of gold leaf — permeates everything he writes.  The title The Migrants works on two levels. First, it refers to de Hamel’s own childhood migration: born in London, he moved to New Zealand at the age of four, growing up at the farthest edge of the world from the European libraries tha...