He met Pomare in Rotorua following the publication of his book Call Me Evie, which he thought showed enormous promise.
"I've been following his career ever since."
So how does he envisage travelling around New Zealand in a minivan with two other crime writers?
"We're either going to bond for life or murder each other. The question is – can one of us get away with it? I demand a bigger van, at least big enough to hide the bodies."
During the tour he will promote his recent book Lying Beside You, the third book in the Cyrus Haven/Evie Cormac series, but also readable as a stand-alone.
"Both of my narrators have tragic backstories. Cyrus Haven came home at the age of 13, and discovered his parents and twin sisters had been murdered by his paranoid schizophrenic older brother.
"In Lying Beside You, this same brother, Elias, is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital where he has spent the past twenty years. Cyrus must decide if he can forgive the man who ruined his childhood."
Wilkinson-Smith looks forward to meeting these talented authors and being MC for the evening.
Every working day is a "whodunnit" for Wilkinson-Smith so she reads more spy thrillers than crime these days, among a wide range of other genres.
"I think the fascination has largely gone so the novel has to stand alone as a good read. I still read crime novels on holiday if I enjoy the particular world the author is describing. It's more about the experience of living in that world than interest in the crime."
She is interested in where the authors source their inspiration and in their writing process. Her own work requires objectivity and a focus on factual evidence and how to support the victims. There is little personal or emotional involvement.
"In crime novels there is often a personal link between the criminal and the protagonist and sometimes between the investigators and the criminal. Motive [in her work] is also in the background.
"It's not something you have to prove in real crime, whereas in novels motive is often massive – why someone did something and the psychological underpinnings of it. That makes novels interesting and is very different from my day-to-day life."
She enjoyed a Van McDermid crime novel, is reading one by Robotham and recently loved The Last Guests by Pomare.
"It felt so familiar, it was New Zealand. It wasn't just a murder and "who done it", there many more layers of what was going on in people's lives. I think his writing is seriously good."
Robotham imagines author road trips as a way of promoting books could “go viral”, prompting a wave of similar tours and, with tongue in cheek, the rise to rock-star status of crime writers travelling around in luxury coaches with a huge fan following.
