Paul Thomas is an award-winning novelist and columnist. He has written extensively on sport, his nine books on the subject including collaborations with All Blacks legends John Kirwan and Tana Umaga and former New Zealand cricket captain and coaching pioneer John Wright. He has been described as " the Godfather of New Zealand crime fiction" for his ground-breaking series featuring Maori detective Tito Ihaka. The Ihaka novels have been translated into several languages and published in a number of countries, including the UK and the USA.