The Vintner's Luck and other work: 1998–2010
Knox's fourth full-length novel, The Vintner's Luck, was published in 1998, and was her first book to be published outside New Zealand. It chronicles the life of a peasant winemaker, Sobran Jodeau, and his relationship with the fallen angel Xas. The novel is set in 19th-century Burgundy, France, and spans 55 years. It was inspired by a feverish dream experienced by Knox when she had pneumonia. The Vintner's Luck won Knox widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards, and it raised her profile within New Zealand and overseas. It sold over 60,000 copies in New Zealand alone and in 2018, readers of The Spinoff voted it as the best New Zealand novel of the last 50 years.
After the success of The Vintner's Luck, and spending part of 1999 in Menton, France as the recipient of the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, three novels by Knox were published in quick succession: Black Oxen (2001), Billie's Kiss (2002), and Daylight (2003). Daylight, a novel about vampires created by a virus, received praise from reviewers and did well overseas. Academic Erin Mercer notes that the novel reflects international Gothic and supernatural literary traditions as well as New Zealand fiction's more realistic approach.
In 2002, Knox was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, for services to literature.
Knox's first young adult books, Dreamhunter and Dreamquake, were published in 2005 and 2007 respectively, as the Dreamhunter Duet series. Jolisa Gracewood, reviewing Dreamquake, described the book as a "Mansfield-meets-Mahy fantasy" and praised Knox for her audacious imagination and ingeniously constructed tales. In 2008, she published a collection of non-fiction, The Love School: Personal Essays, which was shortlisted in the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Since 2013 a quotation from The Love School has been featured on a concrete plaque forming part of the Wellington Writers Walk, a series of quotations installed along the Wellington waterfront.
In 2009 the film adaptation of The Vintner's Luck directed and co-written by Niki Caro was released. The film was almost universally panned at the 34th Annual Toronto International Film Festival. Knox was disappointed at the direction the movie took as she felt Caro "took out what the book was actually about", referring to the romantic relationship between Sobran and Xas which was a core aspect of the novel. Her sister Sara, who is gay, was also upset about the film version. Knox's bad experience with the film made her pull out of a potential film contract with New Zealand filmmaker Jonathan King for her young adult fantasy series, The Dreamhunter Duet.
That same year, Knox published The Angel's Cut, a sequel to The Vintner's Luck. The story follows the tale of Xas after the events of the first book and is set in 1930s Hollywood. At the time she said that she was intending to write a third book in the series, The Angel's Reserve, set in contemporary times, but as of 2020 it has not yet been published.
