About Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson is an Australian-born, Auckland-based author of crime fiction and psychological thrillers. He writes the Rebecca Cashmore thrillers, set in Auckland, and the Melbourne Spotlight mystery series, both published by Clan Destine Press. He lives and writes on the Tāmaki River in Auckland.
His debut, Tugga's Mob, was a finalist for the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel.
From the newsroom to crime fiction
Before turning to fiction, Stephen spent 40 years in journalism, much of it producing television news and sport in New Zealand and Australia. He won the 2001 Qantas Media Award for Best Television Sport Programme in New Zealand, along with other national sport and news television awards.
In the 1980s he spent three seasons as a tour guide on double-decker buses around Europe. Those trips inspired Tugga's Mob, which he wrote in a motorhome nicknamed Kwozzimoto while driving 33,000 kilometres through a dozen countries and more than 100 campsites. An attempt to escape work became a new career.
Awards and memberships
Finalist, Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, 2020 (Tugga's Mob)
Qantas Media Award, Best Television Sport Programme, 2001
Member of the New Zealand Society of Authors, the Australian Crime Writers Association, Sisters in Crime and the International Association of Crime Writers
The Books
The Rebecca Cashmore thrillers are psychological thrillers set in Auckland, with adult themes of consent and power. Rebecca is a brilliant barrister and TV broadcaster whose career and freedom are threatened by a shocking private life.
No Repeats (2024)
A third novel, working title No Discounts, is planned.
The Melbourne Spotlight mysteries follow a Melbourne current affairs TV team.
Tugga's Mob (2019)
Boxed (2021), set in the world of animal rights activism and the Melbourne media
Kaikōura Rendezvous (2023)
Dead on Target (2025), which takes the team to London and the Oxford Canal
The Last Autograph, the fifth, is due in early 2027.
Also: Peace Stick, a historical novel set behind the Iron Curtain during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, inspired by a woman who now lives in Auckland; and The Cadaver Crew, a Spotlight story in Dark Deeds Down Under 2 (2024), an anthology of Australian and New Zealand crime writing edited by Craig Sisterson.
