This week’s bestselling books – August 23

FICTION
1 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward (Penguin Random House, $38)
2 Home Truths by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
Crime thriller about a woman on trial for attempted murder; the author, an ex-barrister, knows her way around a courtroom and also, with her eighth novel, really knows her way around a plot. Recommended.
3 All That We Know by Shilo Kino (Hachette, $37.99)
4 The Mess We Made by Megan O’Neill (Hachette, $37.99)
5 At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House, $37)
6 The Girls in the Red House are Singing by Tracey Slaughter (Te Herenga Waka UniversityPress, $30)
New collection of poetry by the Waikato author; includes her epic Ode to adultery in the grim, sad, brightly-lit motel rooms of New Zealand, “blessings upon them”.
7 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Hachette, $37.99)
8 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $28)
9 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
10 Bird Child and Other Stories by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House, $37)
NONFICTION
1 View from the Second Row by Samuel Whitelock (HarperCollins, $49.99)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who likes plodding but easy to follow rugby memoirs.
2 Serviceman J by Jamie Pennell (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who likes exciting and downright murderous SAS memoirs.
3 Sam the Trap Man by Sam Gibson (Allen & Unwin, $45)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who likes memoirs of Kiwi bushmen.
4 The Road to Chatto Creek by Matt Chisholm (Allen & Unwin, $45)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who likes memoirs by blokes who give up city life to work on the farm. A free copy is available in this week’s giveaway. A very charming extract appeared in ReadingRoom this week; it’s about good bastards who help out other good bastards around the farm because such is the code of good bastards. To enter the competition, share a story about a selfless, neighbourly act of a good bastard you know – rural or suburban or urban, anywhere really, it just has to detail something someone did for someone else out of the goodness of their own heart; oh and of course the good bastard may not be male – and  email it to [email protected] with the subject line in screaming caps GOOD BASTARDS I HAVE KNOWN. Entries close at midnight, Sunday August 18.
5 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
6 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood and Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99)
7 A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who needs help with finding meaning and peace. I will be chairing Matt at a special Father’s Day breakfast event next weekend in Christchurch, at the WORD literary festival, where I will also be chairing Talia Marshall about her new book Whaea Blue, and Philip Matthews from The Press will be chairing me about my new book, The Survivors. Tickets to these and other WORD events are available now.
8 She is Not Your Rehab by Matt Brown & Sarah Brown (Penguin Random House, $35)
9 Unmasking Monsters by Chook Henwood (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
Father’s Day looms; perfect for the father in your life who likes memoirs by former detectives. A free copy was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway competition. Readers were asked to share a story about good police work. There weren’t that many replies. That may or may not be a comment about the low esteem of good police work. Among the entries were a 700-word rave which I didn’t really understand, by Warren, and three scarcely less verbose anecdotes, by Neil. But the very best entry was succinct.
Penny in the Catlins wrote, “I work for an emergency service. We work with police from time to time in different situations. These times could be a death, car accident or mental health issue. I have always found our local team to show empathy, kindness and patience, particularly with the mental health patients which can be challenging. We appreciate what they do to support us in what we do.”
A worthy winner. Huzzah to Penny; a free copy of Unmasking Monsters by Chook Henwood is hers.
10 Becoming Tangata Tiriti by Avril Bell (Auckland University Press, $29.99)