'There is an underbelly up there' - crime writers gather for Northland Noir

It boasts some of the nation's best beaches, the stunning Bay of Islands, and the cradle of New Zealand history - but some argue Northland should be just as well known as a setting for crime fiction.

That is the premise of 'Northland Noir', a crime writers' discussion panel at the upcoming Upsurge Bay of Islands Arts Festival.

Kerikeri's Catherine Lea, a life-long crime fiction reader who's been writing her own thrillers since the 1990s, is among those taking part.

Her first books were set in the US and published by Amazon, because New Zealand readers and publishers - or so the theory went - were not interested in local fiction.

But just as Kiwis have embraced home-grown music, they have also discovered the joy of reading about themselves and the places they live in.

Lea is now halfway through her four-book Detective Inspector Nyree Bradshaw series, all of which are set firmly in the Far North and contracted by local publisher Bateman Books.

In the first - The Water's Dead - DI Bradshaw has to solve a brutal murder in River Falls, a town with an uncanny resemblance to Kerikeri.

The second in the series - Better Left Dead - due to be launched in Kerikeri this Sunday, is set in the fictitious Far North settlement of Waimana North; while The Deeper The Dead will be set on exclusive Taranui Island, a location inspired by Urupukapuka in the Bay of Islands.

"The Far North has everything you would want for a crime writer," Lea says.

"It's got secrets, it's got personal agendas, it's got cultural diversity, and it's beautiful. We've got the beaches and the tourist brochure stuff, but it's all sitting alongside dreadful poverty. I call it an enormous sea of poverty, in which little islands of wealth and privilege survive."

Lea says the north also has gangs and real-life crime, and dire under-resourcing of public services.

"But at the end of the day, it's about people. Everybody in these places is trying to get along. It's about how they get through their lives and the issues they might come up against."

Also taking part in the panel is Angus Gillies, who co-wrote Far North with film director David White.

He describes the book as the true story behind the TV series of the same name, which was based on a comically bungled attempt to land half a tonne of methamphetamine on Ninety Mile Beach in 2016.

Gillies - who splits his time between Kawakawa and Auckland - was well acquainted with the stranger-than-fiction story thanks to his former job as a Newshub producer.

He was also able to draw on his first-hand knowledge of Northland.

"There is an underbelly up there. I noticed it when I moved up. The number of bikies just zooming around all the roads, heading into hard-to-reach places… There is stuff going on that we don't know about it. A hell of a lot more," Gillies says.

"It's definitely a really interesting place to set crime novels or crime books generally."

Whangārei writer Michael Botur, who is best known for collections of horror stories such as Bloodalcohol and The Devil Took Her, says Far North has helped put the region on the crime-writing map.

"Far North, the book and the series, was really important because it's got that nice juxtaposition of all the beauty and all the sleepiness of the Far North and Ahipara, against organised crime and violence and all sorts of unpleasant stuff."

Botur says he's trying to capture that same juxtaposition in his current book, Glass Barbie, which he describes as a buddy-cop road trip crime thriller narrated by an unreliable crackhead.

The tale starts in Whangārei, heads north to Kaitāia, where the protagonist fails to rescue a kidnapped drug user, and ends in Haruru, in the Bay of Islands, with a showdown at a tattoo convention.

In a similar way that Lea is able to draw on her experience as a Community Patrol volunteer, Botur taps into insights he gained as a researcher conducting interviews with people who had just been arrested on drug offences.

Botur says it also pays to write about places you know.

"When you write anything, if you can get your lived experience into fiction, then you're going to have more compelling material come out of you."

All three authors are taking part in a writer's panel called Northland Noir, part of the upcoming Upsurge Bay of Islands Arts Festival.

Co-director Dave Armstrong says the idea was sparked by the number of crime writers who call the region home.

"The Upsurge Festival really tries to be a festival for the Bay of Islands, not an imported festival from somewhere else. We try to do things that are very about Northland, and so we thought that was a good topic."

Northland Noir will be MC'd by Lauren Roche, a Tūtūkākā writer best known for her memoirs, and whose debut novel, Mila and the Bone Man, is set in a Far North forest.

She is now working on three books simultaneously.

Roche says she felt a powerful sense of belonging from the moment she moved to Northland.

"I can't really explain that. Especially Hokianga. I went there and it was like, I've come home. It's a place full of characters and it's stunningly beautiful," she says.

"But there's quite a dark side to Northland, too, partly driven by poverty and inequity. There are places with enormous wealth, and they're right next to places where poverty is very apparent. There are beaches and there are forests so big you could hide anything in them. And there are mysteries around the forest, and all sorts of conspiratorial talking about what's in the forest. It's a fabulous place to set a book."

Armstrong says there's plenty for everyone at Upsurge, even those who aren't fans of crime writing.

"We've got Troy Kingi opening the festival. We've got Hollie Smith, and a wonderful play called Krishnan's Dairy by Jacob Rajan. We've got the Royal New Zealand Ballet performing with 100 kids from Moerewa, Kawakawa and Oromahoe. They're doing a work inspired by a book by Whangārei children's writer Ataria Sharman, called Hine and the Tohunga Portal. That again has a link with Northland. We've got top comedian Abby Howells and lots of smaller shows coming to the Black Box Theatre in Kerikeri. It's a real smorgasbord."

Upsurge 2024 runs from 8-15 September at various venues around Kerikeri, Haruru, Waimate North and Russell.