Bio

Vanda’s first novel Overkill, was written while juggling the demands of a 6 month old baby and a two year old. She suspects the prologue to Overkill was written in a state of sleep deprivation induced paranoia brought about by middle of the night feeds and imagining every awful thing that could possibly happen to her family. None of them ever did. Reading that prologue still makes her cry.

A little time has elapsed and the six-month old and two-year old are now young men. As well as trying to raise two wonderful human beings, she has added four more Detective Sam Shephard novels to the series and written the stand alone psychological thriller The Faceless.

For eighteen years she hosted a monthly radio show on Dunedin’s Otago Access Radio called Write On, where she interviewed local writers, and caught the odd international super-star if they were in town. She’s just hung up the microphone and is missing it terribly.

And just to prove that she is a tiger for punishment, in 2018 she completed a PhD at the University of Otago looking at the communication of science through crime fiction - the perfect subject for a science loving crime writer. She has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and enjoyed a career as a community pharmacist and palliative care pharmacist before concentrating on her writing career. She now works at Va’a o Tautai - Centre for Pacific Health at the University of Otago as a research fellow looking at dementia in aged Pacific people.

Vanda has been involved with the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa for many years, and is the National President. Vanda was also the Chair of Copyright Licensing New Zealand.

When she isn’t writing, Vanda can be found digging around in her garden in Dunedin, or on the business end of a fencing foil. She has fenced since high school and still competes in national and international competitions. As well as competing she coaches, and is heavily involved in her local club, Claymore Swords Club.

Vanda is a founding member of the Dunedin Crime Writers Association, whose raison d’etre is for its members to drink beer or wine and talk crime writing at their favourite pub.

Vanda was thrilled to have been shortlisted in 2019 for a CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger award for her novel, Overkill. She has also been a three time finalist for the Ngaio March Award for best crime novel. In 2022 and 2024 she was honoured to have been nominated for a USA Barry Award!

Life can throw some strange and wonderful opportunities, and no-one was more surprised than Vanda that she ended up being a star on the first season of The Traitors New Zealand.