Blue Hotel

Chad Taylor
Works of: Fiction
Publisher(s): Brio Books

New Zealand, 1987. Brick cell phones. Two TV channels. Home taping is killing music.

On a Saturday at midnight in a North Island tourist trap a stranger dressed in black leather walks down to the water and disappears.

The exotic visitor has apparently come to life from a photograph: a year later she reappears only to die again. The reporter writing the story follows the missing woman into an underworld where art is the only truth.

“Full of depth, striking characters, sparkling writing, and a rich sense of time and place” – Craig Sisterson, CrimeWatch

“Blue Hotel is darkest crime noir. It takes place in old fashioned newsrooms, questionable newsagencies, seedy bars, S&M clubs and cars. It’s as New Zealand-as, but it’s not.” – Karen Chisholm, AustCrimeFiction

“Dark and funny” – Mark Broatch, New Zealand Listener

Blue Hotel was named in the New Zealand Listener in its Best Books of 2022.