Public Lives is a study of 37 New Zealand Prime Ministers by Ian Grant, founder of the New Zealand Cartoon Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library. It’s a ready-reference collection of pen portraits — but it doesn't impress the Herald’s Paul Panckhurst:

Each of the 37 characters receives a concise summary of his or her activities in office and a cautious assessment of their contribution. There is little to tie their stories together … [Grant’s] introductory essay fails to give us much more than a resume of their differences … We observe or recall the personalities more vividly than they are described in this book.

Panckhurst is marginally better disposed towards Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven (a book that was positively reviewed in The Press way back in October):

Krakauer is best-known for his classic account of disaster on Mt Everest, Into Thin Air. His aim here is to illuminate the nature of violent religious fanaticism … The trouble is, the lurid story of the brothers - one on death row, the other serving life - does not reward a search for the profound. Their statements are sometimes kooky, largely banal.

A bunch of thrillers are reviewed by Michele Hewitson:

On Carol O'Connell’s The Jury Must Die: “… O'Connell's writing is spare and sharp, her novels filled with truly horrible characters and that's just the good guys … Nicely, satisfyingly nasty.”

On Ruth Rendell’s The Rottweiler: “… Rendell's little world is a success: her characters are funny and real and the dialogue's terrific.”

On Patricia Cornwell’s Blowfly: “Scarpetta works as a character because she knows that she's hard to like. All the layers are here: the guilt held for decisions badly made; the recurring characters … And a plot which has enough ghastly forensic details to please fans of such things.”

On Fred Vargas’ Have Mercy On Us All: “… written with wit and flair … Charming, well-researched and a nice study of how easily hysteria can overtake a community.”

On Henning Mankell’s Firewall: “… when Mankell goes outside Sweden, his carefully crafted little world falters: there is a ludicrous link to Angola. The plot thins. Still, you have to love the way that in Mankell's books there are always ends which will never be tied off neatly. That's why his crime novels feel so real.”