Steve Braunias’ Polkinghorne provides personal and gripping insights into the trial of the now notorious eye surgeon.

Jared Savage exposes Aotearoa’s criminal underbelly in his best-seller Underworld.

So what’s it like to be a writer who draws back the curtain on crime?

Award-winning crime fiction writer Fiona Sussman – author of Hooked Up – will delve into the challenges, risks and rewards.

Presented as part of HamLit26, Hamilton Arts Festival Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa, with special thanks to Hamilton City Council, Creative Communities Scheme and Poppies Book Store.

Seating provided

Steven Braunias

Steve Braunias is the author of 14 books, most recently Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century, a bestseller published by Allen & Unwin in 2025. He is a columnist with the Listener magazine, and serves as the literary editor of Newsroom. He was formerly Editor-in-residence at the Waikato Institute of Technology school of journalism for five years, and president of the Hamilton Press Club. He lives on an estate in Herne Bay. Auckland.

Jared Savage

Jared Savage has worked as an investigative reporter for The New Zealand Herald for 20 years and he has won over a dozen national and international journalism awards including best reporter in the country twice. Covering crime and justice issues, he has written three best-selling books about the criminal underworld in Aotearoa – Gangsters Paradise, Gangland and Underworld.

Fiona Sussman

Formerly a family doctor, Fiona Sussman is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer who hung up her stethoscope in 2003 to pursue another long-held dream, to write. Her work, which spans historical, contemporary and crime fiction, has been published internationally. Fiona is active as a teacher of creative writing and mentor to other writers and her most recent best-seller is Hooked Up.