Prey is a clever choice of title for "An attack against a man of god on the steps of a cathedral on an ungodly winter's night."
Dunedin takes centre stage in the dramatic opening pages of Prey, the story of a priest murdered on the steps of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral on a dark and stormy evening. It's the sixth book in Vanda Symon's terrific Sam Shephard mystery series.
Vanda portrays the namesake of the series, Detective Sam Shephard, as unorthodox, ballsy and no-nonsense. She's a sympathetic character; self-effacing and downright funny.
Sam has had to fight every step of the way to hold her own against suspects and sexism in her workplace (in particular 'The Boss', Detective Inspector Johns) to become a Detective.
In this episode Sam's juggling her return to work post-baby: dealing with a cold-case, separation anxiety, the indignity of having to breastfeed her six-month-old bundle of joy and express in a grotty police family room (complete with poonami).
Poonamis pale in comparison to the needling and micro-management she has to put up with from DI Johns, who's put her in charge of a cold case he has a personal interest in and couldn't solve all those years ago. Has he set her up to fail? Or is it recognition of the sterling job she did solving her last case (while heavily pregnant) of a stolen newborn, before going on maternity leave?
Twenty-five years ago the Reverend Freeman was attacked after the evening service: stabbed, then pushed down the steep concrete steps of St Paul's Cathedral, which looms over Dunedin's Octagon. The setting is positively Gothic:
"I approached St Paul's from Lower Stuart Street, wanting to experience the full impact of its dominance over the heart of the city. It didn't disappoint. At this time of year the plane trees had shed their leaves, the twists and angles of their naked branches providing an eerie filter to the view. ...I walked across the plaza and noted that in terms of, for want of a better word, menace."
Who did it? Was it the Reverend's successor, the Reverend Jesse James, named after an infamous American outlaw? Mel Smythe, the ostracised lesbian youth leader? Aaron Cox, the violent ex-con, taken under Freeman's wing? Or a disgruntled member of the Reverend's flock - someone else with a grudge against the seemingly squeaky-clean priest? Or was it a case of mistaken identity?
Vanda bounces Sam's interactions, both serious and comic, off the other characters in the series. Husband Paul, also a policeman, fields Sam's intuitions and insecurities and shares feel-good moments with baby Amelia, now six months old. Colleague Smithy, long in the tooth and no stranger to raising children, provides empathy and the voice of reason, while Sonia, a fellow female officer is the only other sister for solidarity while Sam locks swords with her boss - highlighting how difficult it can be for women in the force.
There are some brilliant plays on words, the title, for instance, and a lot of laughs to lighten, but not diminish, the brutality of the cases Sam solves. The quote below refers to the 'coffee shop incident' from the last instalment in the series Expectant where Sam gets her pregnant self stuck between two stools at the counter. Hilarious!
"I wasn't known for my gracefulness and ability to negotiate furniture."
Those who haven't yet read this gripping series may have seen Vanda on 2023's The Traitors; a murder mystery T.V. show onscreen in 2024, or onstage presenting the Ngaio Marsh Awards, for which her books are often nominated. She's also the President of the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa.
Vanda's ability to make readers both laugh and cry places her in the top echelon of crime writers in this country, along with her terrific scene-setting and characters that feel very real. The Sam Shepherd series has been on best-seller lists in Aotearoa, and has been nominated for two Barry Awards (Australia) - 2022 for Bound, 2024 for Expectant - and shortlisted for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award (U.S.) in 2019 for Overkill. Go Vanda!
In my humble opinion, Sam Shephard deserves to be on television. If you're familiar with the Edinburgh of the South, you'll find it easy to visualise Sam's stomping ground.
I'll leave you with this quote from the book - the words of Janet Frame, immortalised on one of the many plaques celebrating Kiwi writers on Dunedin's Octagon:
Having been to church the people are good, quiet,
with sober drops at the end of their cold Dunedin noses,
with polite old-fashioned sentences like Pass the Cruet,
and, later, attentive glorifying in each other's roses.
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