The novel was number one on the New Zealand fiction charts and held the top spot for six weeks following the launch.
Now Rankin has been named as one of eight writers on the 2026 New Voices of Aotearoa list.
Rankin said the initiative backed emerging writers demonstrating “promise”.
Rather than awarding a medal, the initiative will spend the next year promoting her work.
The June 19 announcement was “particularly special” for Rankin, especially as it came at the same time as her New Zealand citizenship.
Rankin grew up in a small Scottish village of about 500 people.
She began writing about 13 years ago, soon after moving to New Zealand.
Rankin lived in rural Taupō and has been based in Rotorua for about 10 years. Much of her award-winning novel was written at local cafes such as Ciabatta Cafe and Bakery.
Rankin said the year had felt like two magical dreams “intertwining in parallel”.
It was “mind-blowing” to hear she was shortlisted for three “huge” international crime writing awards.
“What is happening here?” Rankin thought. “This is wild.”
Rankin was a finalist for The Barry Award – one of the “biggest crime-writing awards” in the United States, and for the Crime Writers’ Association First Novel Dagger and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize in the United Kingdom.
The novel received positive reviews following its international release, with the New York Times and Washington Post both naming it among their top thrillers of 2025.
She was cooking dinner at home when her publisher told her she had made the shortlist for both the US and Scottish awards.
Rankin’s father later sent her a photo of The Herald, a Scottish news outlet, where her name was on the front page.
Zoe Rankin reads an extract from her debut novel during her launch event at McLeod’s Booksellers. Photo / Megan Wilson
It was the first time the shortlist was entirely made up of women.
Rankin said all the women “instantly” created a WhatsApp group as they were all “stoked”.
They had been talking almost every day and appeared on a podcast together last week.
She said the presenter trying to keep up with a group of Scottish women was “hilarious”.
Rankin will attend the Scottish awards in Stirling on September 18.
Rankin said she had no “snobbery” around genre but believed “people have always and will always” read crime, driven by a fascination with human behaviour and “what makes them tick”.
She said reading had “really bolstered” in popularity in the last year, proving wrong predictions that the internet would be the death of books.
“For so many years, there was this fear that books would become obsolete,” she said.
“It’s actually just created this massive, online book-loving community,” Rankin said.
TikTok was “huge” for bringing in new young readers. Online communities were making reading a more communal activity.
“I think it’s benefiting writers a lot,” she said.
Rankin also believed some readers were turning to books over film and television, which she said had become more “in your face”.
“For me, I’ve been struggling a bit because on the screen things are getting so extreme.
“Violence is more extreme. Sex is more extreme … Everything is having to push the boundaries more, and it’s quite a lot to watch sometimes,” she said.
Reading was a “more gentle” form of entertainment and “not so confronting”.
She described the New Zealand writing community as “so friendly” and said she enjoyed connecting with readers and answering questions at the Auckland Writers Festival in May.
She had completed the first draft of her second novel, due for release in September 2027.
It was another nature-centred thriller, this time set around Lake Tarawera.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.