Paul Thomas is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 novelist, journalist, sports biographer and scriptwriter. He won the Australian Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 1995 for Inside Dope

Inside Dope

Inside Dope is a 1995 Ned Kelly Award winning novel by the New Zealand author Paul Thomas.-Notes:* This is the prequel to the author's follow-up, Guerilla Season....

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Thomas was born in Harrogate

Harrogate

Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...

, United Kingdom, and attended the University of Auckland

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...

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Thomas' novels are set primarily in Australia and New Zealand, and often also in France, where he spent several years in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

. He is known for his humorous writing style, especially in the novels featuring Tito Ihaka, a Māori detective in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

. The Ihaka novels also draw a panoramic view of the contemporary society in Auckland.

While Thomas' earlier work consists primarily of crime and sports novels, his recent books explore the psychological state-of-mind of middle-aged urban people at the beginning of the new century.

Inside Dope (German title: Transfer) and Dirty Laundry (Schmutzige Wäsche) have been translated and published in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

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Novels

• Old School Tie (1994) (aka Dirty Laundry)
• Inside Dope
  Inside Dope
  Inside Dope is a 1995 Ned Kelly Award winning novel by the New Zealand author Paul Thomas.-Notes:* This is the prequel to the author's follow-up, Guerilla Season....
  
  (1995)
• Guerilla Season (1996)
• Star Struck (1999-2000)
• Final Cut (1999)
• The Empty Bed (2002)
• Work in Progress (2006)