Stephen Johnson, Author
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. His latest novel, Don't Kiss the Gecko, came out on 5 October 2026.
His debut, Tugga's Mob, was a finalist for the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. Before turning to fiction, he spent 40 years in journalism, much of it producing television news and sport, and won the 2001 Qantas Media Award for Best Television Sport Programme in New Zealand.
The Rebecca Cashmore thrillers
Rebecca Cashmore is a brilliant barrister and fearless TV broadcaster whose career and freedom are threatened by a shocking private life. The books are psychological thrillers set in Auckland, with adult themes of consent and power.
No Repeats (book 1) introduces Rebecca. In Don't Kiss the Gecko (book 2, out now), her efforts to rebuild her life unravel when wealthy businessmen, obsession and dark secrets turn lethal.
The only man who can save her is the cop who charged her with murder. A third Rebecca Cashmore thriller is planned for later in 2027.
Available as Ebook or Paperback
"Stephen Johnson has brought to life a unique protagonist in the sharp, elegant, supremely confident Rebecca Cashmore – lawyer, journalist and consensual practitioner of sexual kinks – in this lively, intriguing thriller." - Narrelle M. Harris
About the author:
Stephen Johnson is a former TV producer and winner of the 2001 Qantas Media Award, kayaker and wanderer who now plots thrillers from his home on the Tamaki River in Auckland.
His debut novel, Tugga’s Mob, was inspired by three seasons in Europe as a tour guide on double-decker buses in the ‘80s. Tugga’s Mob was a finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel. It was written in a motorhome nicknamed Kwozzimoto while driving 33,000 kilometres through a dozen countries and more than 100 campsites. An attempt to escape work created a new passion and career.
The second crime fiction novel, Boxed, was published in November 2021 and is set in the world of animal rights activism and the Melbourne media.
Stephen’s first historic novel, Peace Stick, goes behind the Iron Curtain during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s a story of innocence and hope as two East German schoolgirls deal with a world on the edge of a nuclear war. The novel was inspired by a woman who now lives in Auckland.
The third novel in the Melbourne Spotlight Mystery series, Kaikōura Rendezvous, was published in 2023. A cyclone, a down-on-his-luck fisherman and a TV reporter suffering PTSD from a bullet wound converge in Kaikōura with deadly consequences.
2024 saw the Spotlight TV crew feature in Dark Deeds Down Under 2, a crime and thriller anthology edited by Craig Sisterson. It also marked the launch of a new Auckland series with No Repeats. Rebecca Cashmore’s high-profile media and legal careers are threatened when her secret life implodes.
The Spotlight crew went international in 2025 to chase a killer on the streets of London and the Oxford Canal in their fourth mystery, Dead on Target.
Clan Destine Press secured the rights to the Rebecca Cashmore thriller series in 2026, releasing Don’t Kiss the Gecko, the sequel to No Repeats.
The Melbourne Spotlight mysteries
A Melbourne current affairs TV team chases killers from the Great Ocean Road to Kaikōura and the Oxford Canal: Tugga's Mob, Boxed, Kaikōura Rendezvous and Dead on Target. The fifth, The Last Autograph, is due in early 2027.
2020 Ngaio Marsh Finalist - Best First Novel
