Karina Kilmore-Barrymore

Karina writes that she was born in Wellington and has lived in many towns throughout New Zealand. She mainly went to schools in the Waikato and Wellington but dropped our of high school at the age of fourteen and worked until she was old enough to go to university as an adult student. Karina studied business at Massey University before switching to journalism and graduated in 1987 - just in time for the global sharemarket crash. Karina's first front page news story on October 20, 1987 for The Evening Post reported on the New York Stock Exchange crash and was one of the earliest reportings on the crash. For the past 30 years Karina has been a daily finance journalist for many publications including her two most recent employers: The Australian Financial Review and the Herald Sun, both based in Melbourne where she now lives. Karina was books editor and is currently a book reviewer for the Herald Sun. She has a passion for consumer rights and social justice and is a strong financial rights advocate. Although she was a debut novelist in 2020, Karina has had more than 3 million words published in articles for papers, magazines and news websites around the world. She was honoured to be included as a complimentary listing in the inaugural publication of Who's Who of Australian Women for her contribution to journalism. She has also written three financial investment books. Karina has a passion for crime fiction. She is a national convenor for Sisters in Crime Australia and a national committee member for Australian Crime Writers Association. Karina is also a member of the New Zealand Society of Authors, the Australian Society of Authors and the Society of Authors UK. She hosts a weekly Murder Mondays video programme, interviewing crime writers about their writing craft. Karina's first attempt at writing fiction, Where the Truth Lies, was shortlisted for the prestigious Victorian Premiers Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript and was subsequently published by Simon & Schuster in 2020. Her second novel will also be published by Simon & Schuster in 2021. Karina is currently working on a fictionalised account of her Ngāi Tahu heritage dating from the 1800s. She only recently began researching her Māori heritage, hapu and South Island whānau after discovering the full identity of her father.

Biographical sources

• Email correspondence from Karina Kilmore-Barrymore 21 Feb., 27 July, 9 Oct. 2020.