After her husband's unexpected death and the shocking betrayal discovered shortly thereafter, Anahera returns home to Golden Cove, a small town almost hidden on the West Coast of New Zealand.

Upon returning to the home she couldn't wait to leave, Ana discovers that things haven't changed all that much from when she left.

Years previously the disappearance of three hikers shook the small community and drove and unseen wedge between Ana and her group of friends. It was that moment that they all left childhood behind and had to grow up with some, like Ana, leaving the town behind.

When a bright, young woman, beloved by the community, goes missing, the secrets of the past are brought forward once again and this time, Ana and everyone of Golden Cove will have to reckon with the evil among them.

This is Nalini Singh's first foray into Thriller / Romantic Suspense. I don't read many Thrillers or Suspense, but the ones I have read had the ability to keep me on the edge of my seat. Almost forcing me to compulsively read the book while also fretting about what's going to happen to the hero/heroine next! I'd say that A Madness of Sunshine is more of a slow burn thriller. More mystery. And the romance itself is a secondary element to the story not irrelevant, but also not the main focus.

The characters, including Ana and police chief Will of whom we get each of the points of view throughout the book, are so complicated. And not just the characters, but the social structure of Golden Cove. The tight-knit community that is not quick to welcome outsiders but also has a clear divide between those who are well off and those who are barely scraping by. With that economic divide you can clearly see there's a sense of entitlement that runs through many of the characters and throughout the story. Within this entitlement is the idea of possession. Of having and keeping, almost owning whether it's material items or a person.

It's at times twisted and uncomfortable and makes it a little difficult to warm up to any of the characters except, of course, the enigmatic, joyful, gorgeous Miriama who is like a light of sunshine for so many in the community, who's disappearance is deftly felt throughout the book as Ana and Will try to piece together what happened to her, and begin to look to those in the community as possible suspects. I think the idea that no one comes across as exactly trustworthy goes a long way in making the mystery aspect of the story pop. I mean I felt like any one person could have a motivation for wanting Miri gone. But the story moves along, and quickly narrows down the list a bit. I kind of wish the ending and revelations were a little more unexpected once all is said and done, but overall I think this is a very promising start in a new genre for Nalini Singh to bring her dynamic and always entertaining writing. If it has Nalini Singh's name on it, I'm guaranteed to read it, and I'm very interested to see what she does with another thriller/suspense story.

I enjoyed r eading A Madness of Sunshine by Nalina Singh. The author has created an interesting and involved plot. Her characters are interesting people

Anahera has come home to a small town on New Zealand's coast to escape a bad marriage and death of a cheating husband but being home is bringing up old memories of what and why she left home to start with. A new hunky cop will offer some distraction but soon they are all caught up in the disappearance of a young woman and the violence that is just lying under the careful veneer of the town. A different kind of remote landscape, ethnic viewpoint, and culture but the universal message of fear that something or someone you thought you knew is not alright. A solid thriller for fans of Jane Harper and Laura Lippman. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

A Madness of Sunshine (December 3, 2019)
By Nalini Singh
Berkley/Penguin, 352 pages.
★★★★

Nalini Singh is well known for her fantasy and paranormal romance novels, but she surprises with A Madness of Sunshine, a crime/mystery offering.

It is set in the fictional hamlet of Golden Cove on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Golden Cove is a suburb of Greymouth–if a place of fewer than 10,000 souls can have ‘burbs. It’s such a small place that Greymouth seems large and Christchurch (381,500) three hours to the east is a veritable metropolis. New Zealand’s West Coast is remote—its southern access cut off by myriad fjords and inlets and access from the east made difficult by the Southern Alps, which form the spine of the South Island. Remote towns are, however, often more socially cohesive than larger places. In Golden Cove, most people know and look out for each other. It’s also a place where Maori–New Zealand’s first human settlers–and Pakeha (whites) enjoy mutual tolerance, even when it’s not genuine affection. Her hometown is a perfect place for native daughter and world-renowned pianist Anahera (Rawiri) Spencer-Ashby to recover from the triple shocks of burnout, her husband’s death, and the discovery of his philandering.

Even her oldest friend Josie (“Jo”), who runs the local café, can believe that “Ana” has returned after more than a decade of living in London, though she and her resourceful husband Tom do all they can to prepare her mother’s old cabin for Ana’s occupancy. Other than summertime hikers, Golden Cove isn’t the kind of place that outsiders seek. About the only new resident since Ana last visited is Will Gallagher, who has been the local law enforcement officer for just three months. Mostly, Ana finds that Golden Cove is much as she left it, ¬except that her former cohort is now in their 30s and 40s and those she knew as children are now young adults. The latter includes Miriama “Miri” Hinewai Tutaia, who at 21 is both locally beloved and jaw-dropping gorgeous.

Ana is hardly settled in before Miri goes jogging and disappears. Is she lying at the foot of a trailside cliff? Was she swept to sea while running too close to a dangerous tide? Was she abducted? After several pass, Will is forced to investigate Miri’s disappearance as a possible crime. He learns quickly that 15 years earlier three female hikers disappeared near Golden Cove and all that was ever discovered of any of them was a water bottle, a backpack, and a bracelet. It was never clear if any crime actually occurred back then, but Will’s conclusion is distressing: If Miri’s disappearance and those of 15 years ago are linked, it’s highly probable that someone in Golden Cove is a serial killer.

Another thing about small towns is that there are often skeletons residing in seldom-discussed closets. Miri’s Aunt Matilda, who raised her, has a history of inappropriate boyfriends, one of whom molested Miri when she was young. No one knows his current whereabouts, but Matilda’s current live-in Steve is pretty much low-life scum. Will’s closet friend in town, Nikau Martin, also has a rap sheet from his younger days and he’s very angry that his ex-wife Keira threw him over for Daniel May, a rich boy with lots of toys but little love for the locals. The deeper Will and Ana dig, the more Golden Cove’s luster fades. The Baker family is also rich. Vincent seems beyond reproach, a politician many assume will be a future Prime Minister of New Zealand. Ana, though, picks up on the fact that his spouse, Jemima, seems more of a trophy wife than a love match. More suspicious is Vincent’s younger brother Kyle, a spoiled brat who harbors a grudge that Miri beat him out for a prestigious Christchurch photography internship that she planned to begin in weeks. And what does one wish to make of Shane Hennessey, an Irish ex-pat writer who, for years, has been more prolific at attracting a cult-like harem of barely legal young women than of producing noteworthy poetry or prose. The other wildcard is Dr. Dominic de Souza, Miri’s straight arrow boyfriend. No one can quite figure out what the high-spirited Miri sees in him. Did he find out she was seeing someone else?

Everyone seems to have a shadowy past, including Ana, whose traumatic family life was such that one wonders why she would want to be in the same time zone as the South Island. And there’s Will himself, once cast as a cop hero. What did he do to earn banishment to a backwater like Golden Cove? A Madness of Sunshine is a page-turner mystery. I should say that I figured out the mystery before it was revealed, which generally tells me the story could have been more complex. I also found the title clichéd and histrionic. There is a sense that Ms. Singh ran out of steam toward the end and wrapped up things too quickly and neatly. Still, her novel is in the best everyone-has-scars tradition and I enjoyed remembering my time in the greater Greymouth area. (Okay, I loved nearby Hokitika but Greymouth is forgettable!)

A Madness of Sunshine releases on December 3. That’s early summer in New Zealand. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, A Madness of Sunshine makes for diverting reading as the days grow shorter.

Rob Weir

Note on Maori pronunciation: Maori words often appear daunting, but they are fairly easy to approximate if you remember that Maori seldom contains stressed syllables. The usual rule is to sound out every two letters unless vowels appear adjacent to each other, in which case you elide them. Hokitika is (roughly) Ho-ke-te-ka. Nikau is a bit like Nik-ow.

A Madness of Sunshine is a book that I kept seeing everywhere. Not only does it have a stunning cover, but it's also author Nalini Singh's first dabble into Contemporary Suspense. I am a big fan of her Paranormal Romances, so I just knew I had to grab this book and check it out.

A Madness of Sunshine follows the story of Anahera. After the passing of her cheating husband, Anahera returns to the one place she never thought she'd go back to. Anahera hopes that her return home will give her some perspective on life and heal her wounds. However, soon after Anahera returns home, a young woman disappears without a trace. The disappearance rocks Anahera's small town and brings forward secrets that are better left unsaid....

A Madness of Sunshine had me instantly intrigued. The characters had an air of mystery about them and I was intrigued by the small town Anahera called home. Everyone seemed to have a secret, some darker than others. The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat and I couldn't wait to see how the story would come together. The disappearance of a local girl brought unexpected truths to the surface. I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery of this story. I figured some things out right away, but there were still some twists that took me by surprise.

A Madness of Sunshine is an exciting thriller that is filled with mystery, intrigue, betrayal and lots of twists and turns. There are some glimpses of romance to take the edge off of the intensity, but this story is definitely not romance driven. I think the author did a great job with her first dabble into this genre and I hope that she'll write more thrillers in the future.

Nalini Singh is a very popular author at my library. A colleague is a big fan, but I had not ready anything by the author before. I was impressed with the unique setting, diverse characters, and a consistent pace that kept me turning the pages. With this title the author has made a successful transition to thriller territory, and I've ordered copies to be shelved in the Fiction section rather than Romance, where her books usually reside.

This was the first book I read by this author and I didn't really know what to expect. Overall it was an OK read- I did find it interesting having it set in a small town in New Zealand. However, I had a difficult time getting into the book as the pace seemed to be a little slow and there were many characters mentioned making it difficult to keep track of them at times. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nalini Singh is a New York Times' best-selling author with a tremendous backlist of successful novels in the fantasy and paranormal romance genres but A Madness of Sunshine is a debut of sorts as it is her first foray in the mystery/thriller genre. This contemporary New Zealand thriller kept me up late one night and I absolutely did not expect the twisted web she wove! I had anticipated this book as I knew the author's previous works and I am thrilled to say that A Madness of Sunshine is an excellent and unpredictable roller-coaster of a read. If you enjoy thrillers I highly recommend!

I thoroughly enjoyed <i>A Madness of Sunshine</i> by Nalini Singh - a psychological mystery set on the West Coast of New Zealand. Anahera returns to her remote, coastal hometown, Golden Cove, after the death of her husband and the secrets revealed about his life thereafter. Will is sent to Golden Cove to be the sole police officer for the area after an investigation into him at another police department. The two are drawn together over the disappearance of a local young woman, about to leave for an internship, and the community's search for her. Soon, the disappearances of several other hikers from years ago are brought into the mix, as Anahera and Will each come to peace with their own pasts. Quick moving and interesting, well placed clues and well paced action. Recommended for fans of psychological fictions and authors like Gillian Flynn, Jane Harper, and Tess Gerritsan.

Nice little mystery, enjoyed the characters and the writing. No crazy twists which was a nice change from what everyone else seems to be trying to do lately.

Tragedy follows Anahera around like a shadow, and this time it chases her back home to small town Golden Cove, New Zealand and her memories of Golden Cove aren't quite idyllic. Her beloved mother died too young, having lived only a few years free of Ana's abusive father and then there was the summer when more than one young hiker went missing in the bush, although their bodies were never found. The past becomes the present when another young woman goes missing and secrets all around town start to unravel. The only new person in town is a cop exiled from the big city after a case gone wrong. Ana and Will connect as the search for the missing woman grows cold and Ana knows is able to give Will context to what happened that terrible summer and how it might be happening again.

This taut mystery grew on me page by page. The story revealed itself at the perfect pace, surprises at each turn. This is the rare mystery novel that feels very realistic, but not because of the crimes, but because of how the people react to the crime and to each other, The writing is terrific, with not a word wasted and the New Zealand setting is a living, breathing character all its own. If you love a well-written mystery that gets to the heart of people, A Madness of Sunshine is for you! (Advanced copy read courtesy of NetGalley and Berkley. Opinions are my own.)

I hadn't read anything by Nalini Singh before now, though I had seen her books circulating quite a bit at my library jobs. Going in I wasn't sure of what to expect, but I mostly enjoyed A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE for what it was. I liked the mystery of the missing Miriama, and I liked the focus on both Will the detective, and Anahera, a woman who has returned to the small town of Golden Cove in the aftermath of her husband's death (and the revelation of this infidelity). I think it's pretty clear that Singh is a very successful romance writer, as the focus of this story tended to stray from the mystery and land more on the tension and histories of Anahera and Will. I liked their romance, and I liked the various baggage that they brought to the table, but ultimately I read this because I was interested in the mystery, and I ended up not being as invested or interested as I thought I would be. That said, Singh is a seasoned author and for the most part I was entertained and invested, and also surprised by the solution. Plus, taking place in New Zealand is always going to appeal to me, as it's my favorite place in the world.

A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE is a perfectly fine thriller romance. I would have liked more 'thriller', but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I read this book in a matter of days because of fascination with the characters and the location. Loved it.

This book haunts me (it a so good) in that I did not expect to be surprised by the end. The story is very descriptive in that it makes it easy to get lost in this world with its people and the story. It make me want to visit New Zealand. The way this book starts with very gloomy death of Anahera husband. I think this add dimension to the story and also added to the whole story showing how senseless the murder were. Anahera decides to go home and lick her wounds. Anahera is flawed, flawed by the betrayal of her husband which she only discovered after he died. Will is flawed too, by the strength of his emotions in doing the right thing as a cop. The story takes place in New Zealand, a small community called Golden Cove. I can’t wait to be able to recommend this book to my reader.

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I just wasn’t connected to the setting and I guess I wasn’t in the right mindset to learn about New Zealand. I’m sure it’s lovely. This just wasn’t for me, if I’m being honest.

This book is set in a small town in New Zealand. The descriptions do a good job of making you visualize the setting. Years ago several young women vanished from the area with no trace, no bodies ever found. Now a local woman has vanished. Is there a connection to the previous disappearances?

I enjoyed this book but for me it dragged in the middle. It is mostly suspense, not as much romance. I figured out part of the mystery but there was an aspect that caught me off guard. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.

This book grabbed me within the first 2 pages. I knew I would love the writing which simply flows. Combined with a great story and fleshed out characters which one either loves or hates, it is a book worth reading. The plot was twisty enough to be interesting. Definitely worth reading.

I really enjoyed this book. Part mystery, part romance with great characters and an intriguing look at rural, small town New Zealand. Well-paced with several strategically placed plot twists, couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended for fans of romantic suspense.

The New Zealand background and histort was super interesting. Characters were well developed and the story held your attention throught.

This is the first book by Nalini Singh that I have had the pleasure of reading, but her other paranormal romance series have always looked interesting. The premise for this interested me deeply - I read a lot of international crime/mystery/thrillers and like to be able to compare them. The New Zealand atmosphere and country side was really well flushed-out with a very beautiful but sometimes bleak description. The real fun in this novel is through the characters, or more specifically the writing of the characters.