Stephen Johnson is an Australian-born writer, journalist, TV producer, kayaker and traveler who now plots thrillers in Auckland, New Zealand. His debut novel, Tugga's Mob, was inspired by three seasons working as a tour guide and driver on double decker buses around Europe in the '80s. Tugga's Mob was a finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel. The second crime fiction novel, Boxed, was published in November 2021 and is set in the world of animal rights activism and the Melbourne media. Both books are published by Clan Destine Press. Stephen's first historic novel, Peace Stick, goes behind the Iron Curtain during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It features two East German schoolgirls dealing with a world on the edge of a nuclear abyss. One of the former students now lives in Auckland, where Peace Stick will be published in October to mark the 60th anniversary.