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Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hinerangi) is an award-winning author and filmmaker. His published works span an unlikely range of the Dewey Decimal System classes, from fiction to non-fiction to YA graphic novel to time travel. Michael’s Hana Westerman series, beginning with Better The Blood (2022) and followed by Return To Blood (2024) and Carved In Blood (2025), has been described as the first crime thriller novel series about a Māori cop, written by a Māori author. The series is included in the curriculum for NCEA level 2 and level 3 students at multiple secondary schools across Aotearoa.

Better the Blood, his debut novel, was published in New Zealand, UK, USA and Australia, with ten translations. It was shortlisted or won numerous awards nationally and internationally, including finalist for the premiere NZ literary award, the Jann Medlicott Fiction Prize at the 2023 Ockhams. Better The Blood was finalist for the Barry Awards (USA) and won Best First Novel at the Ngaio Marsh Awards, making Michael the only author to win a Ngaio for both fiction and non-fiction. In the feature ‘Five Great Crime Novels With Something To Say’, The Spinoff (NZ) wrote that Better The Blood has ‘a thrilling and compelling plot’ but also is ‘an intelligent and easy to read social commentary of colonisation and the reality of being Māori in 2023.’ David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of Winter Counts describes the book as:

‘Stunning. Better the Blood is a tremendous debut, and Hana Westerman, the Māori detective at the center of the story, instantly becomes one of the great characters in crime fiction on any continent. This novel has it all:  a gripping mystery, complex and memorable characters, and timely social and cultural commentary.’

Michael’s first published book was the result of his nearly decade-long commitment to the fight for justice for Teina Pora, a young Māori man wrongly imprisoned for 21 years. In Dark Places, Michael’s non-fiction novel about Teina, won Best Non-Fiction at the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Michael made a documentary which lead to the discovery of evidence pivotal to Teina’s exoneration. He also directed and co-wrote a dramatic feature film about Teina adapted from his own book, which was nominated for a record 11 awards at the NZTV Awards, winning Best Director and Best Film. Professor Andrew Geddis from Pundit.co.nz describes In Dark Places as:

‘[b]eautiful, compellingly told. Bennett’s genius is to build the story around the characters… (and) liberally apply the tropes of crime thriller writing. The reader is carried along by what stylistically seems to be a well-plotted and written thriller, only to be jerked back to the realisation that all of this actually happened. His book is about a real life (and a real death) and I challenge anyone to get through without tearing up. A sad and awful book told in a remarkably good way.’

Michael is the author of a time travel graphic novel, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas (2018), co-written with Ant Sang.

Outside of writing books, Michael is co-curator Māori (with Matariki Bennett) of Waituhi o Tāmaki, the Auckland Writers’ Festival, from 2023 – 2025. He is the 2020 recipient of the Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award, awarded by the NZ Film Commission for excellence in Māori filmmaking. As a filmmaker, Michael’s short films and feature films have screened and won awards internationally, including Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, Locarno, New York and London. He has won many awards for his work as a writer, director and producer in television, including the acclaimed crime thriller series The Gone which won Best TV Drama Series (2023).

Accustomed to public speaking, Micheal has served as chair, co-curator and guest speaker at a number of national festivals, as well as panelist over multiple festivals nationally and internationally including the UK, USA, and Australia. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, he runs workshops and supports Māori and Pasifika writers through Ngā Aho Whakaari, Script To Screen and the NZ Film Commission, he was Head of Screenwriting at South Seas Film School for six years, he has delivered screenwriting workshops for Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters, and he voluntarily mentors numerous emerging Māori and Pasifika writers.

Michael lives in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. He is currently working on a crime thriller time travel story and a nonfiction book.

 

Links

Simon & Schuster author page

Penguin NZ author page

NZ Booklovers review of Carved In Blood (May, 2025)

Kete Books review of Carved In Blood (May, 2025)

The Post interview: Michael Bennett on “raising next generation of artists and storytellers” (April, 2025)

NZ Listener review of Better the Blood: “Michael Bennett returns his Māori detective to her roots in highly anticipated sequel” (April, 2024)

Kete Books review of Return To Blood (April, 2024)

Kirkus Reviews review of Better the Blood: “A striking debut and a significant addition to Indigenous literature” (Jan, 2023)

Radio NZ interview: “Scriptwriter turned best-selling thriller writer” (Sept, 2022)

E-Tangata interview on In Dark Places:  “The Power Of Words” (Sept, 2022)

The Spinoff feature by Michael on writing Better The Blood “The stunning new novel that’s a Trojan horse for exploring the hurt of colonisation”(Aug, 2022)

Stuff interview on In Dark places: “What Happened To Teina Devastates Me To This Day” (Aug, 2022)

NZ Herald review of Better the Blood – “a remarkable post-colonial crime novel” (Aug, 2022)

NZ Herald interview on In Dark Places: “It’s a crime: The horrific case of Teina Pora” (July, 2018)

Stuff interview on In Dark Places: “This Should Make You Angry” (July, 2018)

Pundit review of In Dark Places (May, 2016)

 

Best of Lists:

2025:

The Times (London) – Best of Crime List: Carved In Blood

2024:

NZ Listener – Best Books of 2024: Return To Blood

New York Times – Paperbacks of the Week: Better The Blood

2023:

Deadly Pleasures – Best Books of 2023: Better The Blood

NPR (USA) – Best Books of the Year: Better The Blood

Oprah Daily – Best Mystery Books to Read: Better The Blood

Boston Globe – Our Six Favourite Social Thrillers 2023: Better The Blood

2022:

NZ Listener – Best Books: Better The Blood