Richard Poole, field security investigator/troubleshooter for TransAtlas Corporation, is sent to Leeland, Illinois, to investigate a troubled subsidiary, LeeLand Mall. Arriving just before Christmas, Poole finds himself embroiled in a case involving the murder of two elves, Santa's Helpers, discovered in the mall. Poole works with local law enforcement people to solve the murders, in the process delving into the strange history of Leeland and its founder, Epaphimandas Lee. Santa Claus himself (i.e., the mall Santa) is subsequently found murdered, and many interesting connections must be investigated before the murders are solved.

Richard Poole, an American, and security investigator for the international TransAtlas Corporation, becomes embroiled in multiple murders while attending a conference on group psychodynamics at Ashpole Manor in England. Poole, while somewhat amused by various British customs and turns of phrase, joins his new friend Amanda to help the local inspector solve the crimes, which, as it turns out, are linked by several threads, some of which seem related to espionage activities of WWII.

William Schafer read, and dreamed, about New Zealand before his first visit in 1995. Mapping the Godzone grew out of that visit and his attempts, as an American, to focus his impressions of New Zealand's literary culture and relate its mental and moral landscape to that of the United States. Through an idiosyncratic selection of contemporary novels and films, Schafer opens up a complex and compelling world. Readers will encounter internationally celebrated writers such as Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Kidman, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Maurice Shadbolt, Albert Wendt, Alan Duff, Keri Hulme, Patricia Grace, Ian Wedde, and Janet Frame; and the emerging New Zealand film industry and the handful of directors (among them Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Vincent Ward, and Geoff Murphy) who have created a vital cinema renaissance since the 1970s.