Randell Cottage welcomes writer Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut in mid-January 2014, following the withdrawal of Maud Lethielleux for personal reasons.

Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut started to write, with her sister Kim, the story of a detective, Mandarin Tan, set in 17th century Viet-Nam. They wrote two novels together before Tranh-Van kept the series going on her own. It proved successful and several of the books have been translated into Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Russian and German.

She will be using her time in New Zealand to focus on a new book which should feature a Kiwi component.