I was looking forward to reading this my first book set in New Zealand but found it quite hard going. The early part is rather jumbled with too many names and never clear where things were happening and even who was speaking. It did improve but failed to win me over.

The premise of this sounded really interesting and I had been part of a JM proof party - this novel was promoted in the back of the brochure. Here, we have Lorraine Henry - a police administrator in a small, provincial town in New Zealand. Lorraine is part of the community - she not only does more than she should for the police but she is a big support to friends, neighbours, such as Patty, and her niece, Sheena (and her son, Bradley).

At the start, the scene is set when some local children go missing - it isn't clear where they have gone or who has taken them. Then, Lorraine's nephew, Bradley, disappears, too. What happens next is a battle between the police, who don't want Lorraine interfering too much, and the local community - some of the families are Maori and there is a clear sense of the divide between people in Mastertown, the town where this is set.

Parts of the novel are clunky. For example, the writer doesn't use chapters - so even though it is (sort of) obvious when a change is taking place, it isn't totally clear. Also, when the voices change (such as when we hear from the children), it isn't that obvious who is speaking. This, for me, interrupts the flow of the prose. Characterisation isn't particularly strong, although there is some beautiful, evocative language used. Later, when Lorraine is at Mr Prendergast's farm, the writing seems tighter - in some ways, it seems like it was written at a different time, but maybe this is just to do with the nature of what happens there.

The book grew on me as I read. Parts of it are implausible, such as Bradley stealing Mr Prendergast's keys, and when one of the abducted children is just dropped off at their house - would this really happen? I don't think so. 'Paper Cage' is a good thriller but it doesn't quite 'work' for me in its current form. Maybe tighter editing would make it stronger.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

A masterfully written and nuanced crime fiction, set in small town and rural New Zealand, where all the characters are flawed but in a beautifully human and realistic way.
Lorraine Henry lives in a small town, helping support her adult niece and her son Bradley through her work clerking at the local police station. Lorraine knows what's going on in town; she's not particularly happy about some of the choices that her niece is making in who she is spending her time with.
When first one, then two and then three children including Bradley suddenly go missing, the whole town is up in arms. Lorraine has to share some of her niece's confidences and secrets with the investigating team to try and save the children.
There's so much to unpack in the story, as well as being an excellent crime thriller, it covers societal poverty, racism, alcohol and drug abuse and their impact on families - there's lots to think about and digest.
5 stars from me

An impactful, immersive, multilayered, and astonishing gritty literary crime debut from New Zealand author Tom Baragwanath that steps beyond the genre to provide a engaging social and political commentary. It has inner cultural depth and is informative for those readers unfamiliar with the location and the communities of Masterton of which the writer has personal experience of, lending a ring of authenticity to his astute observations, storytelling and his highlights of the repercussions of colonialism. With rich descriptions, we are given a picture of the positive and negative sides of small town life, such as the the insecurity, issues of race, brutality, poverty, despair, alcohol abuse, criminal gangs, drug addiction and more.

Pakeha widow Lorraine 'Lo' Henry is employed at the local police station as a records clerk, a woman all too used to having her her insights and local knowledge ignored. When worryingly Maori children are being taken, Precious Kingi vanished, and this is soon followed by another child not long after, Lo sits up and takes notice. There is the inevitable rise in tensions that accompany these acts, the local police largely clueless. Lo's niece, Sheena has problems, but Lo adores her great nephew, Bradley, and to a distraught Lo's horror, he is the next to disappear. There is nothing Lo will not do to find Bradley, outsider Wellington detective Justin Hayes, intent on addressing the ineffective local police response, surprisingly finds help from a determined Lo in the hunt for the missing children.

This is an emotional roller coaster of a novel, brimful of the complexities of this crime read, full of twists and turns, and underpinned by an understanding of the nature, attitudes, culture, tragedy and drama to be found within the local communites. I found this to be a intelligent, thought provoking, disturbing and gripping broad canvas of a read, beautifully written, whilst refusing to be limited by the restrictions of the crime genre. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Set in a small town in New Zealand 'Paper Cage' is a fantastic debut novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. 3 local children are missing, add family, race, cultural and social issues to the mix and we are treated to an explosive and thrilling mystery. As a non New Zealander a glossary of the local words used would have been the icing on the cake for me. Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for an arc. I look forward to reading more from Tom Baragwanath.

A really good, well written read, set in New Zealand with beautiful characterisation and a lovely setting. I loved Lorraine, a clerk at the local police station, widowed, who had brought up her niece alone. Children are going missing, including her great nephew, and she quickly becomes embroiled in the investigation. I loved the small town setting and the beautiful descriptions, I felt I was transported to the heart of the town. The plotting centred around social injustice, family tensions and the Maori community. I would recommend the read. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

My goodness what a wonderfully compelling read this was. Not just a crime thriller about abducted children but a picture of small town racial tensions too. Lorraine Henry is one tough heroine and I loved her.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

At its core this is a police procedural book about 3 missing children and a maverick police clerk who wants to find them. What elevates it above the norm is the setting and how much a non Maori reader like myself can learn about culture and norms, and the way the Maori people are regarded and treated by other New Zealanders. I found it interesting that the author was a man who chose a damaged woman as his protagonist but managed to carry it off. Im interested to see if futher books follow
Thank you to netgalley and John Murray press for an advance copy of this book

Thank you NetGalley and Baskerville for my approval to read and review this book.

Wow!! This book was a rollercoaster of a read!! The story is set in Masterton, New Zealand and it is about missing children and what happens next. Louise, a records clerk in the local police station, is the Grand- Aunt of the third child to go missing, possibly kidnapped. Detective Hayes persuades Louise in his quest to find the children to help him with his investigation. It is fast paced, engrossing and unputdownable. The characters are well written and it is very descriptive especially the locations. No spoilers but it is full of twists and turns with a few surprises along the way of the plot with a satisfying conclusion. I will definitely read another book by Tom! I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and John Murray Press for an advance copy of Paper Cage, a stand-alone novel set in the small town of Masterton on New Zealand’s North Island.

Māori children are going missing in Masterton and that exacerbates the simmering racial tension in the town. Lorraine Henry is a records clerk at the local police station, used to making connections and being ignored. That changes when her grand nephew, Bradley, is the third child to disappear and she is asked to help with the investigation.

I found Paper Cage to be a mixed bag, which I picked up and put down several times before finishing. I couldn’t get used to the narrative tone which is in the first person present tense and feels close to stream of consciousness in style with old memories mixing with present day action and reaction. It is mostly told from Lorraine’s point of view, with another voice, also in the first person, interjecting from time to time. I wouldn’t say that I found it confusing, but I did feel that I was wading through treacle at times.

To counter this I feel that the novel is particularly strong on the social descriptions. Lorraine Henry is an outsider as a white woman with Māori relatives, which makes her mistrusted by both communities. There are undercurrents and nuance to this portrayal, which greatly impressed me. I was sad to see that all of the Māori characters are poor and steeped in gang culture, but that’s what colonialism did, so I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of this. There is an innate sense of superiority to the white characters, even when unmerited, so it seems like a never ending dance of mistrust and suspicion. The exceptions are the two white outsiders, Lorraine and the detective brought in from the South Island, Justin Hayes.

I like the plot, which ties in with the other points the author has to make. It is slow going for much of the read with small developments and reveals, but it heats up in the final quarter with tension and plenty of twists, even if I didn’t fully understand the ending.

Paper Cage is a bit too literary for my tastes, but it is an extremely well written tale of grief and social injustice.

Lorraine is the records clerk at the police station but far more in tune with the local Maori community than the police officers because she lives in that community. When Maori children start to disappear, the white police assume it’s as a result of trouble within underprivileged families and don’t take their enquiries as seriously as they would if white children went missing.
Lorraine is a very close-up first person narrator, at times almost stream of conscious in her delivery, and the style is colloquial.
The story raises thought-provoking questions about law and order, community, race, privilege and opportunity.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

I really enjoyed the setting, small towns and all their problems are always a winner for me.
However, I struggled with the first bit, I felt as if I'd been thrown in the deep end.
Too many names, and I couldn't figure out who was who.
I never recovered from this and so found myself not as invested as I could have been.
I did understand enough however, to know its a writer I'd pick up again.

A tense and atmospheric new Zealand crime thriller with a beautiful attention to detail that really brings the setting and the people alive.

Small town, missing children, criminal activity and a clever, rolling, absorbing plot that keeps you immersed throughout

I love that this is multi layered and so gorgeous to read. You really feel the emotion of it.

Recommended.

Gripped at the end, and I absolutely raced through the final few chapters so that I could finish in time for work! It took me a little while to find my feet reading this one initially, but once I did I enjoyed the small town NZ setting, and I enjoyed how the tension ramped up. I thought there were some interesting observations of family, child-rearing, and small town community life. Lorraine was an unusual character who grew on me - I would have liked even more of her small detail knowledge to have come in useful, but it was still interesting to watch how the story played out thanks to her insights. And great that it was also an older woman in the lead character role.

Paper Cage is a hard-hitting and involving crime thriller set in the small town of Masterton on New Zealand's North Island.
The rather unlikely protagonist is ageing widow Lorraine "Lo" Henry , police clerk who finds herself continually frustrated when information she gleans from the files she reads is routinely ignored. That changes when local children start to disappear and an Investigator from Wellington decides that her local knowledge is invaluable despite protests from her employers. When Lo's grandnephew Bradley disappears the stakes rise considerably.

This is a great tale from author Tom Baragwanath, himself a native of Masterton. The tensions of small town New Zealand play a big part in the story, there's suspicion,not least from Lo,that if the children were Pakeha (Caucasian) not Maori there would be more urgency in the case. With Lo's deceased husband being Maori and herself Pakeha she finds herself between communities and cultures. With Bradley's mother, Lo's niece Sheena, being a drug addict involved with the local Mongrel Mob gang I was reminded very much of Alan Duff's gritty novels.

While Lo is an unlikely protagonist she's a gutsy and interesting one. I did see one big twist coming quite early but the book is far from predictable and quite a ride. I really enjoyed it and look forward to more books from Tom Baragwanath.