Author(s): Elspeth Sandys

Fiction

When Renate, a successful Pakeha novelist met Max Nene at Paremoremo, she didn't want to know what he was in for- she was just there to help with his writing. A do-gooder with a social conscience, married to an ex-radical who is now a successful QC. Inevitably, she becomes caught up in Max's compelling story of gang life, and a strong friendship develops between the mismatched pair. But when Max is released, her own comfortable life falls apart when her husband abruptly ends their eight-year marriage. Vulnerable and bruised, she is still recovering when Max is found dead in a stolen car driven by a known drug dealer. As she begins the painful process of discovering the real Max behind the web of lies, half-truths and vivid confessions he left behind, Renate is forced to re-evaluate her relationship with not only Max, and his family, but the other men in her life. As she moves beneath the surface of some key relationships, Renate's life is changed irrevocably, in a lyrical and haunting story of love and loss. AUTHOR DETAILS Timaru-born, Elspeth now resides in Wellington. An actress in Auckland's Mercury Theatre Company, Elspeth continued her career in England, working in radio and television. After the birth of her two children, and living in a village in the Cotswolds, she began a second career as a writer, working on a contract basis for the BBC and publishing three successful novels. A Passing Guest is her eighth novel, and she has had 16 radio plays broadcast in the UK. Returning to New Zealand in 1990, she continues to write for the BBC and has published another four novels and a collection of short stories. Her novel Riverlines was a finalist for the UK Orange Prize in 1996. . .