Poker, poverty, and the power of storytelling: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award longlist revealed
A poker-playing sleuth, a poet’s gritty take on life on Aotearoa’s poverty line, a rural mystery entwined with heart-wrenching exploration of dementia, and the long-awaited return of a master of neo-noir are among the diverse tales named today on the longlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
Based in the lush Far North of New Zealand, K.V. Martins writes accompanied by the song of a family of boisterous tūī birds outside her window. She writes historical fiction, ghost and gothic fiction, as well as poetry.
Catherine Chidgey’s novels have been published to international acclaim. Her first, In a Fishbone Church, won Best First Book at the New Zealand Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific). In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second, Golden Deeds, was a Notable Book of the Year in the New York Times Book Review and a Best Book in the LA Times. Catherine has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for The Wish Child. She lives in Ngāruawāhia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her 2020 novel, Remote Sympathy, was shortlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Catherine’s novel The Axeman’s Carnival was published in 2022 and is a finalist in the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing. Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Laurence Fearnley lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.
Dr Patricia Berwick was born in New Zealand and currently lives in New Zealand. She has lived and worked in Europe, USA, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and her native New Zealand.
Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Parish. His short fiction has been widely published. Between pastries, he's working on his next novel.
Michael Bennett (Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is an award-winning New Zealand screenwriter and author whose films have been selected for numerous festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York. In 2008 Michael was the inaugural recipient of the Writers Award from the New Zealand Film Commission, and in 2005 he was awarded the British Council/New Zealand Writers Foundation Award. In 2011 Michael’s feature film Matariki won Best Feature Film Screenplay at the New Zealand Screenwriting Awards, and in 2013 he was awarded Best Documentary Screenplay for his documentary on the Teina Pora case, The Confessions of Prisoner T. He went on to publish In Dark Places in 2016, which won Best Non-Fiction Book at the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Best Biography/History at the Nga Kupu Ora Awards 2017. Michael lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is Head of Screenwriting at South Seas Film School.
Steffanie Holmes is the author of steamy historical and paranormal romance. Her books feature clever, witty heroines, wild shifters, cunning witches and alpha males who get what they want.
Before becoming a writer, Steffanie worked as an archaeologist and museum curator. She loves to explore historical settings and ancient conceptions of love and possession. From Dark Age Europe to crumbling gothic estates, Steffanie is fascinated with how love can blossom between the most unlikely characters.
Steffanie lives in New Zealand with her husband and a horde of cantankerous cats. Learn more about Steffanie at her website: www.steffanieholmes.com. She also writes dark science fiction under the name S C Green.
Jacqueline 'Rock' Bublitz is a writer, feminist, and arachnophobe who lives between Melbourne, Australia and her hometown on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Clare Moleta was raised on Whadjuk Noongar Country in Western Australia. Her fiction has been published in literary journals and broadcast on Radio New Zealand, and she has won awards for her travel writing. She has a Writing Diploma from RMIT University and an MA in Creative Writing from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington. She now lives in Poneke | Wellington, Aotearoa, where she was born.
Patricia Forrester Donovan is a contemporary writer of adult fiction. She graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master's Degree (with honours) in English Literature. After graduation she worked in corporate communications in Australia and New Zealand and is the author of best practice guide to the profession.
Andy grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, spent too many years in the fog of London, then followed the long white cloud – and his wife – to Wellington. Always wanting to write, he completed an Advanced Certificate in Creative Writing (Novel) at Whitireia in 2015, followed by a Graduate Diploma in 2016. He writes contemporary fiction, science-fiction and travel blogs. Several of his sci-fi short stories have been published in Sponge.nz.
Angelique Kasmara has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. She was a finalist for the Michael Gifkins Prize and won the Sir James Wallace Prize in 2016. Some of her fiction appears in Newsroom, Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand and A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices.
Angelique lives in Tāmaki Makaurau where she works as a communications manager, writer, translator and reviewer.
I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up in the Far East, first in Hong Kong and then in Singapore.
Chris was born in Eastbourne in the UK to a British mother and New Zealander father. He moved to New Zealand with his family at age two where he spent over six years growing up in Auckland. It was during this time that Chris’ love for reading and writing began, spending his early years penning hundreds of short stories his mother still has tucked away.
Upon returning to the UK, Chris lived in a small town in Sussex. These years went on to inspire many of the themes in his novels, such as coming of age, small-town homophobia and isolation. Chris moved to Hampshire at age nineteen to study journalism at university.
Upon graduating, Chris moved to London and began a career in copywriting. In 2011, he published his debut book of poetry through his co-founded publishing company, PRNTD.
Chris relocated to Australia in 2014 and released his LGBTQ+ coming-of-age novel The Nowhere in 2019. His New Zealand mystery novel Boy Fallen is coming out 22 March 2022.
Chris lives in Sydney with his husband.
Madeleine Eskedahl was born and raised in Sweden on the beautiful island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Tom Remiger is the name under which Tom McLean writes fiction. He is originally from Rotorua, New Zealand, but now livs in the UK, where he is completing a DPhil in literature at Oxford.
Fiona Leitch is a writer with a chequered past. She’s written for football and motoring magazines, DJ’ed at illegal raves and is a stalwart of the low budget TV commercial, even appearing as the Australasian face of a cleaning product called 'Sod Off'. After living in London and Cornwall she's finally settled in sunny New Zealand, where she enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them. She spends her days dreaming of retiring to a crumbling Venetian palazzo, walking on the windswept beaches of West Auckland, and writing funny, flawed but awesome female characters.
Fresh voices came to the fore at WORD Christchurch Spring Festival on Saturday afternoon as Becky Manawatu and RWR McDonald were named the winners of the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Both winners were first-time novelists, and while their winning books were different in many ways, each was told in large part from the perspective of young children dealing with loss and violence in small-town New Zealand, each included a rich cast of diverse characters, and each expertly blended lighter moments with dark events in tense tales that could make readers gasp and laugh.
Brandy Scott is a New Zealand-born, Dubai-based author and journalist. Over her twenty-year career, she's worked as a magazine writer, newspaper editor, and radio presenter.
Rose Carlyle is a lawyer and keen adventurer. She has crewed on scientific yachting expeditions to subantarctic islands and lived aboard her own yacht in the Indian Ocean for a year, sailing it from Thailand to South Africa via the Seychelles. Rose was a Michael King Writer in Residence in 2020. She lives in Auckland with her three children.
I spent my childhood on a small, dreamy fishing island close to Hamburg, Germany. From there I spent years in Switzerland and The Netherlands. For the last thirty years, I’ve called New Zealand my home.
Once my three children were grown, I studied psychotherapy and worked for 25 years as a trauma specialist and started writing. Over the years I’ve learned that life is a bumpy ride full of highs and lows. It’s having friends and loved ones to celebrate with that makes the highs special, and knowing one isn’t the only one who struggles makes the lows tolerable.
For Dione Jones, writing is a long-held passion. She lives in New Zealand but was born in England and if often inspired to write about the past and changes to the English way of life, she has a Master of Creative Writing and has won an award in the National Flash Fiction competition.
Robert Jenkins was born and raised in Walthamstow, East London. Running wild was his heritage but he also wrote plays for the stage, novels and short stories. He wrote poetry from a young age and read them in the early days of stand-up poetry nights in London pubs. Straddling realities can happen in great cities. He travelled the world with his wife and children and back at home lived and worked with some of the most challenging, damaged and beautiful people in society.
Rosetta Allan is an Auckland based novelist, poet, and short fiction writer. Born in Putaruru, Rosetta grew up in the Hawkes Bay, then studied at the University of Auckland, obtaining her Masters of Creative Writing with First Class Honours in 2017, and was the recipient of the Sir James Wallace Masters of Creative Writing Scholarship.
Maxine Alterio is a novelist, short story writer and academic mentor. She has a MA from Otago University and a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, where she studied the memoirs of First World War nurses.
Sandra Arnold lives in New Zealand. She has a MLitt (High Distinction) and PhD in Creative Writing from Central Queensland University, Australia and is the author of a book on parental bereavement, Sing no Sad Songs and two novels, Tomorrow’s Empire and A Distraction of Opposites. Her first flash fiction collection Soul Etchings (Retreat West Books, UK) was published in June 2019. Her third novel, Ash (Mākaro Press, NZ) will be published in August 2019.
Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu) was born in Nelson, raised in Waimangaroa and has returned there to live with her family, working as a reporter for The News in Westport. Becky’s short story ‘Abalone’ was long-listed for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, her essay ‘Mothers Day’ has been selected for the Landfall anthology Strong Words. Auē is her first novel.
Bruce Melrose grew up on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast, just north of the capital city, Wellington, and is a graduate of Massey University.
He was a Wellington track champion over 3000m steeplechase and 10,000m, and a New Zealand 3000m steeplechase representative in 1989.
He raced in the IAAF Grand Prix 3000m steeplechase in London against many of the best steeplechasers of his generation.
He lives with Ali and their two dogs Ruby and Benny.
Stephanie Johnson is the author of several collections of poetry and of short stories, some plays and adaptations, and many fine novels. The New Zealand Listener commented that ‘Stephanie Johnson is a writer of talent and distinction. Over the course of an award-winning career — during which she has written plays, poetry, short stories and novels — she has become a significant presence in the New Zealand literary landscape, a presence cemented and enhanced by her roles as critic and creative writing teacher.' the Shag Incident won the Montana Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2003, and Belief was shortlisted for the same award. Stephanie has also won the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award and Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, and was the 2001 Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland. Many of her novels have been published in Australia, America and the United Kingdom. She co-founded the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival with Peter Wells in 1999.
Lily Woodhouse is the Australian pen name of award winning New Zealand author Stephanie Johnson.
James N. Bade, professor emeritus of German at the University of Auckland, lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
Rob Elliott, a New Zealander, is a member and former President of his local U3A Chapter. He has travelled widely during his career in the Motor Industry. Since retirement he has written and published a memoir and five novels.
Christina O’Reilly is a writer, freelance proofreader, and copy editor currently living in the Manawatu. Two of her short stories have been published in the anthologies Horizons 3 and The Rangitawa Collection 2017. Her first crime novel, Into the Void, was recently longlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Memorial Prize for an Unpublished Novel.
Frances Housden lives in New Zealand, a beautiful country not so very different from Scotland, where she was born. She began her career as a published writer after winning Romance Writers of New Zealands prestigious Clendon Award. She went on to pen six very successful novels for Silhouette Books, where she merged her penchant for characterisation with her love of suspense. She is now delving into the world of historical romance, using her love of history to take her readers on an exciting trip into the lives of memorable characters.
Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.
Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.
Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.
Carmel Reilly writes for children and adults. She has worked as an educational writer for almost two decades and is the author of more than 300 titles of fiction and non-fiction for children and young teens. In 2011 she won the Partners in Crime Short Story award and in 2016 she was awarded a Varuna Residental Fellowship to develop her first novel, Life Before. Born in New Zealand, she now lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Cherie Mitchell is an Amazon bestselling author with a number of short story prizes, book awards, and literary commendations to her name. Her biggest prize to date was a complimentary trip across the world when her book The House At Sailor's Bay was ranked as a finalist in the Litnet Small Towns, Big Stories Contest.
Shauna writes crime novels featuring characters who aren't afraid to solve mysteries, find murderers, and generally get themselves in all sorts of danger. In real life, Shauna wouldn't be found doing any of these things.
I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I also spent three years living and working in Japan, during which time I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page (updated every month).
So far, I've worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher and not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency but I call it grist for the writer's mill.
Young offenders, criminal histories:
Ngaio Marsh Award longlist revealed
An extraordinary literary tag-team is among several tales inspired by historic events to be named today on an eclectic longlist for the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
R.W.R. McDonald is a Kiwi living in Melbourne with his two daughters and an extended rainbow family including HarryCat and Stevie Nicks the chicken.
Catherine lives with a fox terrier that thinks he owns the house. She has sold international satellite capacity, worked in IT recruitment, and run her own communications store.
When Catherine isn't writing, she's dog-wrangling, wrestling with technology, or going crazy trying to maintain control of the yard.
He currently lives in the capital city of New Zealand with his wife & ex SPCA cat, Dudley.
When he's writing a novel (he has published twelve in twelve years) he works every day of the week, in the mornings, for 3-5 hours. A retired pensioner,it's his only paid employment.
Karen has always written stories, many over the recent years for her writers group. You can download her collection of young children's stories, "Cinderella Sarah" FOR FREE from here: http://www.karencossey.com/childrens-...
Having home-schooled her two children for five years, she tries to put something of her love of family and joy of living into her writing. She lives in beautiful New Zealand, near to the beach, along with her husband, her two kids who are now teenagers, and a very practical People Mover vehicle which looks nothing like the Ferrari she dreams of. Nor the unicorn. Worst of all, it doesn't come with a chauffeur or even a taxi driver so she also dreams about the day her teenagers get their own driving licences. :)
Being a writer she obviously has a cat, who is called Marbles and likes to talk with her other pet, Milly the goat.
Brent Partner is a writer, academic librarian, husband and father.
Adele Broadbent is a children's author, bookseller, reviewer and avid reader.
Ella West, the pen name of Karen Trebilcock, was born in Invercargill, New Zealand and writes novels for young adults. She now lives on a rural property near Mosgiel, Dunedin, with her husband and two sons. As well as writing fiction, she also works part time as a journalist. Her next book Rain Fall is due out in January 2018.
Writing is one of those things that I have always done. I vividly remember spending most of an English exam writing a complicated adventure story as the answer to an exam question. I passed the exam, either because of, or despite the answer.
Andrea lives in Orewa, New Zealand. When not working or writing she can be found either inching through the novels of Charles Dickens with reasonable success; learning to stand-up paddle board with fair to middling success; or attempting to limit quaffing of bubbles with little to no success.
Brian Falkner is one of the pre-eminent writers for children and young adults in Australasia and has won multiple awards for his work.
Hi, I’m Linda Coles, an English woman now living in New Zealand.
I’ve written marketing books and a couple of romance books, and have now settled on crime as my chosen genre, since that’s what I enjoy reading the most.
I developed the DS Amanda Lacey series back in 2017 and have watched her and her colleagues grow over the stories, through their work as well as their personal lives. Jack Rutherford is her work partner, and is a bit of a ‘Maigret’; as for Amanda herself, I can’t think of anyone she’d be like except maybe like lots of women. She’s honourable, savvy, loving and wears well-polished Doc Martin boots with her sensible work suit, so that should tell you something of her nature. Together the duo work the strangest of crimes in Croydon, UK. I do like to give them both modern cases to solve, quite often involving the dark web for a bit of extra intrigue.
Giovanni Rex’s noir-ish novels cut a broad swath across the contemporary genre. This is part due to the complexity of time shifts, narrative voices, and bizarre characterizations. Part thriller, part literary musing, the author’s tone is a times a moral cry for a better society, with more compassion, less violence, but at others the pages are awash with blood and sex. Whom ever the author is, and there are plenty of hints within his novels to assume there is another hand behind the declared writer, an excellent puppet master is pulling the literary strings. He/she has taken the noir convention and cut it to pieces.
J.P. Pomare is an award-winning writer who has had work published in journals including Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Takahe and Mascara Literary Review. He has hosted the On Writing podcast since 2015 featuring bestselling authors from around the globe. He was born in New Zealand and resides in Melbourne with his wife.
Sorry, we currently don't have any bio information to display.
Linda Olsson lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Her debut 'Let me sing you gentle songs' was published in September 2005 in New Zealand. Since then the rights for it have been sold to many countries. It has now been published in the US and Canada under the title 'Astrid and Veronika' as well as in her country of birth, Sweden (Låt mig sjunga dig milda sånger).
Sorry, we currently don't have any bio information to display.
Nathan Blackwell was raised on Auckland's North Shore and attended Westlake Boys High School before commencing a ten-year career in the New Zealand Police. Seven of those years were spent as a Detective in the Criminal Investigation Branch, where he was exposed to human nature at its strongest and bravest, but also at its most depraved and horrific.
Backcountry mystery outshone big city crime at WORD Christchurch Festival on Saturday evening as Alan Carter and Jennifer Lane were named the winners of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Two authors who returned to crime writing after more than a decade away have today been named among an eclectic longlist for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
Having just posted a media announcement on the 2018 Ngaio Marsh longlist (the media announcement is here), now for a few personal comments. Firstly and most importantly, if you've been standing by waiting for a review to be posted (especially if your book was in the submissions list), this is the reason for the delay.
Turned into the perfect read for a hot Saturday afternoon.
From the Blurb:
Amy is a store detective at Cutty’s, the oldest and grandest department store in the country. She’s good at her job. She can read people and catch them. But Cutty’s is closing down. Amy has a young baby, an ailing mother, and a large mortgage. She also has a past as an activist.
One from the weekend's pile
From the Blurb:
Detective Ngaire Blakes is back on the case when a skeletonized murder victim is discovered - a crime that took place during the Springbok Tours of 1981. A period that pitted father against son, town against city, and police against protestors.
The latest from the NZ pile.
From the Blurb:
Particularly intriguing one from recent day's reading.
From the Blurb:
Cassy blew a collective kiss at them. 'See you in September,' she said. A throwaway line. Just words, uttered casually by a young woman in a hurry. And then she'd gone.
It was supposed to be a short trip - a break in New Zealand before her best friend's wedding. But when Cassy waved goodbye to her parents, they never dreamed that it would be years before they'd see her again.
Another from the New Zealand pile read over the weekend.
From the Blurb:
Another from the weekend's New Zealand piles.
From the Blurb:
"In the silence she could hear the oncoming hum, like a large flock approaching. She didn’t want to hear his story; she’d had enough of them."
Tess is on the run when she’s picked up from the side of the road by lonely middle-aged father Lewis Rose. With reluctance, she’s drawn into his family troubles and comes to know a life she never had.
Set in Masterton at the turn of the millennium, Tess is a gothic love story about the ties that bind and tear a family apart.
One from a weekend's reading catch up on the New Zealand / Ngaio Marsh piles.
From the Blurb:
A SUICIDE. A MURDER. A CONSPIRACY.
DIGGING UP THE PAST CAN BE DEADLY . . .
A thirteen-year-old boy commits suicide.
A sixty-five-year old man dies of a heart attack.
Dan Forrester, ex-MI5 agent, is connected to them both.
And when he discovers that his godson and his father have been murdered, he teams up with his old friend, DC Lucy Davies, to find answers.
Starting off with this one over the Easter long weekend.
From the Blurb:
Army veteran Hunter Grant thought he had left war behind in Afghanistan – a conflict that left him with physical and psychological scars. But finding an unconscious girl in the Northland bush and gradually untangling her story involves him in a war of a different kind in his own country.
From the current reading pile.
From the Blurb:
SUPERPOWERS SHOULD NOT BE WASTED ON THE YOUNG
Euphemia Sage watched helplessly as Jane, covered in blood, clutched her precious jewelry and was bundled into the Mercedes. Just a few days earlier she’d discovered that Alison, her mousy receptionist at Sage Consulting, had been working as a loan shark on the side. And now Alison, her husband and those thick-necked men in the cheap suits wanted the money back.
One from the weekend's pile.
From the Blurb:
Peter Fraser was our greatest prime minister on the international stage. He proved it as World War Two was ending and he played a major part in shaping the United Nations. In the process he made enemies. He is back in New Zealand, where a plot is under way to kill him. If it is successful, New Zealand’s influence on the international stage ends and the country descends into chaos, a divided country ripe for international manipulation.
From the NZ piles about the place - an historical novel set in Dunedin.
From the Blurb:
Another from the staggeringly varied #yeahnoir pile
From the Blurb:
It's Broadway in Reefton, the new, booming 1870s gold town.
Suspiciously, Gordon Trembath, a naive young police constable has been left in charge over Christmas and New Year. He is immediately faced with investigating a murder carried out by sly-groggers in the valley.
In the meantime, the town has been invaded by "a collection of scamps, card sharps, liars and chats who have come to town for the pickings available in the holiday season."
And we're caught up for the moment - currently reading this one.
From the Blurb:
On Sundays peace was restored. He would lie down, dream and remember. He would enjoy. And later on the bell would ring. He would get up and walk downstairs. He would open the front door. And his life would come to an end . . .
Garda Inspector Michael McLoughlin is trying to enjoy his retirement – doing a bit of PI work on the side, meeting up with former colleagues, fixing up a grand old house in a genteel Dublin suburb near the sea.
Another from the previously reading pile.
From the Blurb:
When Dean Bradley is brutally murdered for his new shoes, undertaker Ken Tamati does a lovely job on the corpse — but next morning, the body has vanished from the funeral parlour.
That day, a mysterious figure — witnesses give wildly conflicting descriptions — begins rescuing victims of assault all over Auckland and healing their horrific injuries with a dazzling light. They call him the Rainbow Man.
Another from the past overdue for mention pile.
From the Blurb:
Martin Fallaway is dying. With no family to whom he can leave his surplus fortune, he holds a contest on his tropical island, where ten families compete to be the last team left in order to claim the prize of thirty million dollars.
From the was reading pile, this is fascinating.
From The Blurb:
Minnie Dean: the first – and only – woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Baby farmer and child murderer, or hardworking wife and mother, supporting her family by caring for unwanted children in a society that shunned her?
Karen Zelas explores the trials of Minnie Dean using a myriad of voices, including Dean’s own, from her childhood in Scotland to the gallows in Invercargill, 1895.
From the piles of reading, sod all blogging I've been doing recently.
From the Blurb:
From the wonderfulness that is the pile of New Zealand Crime fiction.
From the Blurb:
‘Cynthia can understand how Anahera feels just by looking at her body.’
It's that time of the year where posting becomes erratic and reading consumes every spare moment. Sometimes life is hard ;)
From the Blurb:
“There was Polly’s tokotoko on the ground. Carved and polished, with its eel head, the snout inlaid with pāua. Alexia picked it up and cracked it across the cop’s shoulders. She raised it again and hit and hit. She would stop this.”
Diving into my New Zealand piles at the moment, this one became this weekend's reading for no particular reason.
From the Blurb:
He’s lost his wife, his job, and his mana. So what now? A PI? He really couldn’t get used to it. Traipsing around after unfaithful wives and little old ladies’ lost dogs? Was this the future for Carlos Wallace? And what of the beautiful matakite? Wasn’t it a sin to fall in love with your cousin?
This over the weekend for a number of reasons. Firstly "ice". It was so mind-numbingly, life-threateningly hot here over the weekend I needed distraction. Then although set in Iceland, Nicol is a New Zealander and I'm back reading a lot of NZ fiction at the moment. Finally at 98 or so pages long it was a perfect filler between forays into the stinking horrible heat to try to keep livestock pointing in the right direction.
From the Blurb:
From my weekend's reading, this thriller, first in a series based around US SEAL and a threat to the US mainland.
From the Blurb:
The fate of America lies in the hands of one team of US SEALs. The US mainland is under threat as never before. Osama bin Laden is dead, and the world can relax. Or can they? Remaining leaders of Al-Qaeda want revenge, and they want it against the USA. When good fortune smiles on them and the opportunity presents itself to use stolen weapons of mass destruction, it's Game On!
I'm behind with everything and bloody hate coming up with Top howevermany's so I'm not pretending to try anymore. Instead, a list of books that just nailed it this year. In no particular order, or quantity, although I have had a go at combining them into geographical locations so you know - result.
Too Easy, J.M. Green (review to come at Newtown Review of Books, but this is the second book in the Stella Hardy series and it's required reading).
A two sitting read from 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award winner. There's something about this author's work ...
From the Blurb:
Michalia Arathimos is a Greek / New Zealand writer who lives in Melbourne with her partner and two sons. She is a prize-winning author of short stories and essays, and winner of the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards, 2016. She works as a freelance editor and is the fiction reviewer for Melbourne magazine Overland.
Danyl McLauchlan was born in Wellington in 1974. He studied at Victoria University, and worked and travelled in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, before he returned to Wellington where he works as a biologist.
I live with Ruth in Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Napier is located on the eastern coast of the North Island. I have lived here since May 2015. NAPIER is a popular place for tourists because of its unique 1930's Art Deco architecture. Most of the city had to be rebuilt after the earthquake of 1931 which destroyed just about all the city buildings. It also has a beautiful Marine Parade. The temperatures in summer are often 30 -33 degrees.
Charity Norman was born in Uganda and brought up in successive draughty vicarages in Yorkshire and Birmingham. After several years' travel she became a barrister, specialising in crime and family law in the northeast of England. Also a mediator, she is passionate about the power of communication to slice through the knots. In 2002, realising that her three children had barely met her, she took a break from the law and moved with her family to New Zealand. Charity currently lives in Napier, New Zealand
A former Customs Officer, Kirsten McKenzie fought international crime for several years before leaving to help run the family antique shop. Ten years of surrounding herself with beautiful old things resulted in the publication of her first novel and her evolvement into a full time author.
Recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Readers' Appreciation Award. Born in beautiful New Zealand, the author now resides in the Midwest with her partner and a menagerie of animals. When she is not writing or reading, she loves to explore the mountains and prairies near her home, a landscape eternally and wonderfully foreign to her. Jennifer first published lesbian mysteries under this pen name with the Naiad Press in the 1990s. Her Amanda Valentine series was also published by Silver Moon in England, and in translation by Frauenoffensive in Germany.
Tanya Moir grew up in a small town in Southland, the deep south of New Zealand, and now lives on the west coast of Auckland with her husband and a large dog.
Brannavan Gnanalingam is a critically-acclaimed novelist from the Hutt Valley, New Zealand. His previous novel Credit in the Straight World about a small town finance company collapse drew comparisons with A Confederacy of Dunces and Charles Dickens, whilst his other books have examined Kiwis travelling in Paris and West Africa. This, his fourth novel, is his first set in Wellington. He hopes - one day - to write a novel about cricket.
I had my first taste of literary success at the age of eleven when I won St Michael’s Primary School’s Year Six creative writing competition with my dramatic World War II piece, Dominic Finds a Way. Twenty-four comparatively unsuccessful years later, I was one of the winners of NZ Book Month’s Six Pack Twocompetition with Scout’s Honour, an extract from an early draft of what was to become All Our Secrets. My short stories have been published in journals and magazines both here and across the Tasman, including Southerly: Writers and their Journals (Australia), Pulp (NZ), Viola Beadleton’s Compendium (NZ) and Island (Australia).
Another from New Zealand - this time set in a small town hiding lots of old secrets.
From the Blurb:
The body of missing tourist Bethany Haliwell is found in the small Coromandel town of Castle Bay, where nothing bad ever happens. News crews and journalists from all over the country descend on the small seaside town as old secrets are dragged up and gossip is taken as gospel.
Among them is Miller Hatcher, a journalist battling her own demons, who arrives intent on gaining a promotion by covering the grisly murder.
There’s fresh blood aplenty in the local crime writing ranks and the usual suspects were nowhere to be found as the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists were named on Monday.
The second novel out of New Zealand I've been able to read that explores the after-affects of crime. Let's hope this is not just a glitch in the continuum as both of these novels now have been thought-provoking and challenging.
From the Blurb:
Late in mentioning this one, particularly as I've been reading and re-reading it a couple of times now.
From the Blurb:
Murder, political intrigue, bent cops and the fate of a nation - a thriller set in the murky underworld of 1951 New Zealand.
A man overboard, a murder and a lot of loose ends ...
In Auckland 1951 the workers and the government are heading for bloody confrontation and the waterfront is the frontline. But this is a war with more than two sides and nothing is what it seems.
Catching up on some recently read books - this is historical romance / crime fiction from New Zealander Author, Jude Knight.
From the Blurb:
Prue's job is to uncover secrets, but she hides a few of her own. When she is framed for murder and cast into Newgate, her one-time lover comes to her rescue. Will revealing what she knows help in their hunt for blackmailers, traitors, and murderers? Or threaten all she holds dear?
I read this recently.
From the Blurb:
A false accusation. A brutal murder. Can Ngaire find a killer before he finds her?
Ngaire Blakes is trying to put her life back together. The ex-cop resigned from the police after a vicious assault left her battling PTSD. Dragged into a murder investigation, she’s shocked to discover that all the evidence points to her.
Started reading this legal based thriller over the weekend.
From the Blurb:
When feisty lawyer Sasha Stace secures the acquittal of a sleazy politician charged with rape, it’s one legal victory too many. Disillusioned, she looks to the High Court bench for more fulfillment. But before she can become a judge, there’s one more criminal defense – a trial with complications, a trial like no other.
Another from the weekend's reading pile - which wasn't that big unfortunately this time around, bit busy and then next weekend's Eurovision so other than hiding from the media on Sunday before the telecast - will be too flat out cooking :)
From the Blurb:
A funny, disturbing, and deeply affecting novel of power, corruption, and innocence in colonial Africa, by the author of Terms & Conditions.
Picked this one up recently - billed as comic farce.
From the Blurb:
A desolate valley.
A missing mathematician.
A glamorous and beguiling council bureaucrat with a hidden past.
A cryptic map leading to an impossible labyrinth.
An ancient conspiracy; an ancient evil.
A housing development without proper planning permission.
All leading to the most mysterious mystery of all.
First from the last weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
A cryptic message left next to a charred corpse in the middle of Reykjavík leaves police worried they have a gang war on their hands.
Across town Detective Grímur Karlsson investigates a missing girl from a nice suburban family and gets far too close to the truth for his own good.
It becomes clear the two cases are connected and Karlsson doggedly pursues the trail that leads from junkies on the seedy streets of Reykjavík all the way to the very top of Icelandic society.
Second from the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
Detective Jim Kelleher's daughter Annie is a teenage prostitute who's addicted to crystal meth but in his eyes she's still a lamb being preyed upon by wolves. He feels she's far too close to her Polynesian gangster boyfriend and the motorcycle gang and the triads he deals drugs with... and is there even some more forbidden cargo? Meanwhile, Jim's new partner Stuart has the unenviable task of trying to stop Jim from falling victim to the same temptations he's trying to save his daughter from.
From the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
London in the 1770s is bursting with opportunity. It's a city fuelled by new ideas and new money, where everything is for sale - including entree into the ruling class.
Second from the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
Solikha Duong lives the carefree life of a village girl in northern Cambodia until her world is torn apart by ‘truck men’ from the south. But Solikha is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...
Alice Kwann is on vacation when she’s set upon by thugs at a stopover in northern Nevada. But Alice too is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...
Final from the weekend's pile.
From the Blurb:
Grammy night, 2021. Ruby wins 'Best Song' and makes an impulsive acceptance speech that excites nature lovers across the world. While Ruby and her band celebrate, an extreme evangelical sect, funded by covert paymasters, dispatches a disciple on a ruthless mission to England.
As the band plays its sold-out tour, Ruby is pursued by eco-groupies insisting she use her new fame to fight climate change.
One from the Easter break where not enough reading was done.
From the Blurb:
When a woman's body is discovered frozen in the ice of a river near the alpine resort of Queenstown, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Buchan faces both a mystery and a moral dilemma. The identity of the nude woman is critical to the motives and manner of her murder, and Buchan is personally involved. So are a number of locals, from ski bums to multi-millionaire businessman.
Another from the over Easter pile.
From the Blurb:
A beautiful New Zealand summer. An ugly past that won’t stay buried.
Paediatric surgeon Claire Bowerman has reluctantly returned to Auckland from London. Calm, rational and in control, she loves delicately repairing her small patients’ wounds. Tragically, wounds sometimes made by the children’s own families.
Final dip into the #yeahnoir pile for the weekend.
From the Blurb:
Rachel McManus has just started at the New Zealand Alarm and Response Ministry. One of the few females working there, she is forced to traverse the peculiarities of Wellington bureaucracy, lascivious colleagues, and decades of sedimented hierarchy. She has the chance to prove herself by investigating a suspected terrorist, who they fear is radicalising impressionable youth and may carry out an attack himself on the nation's capital.
Second from the NZ list over the weekend - this is another in what's an increasing number of books from that part of the world exploring consequences.
From the Blurb:
A bit of a chilly, sometimes showery weekend meant any excuse for some reading - and this was the standout of the entire bunch.
From the Blurb:
Bobby Ress is a cop.
He believes in God and making a difference.
He loves his wife and he loves his daughter.
He has a place in the world.
Picked this one up on the weekend - so far rather engaging read.
From the Blurb:
A small community, broken families, a bloody murder, and an ending you won’t see coming
When Frida Delaney returns home to New Zealand after a self-imposed exile the last thing she expects to find is her neighbour’s bloody body and to be caught up in a murder inquiry. An inquiry that reaches into the darkest side of politics, financial conspiracy and families.
Started this one on Sunday night - first in the Ngaire Blakes series.
From the Blurb:
Forty years ago Magdalene Lynton drowned in a slurry. She choked to death as her hands scrabbled for purchase on the smooth concrete walls. A farmhand discovered her bloated body three days later.
Or she didn't.
Paul Worthington just confessed to her murder.
Forty years ago Magdalene Lynton died in a dirty shed. He smothered her life along with her cries for help and tossed her defiled corpse into a river when he was done.
Or he didn't.
Long weekend reading part 1
From the Blurb:
Long weekend reading part 3.
From the Blurb:
Set against a backdrop of actual events in 1995, Martyn Percival, a middle-aged New Zealander, seeks adventure on his first OE to the United Kingdom. A chance sighting, providing a possible link between an explosion that has rocked the nation and the whereabouts of a renegade IRA operative, has Martyn reporting his suspicions to an attractive police sergeant in the Cotswolds.
This is more of a novella - entered in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
From the Blurb:
Another from the Ngaio Marsh piles - this time a police procedural styled book set in Auckland.
From the Blurb:
Eleanor Catton (born 1985) is a New Zealand author. Catton was born in Canada while her father, a New Zealand graduate, was completing a doctorate at the University of Western Ontario. She lived in Yorkshire until the age of 13, before her family settled in Canterbury, New Zealand. She studied English at the University of Canterbury, and completed a Master's in Creative Writing at The Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. She wrote her first novel, The Rehearsal, as her master's thesis.Eleanor Catton holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she also held an adjunct professorship, and an MA in fiction from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. Currently she teaches creative writing at the Manukau Institute of Technology.
October on AustCrime because I'm back getting my act together.
About the Author EWING, Barbara ( - ) is an actor and novelist whose first novel, Strangers (1978) was not followed up by a second for twenty years, when The Actresses was published in 1997. Born and educated in New Zealand, Ewing has spent most of her life living and working as an actor in London. Mistakenly assumed by many critics and readers to be Ewing's first book, The Actresses was a popular and acclaimed novel. It is described in The Times as combining "elements of courtroom drama and comedy of manners, as well as sharp insights into the harsher realities of theatrical life."
Adam Sarafis is the creation of authors Linda Olsson and Thomas Sainsbury. Linda Olsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948. She left Sweden in 1986 and has lived in Kenya, Singapore, the UK and Japan, before settling in New Zealand. Her first novel, Let me sing you gentle songs (aka Astrid & Veronica) became an international bestseller, and has been followed by three more novels. She divides her time between Auckland and Stockholm. Thomas Sainsbury was born in Matamata, New Zealand. After graduating from the University of Auckland he pursued a career in theatre, television and comedy. His darkly comic plays have been performed throughout New Zealand and in Australia, USA, UK, Greece and France. He co-wrote the award-winning New Zealand television comedy Super City and the Vietnamese.
Donna Malane is a writer, television producer, script and series advisor, script writer, story-liner, script and story editor and developer. She has written a huge variety of television including drama, crime-drama and doco-drama, fantasy, children’s drama, sketch comedy, and documentary. Although Donna’s writing has largely been for television she has also had two other books published and her plays and short stories have been broadcast on National Radio.
David McGill is a New Zealand social historian who has published 53 books. Born in Auckland, educated in the Bay of Plenty and at a Christchurch seminary, he trained as a teacher and did a BA at Victoria University of Wellington. He worked as a feature writer for The Listener, Sydney’s The Bulletin, London’s TVTimes, wrote columns for the Evening Post in Wellington and edited a local lifestyle magazine before becoming a full-time writer in 1984. His book subjects include Ghost Towns of New Zealand and the country’s first bushranger, local and national heritage buildings, Kiwi prisoners of war, the history of the NZ Customs Department, a biography of a criminal lawyer, a personal history of rock music, a rail journey around the country, historical and comic novels, several thrillers and six collections of Kiwi slang. He collects owl figurines and reads thrillers.
Finn Bell lives in the far south of New Zealand where he writes full time.
My first career was in orthodox medicine. I worked in the hospital specialties of cancer care and general psychiatry, and spent some time in rural general practice. From 1991-2000 I held the post of Consultant in Psychological Medicine at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England. I published a number of medical books and research papers. Then I moved to Auckland with my New Zealand-born husband, and trained as a Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner and Life Coach. Writing is now my main pursuit, with several books on holistic healing and natural therapies, three short novels and another on the way. I also edited my uncle's memoir 'Geoffrey Guy's War: Memoirs of a Spitfire Pilot'. Other interests are choral singing and animal welfare.
Carolyn Hawes was born in Westport. From the age of 14 she began writing poetry and then turned to short story writing. Later she researched and wrote a local history book, Great Expectations: the Colonisation of Buller. She has written articles for the local Westport paper, The News, including a column containing 25 biographical stories about Westport's mayors from 1873 until 1983 and has had freelance articles in The Press, Nelson Mail and various journals.
I am a writer of fantasy novels and speculative fiction, sometime narrator of podcasts (including stories for the Hugo award-winning StarShipSofa), occasional sailor of sailing things, and father of two wee miracles in a little house on a hill, under the southern sun.
David (D.A.) Crossman is a novelist and short story writer with a passion for flawed detectives, sinister spies, and femme fatales. English on his father’s side and Norwegian on his mother’s, David was born in South Africa and raised in South East London. David spent a number of years as an itinerant worker and he has resided in France, Israel, India, and Australia before settling down in rural New Zealand where he now lives with his family and their clowder of cats. He is currently employed (without remuneration) by his children as a cook, chauffeur, cleaner, gardener, and general dogsbody. When he isn’t ‘singing’ disharmoniously to the soundtrack of loud progressive rock music or shouting intemperately at the football on the TV, David can be found staring absently at the blank computer screen in the study.
Helen Vivienne Fletcher wrote her first novel between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. It is, by several accounts, one of the funniest novels ever written. It’s just a shame it was supposed to be a psychological thriller.
SL Beaumont is the author of the young adult romantic mystery saga, The Carlswick Mysteries. She lives in beautiful New Zealand with her husband, three teenage sons and an enormous fluffy cat. Her passion for travel has seen her take many long haul flights from New Zealand. Her love of history helps determine the destination and the places she visits are a constant source of inspiration for her. She is a Chartered Accountant by day, having worked in London, New York and Auckland, and an author by night.
About the Author Colin D. Peel is the author of more than 20 novels, most of which have been published in the UK. His last novel to be published in New Zealand was White Desert (2002). British by birth, Colin spent many years working in the aerospace industries of USA, Europe and Canada as a weapons systems engineer. His writing often reflects his knowledge of classified defence projects. Colin and his wife now live in Waiuku, Auckland.
Thomas Ryan has been a soldier in a theatre of war, traded in Eastern Europe, trampled the jungles of Asia and struggled through the trials of love and loss: ideal life experiences for a would-be author. Schooled by professionals who have helped him hone his literary style, Ryan is quickly establishing himself as a skilled writer of riveting thrillers and short stories. He considers himself foremost a storyteller, a creator who has plunged his psyche into the world of imagination and fantasy. Taking readers on a thrilling journey is what motivates Ryan as a writer.
It was a hometown quinella on Saturday night as Paul Cleave and Ray Berard were announced as the winners of the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Awards at the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival.
It rained over the weekend so I gave myself a treat to celebrate.
From the Blurb:
Rebecca Thorne is a successful television journalist, but her world is thrown into turmoil when her Saturday night programme is axed because of falling ratings. Not only will she lose her job but her big story on the convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh, whom Rebecca believes is innocent, has to be abandoned.
July on AustCrime, and another busy month of reading and reviewing. It could very well be that I'm out of sync with these postings again. Who knows.
Another from this week's reading pile, which is, to be honest, from the very overdue section.
From the Blurb:
The Alo Release is a thriller exposing the potential for public opinion to be manipulated during an international crisis.
Nine days before the global release of a genetically modified seed coating set to make starvation history, the IT advisor for an environmental group receives a cryptic email from an old friend working for the seed corporation.
After managing to keep this up for quite a few months - I forgot to do May and now I'm late with June....
The Long Con, Barry Weston (Aust)
I think it's fair to say that we both loved this book, but came away from it with very different view points.
A record number of entrants and a kaleidoscopic range of crime tales illustrates the growth of New Zealand crime writing but provided a real challenge for the judges of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, who have revealed the longlist for their 2016 award today.
It was, at best, mildly damp in these parts over the weekend (unlike some parts that got hammered) but the hell with it - got some reading done anyway.
From the Blurb:
USS Ulysses: State-of-the-art nuclear submarine. Deterrent. Target.
The 7th in the "byte" series from NZ author, Cat Connor.
From the Blurb:
Washington D.C. is burning, blowing up before SSA Ellie Conway’s eyes. More than ever she needs her controversial connections to prevent more terror attacks and horrifying deaths.
Read over the long weekend - the latest in a series which is mystery focused, but rich with fascinating historical insight.
From the Blurb:
In the third instalment of the Le Fanu Mystery series, the intrepid superintendent is promoted to Inspector-General of Police in 1920s Madras, which proves to be more boring than he had envisaged.
Final from a long weekend where a little more socialising than reading occurred.
From the Blurb:
The darkness felt tangible. Like it was pressing against my blind eyes … We were going to die here. Slowly, slowly.
2nd from the long weekend's reading, and in New Zealand.
From the Blurb:
Next from a weekend spent getting stuck into the overdue reading list.
From the Blurb:
The summer of 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand.
There is a severe marijuana drought.
Two couples; a gynecologist and a physicist, together with a violinist and an actress meet by accident in a pub and help a Maori evade the police.
A group of Maori plans to deliver a truckload of cannabis to Auckland.
A Chinese family has harvested four greenhouses of enhanced sensimilla.
A criminal mastermind plots to start a drug war.
One from this weekend's reading stack.
From the Blurb:
Audrey is a psychopath and a serial killer residing in a coastal town in the rural far north of New Zealand.
Audrey discovers a drug cartel is using her Tiromoana Cabin Resort for cocaine trafficking. She appears to be helping the police when the drugs go missing and bodies start turning up, but is she?
“The Murder Trail” is the third book in the series: The Audrey Murders
From the piles and piles of things I've got queued up at the moment.
From the Blurb:
Boom and Bust is a violent hard-boiled crime novel about a man forced into acts of desperation and depravity by debt. He is over-committed in the property market and is changing careers to have a crack as a real estate agent just as the Global Financial Crisis is about to hit. His timing couldn't be worse and the bodies are piling up around him as he tries to shoot his way out of trouble.
So having had my socks blown off by one New Zealand / Ngaio Marsh contender, the next book in the queue was intriguing, another most unusual slow burner of a read with all sorts of potential to go in all sorts of directions. That, needless to say, was the end of all but essential chores for the rest of the weekend.
From the Blurb:
Being a solo farmer for a week normally I dodge anything too "confrontational" in my reading matter - a) because it's usually impossible to get time to devote to something that's going to require concentration, and b) there's no point in scaring yourself witless if you don't have to (things have a tendency to go bump in the night around here). But this was a most unexpected experience, it was absolutely riveting, confrontational, difficult reading, but illuminating, moving.
With a true story behind it, The Death Ray Debacle is set in New Zealand in the 1930's.
From the Blurb:
In June 1935 Takapuna inventor Victor Penny was attacked by foreign agents seeking what the newspapers dubbed a ‘death ray’. The government secretly shifted him to Somes Island in Wellington harbour to develop the weapon. The novel of this true story is told by Temporary Acting Detective Dan Delaney, seconded to Special Branch, forerunner of the Security Intelligence Service.
Another from this past week's reading (got a lot of catching up done) - this from NZ based author Katherine Hayton.
From the Blurb:
Elisabet wakes with amnesia. The care offered to her by a husband she doesn’t remember descends within weeks into aggression and violence.
Lillian lies hogtied in an underground cell. Forget about escape; unless she can manage the necessities of life she’ll be dead within days.
Twenty-year-old Ben Sanders’ fascination with crime fiction has paid off. Born and bred on Auckland’s North Shore, Sanders has been hooked on Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Cormac McCarthy and Pete Dexter since the age of thirteen, and now he’s put his interest in these big-selling authors to work. A keen writer since his teens, Sanders is also passionate about music; he wrote his first novel while listening to the tunes of R.E.M, Nick Cave, Grant-Lee Phillips, and The Mutton Birds and even found time to study engineering at the University of Auckland.
Warren Olson didn't set out to be an author ; nor for that matter did he envisage he would become one of the most well known and successful Western private investigators to operate in South East Asia. .... A few years later he repatriated to his native New Zealand, where following an interest in Transnational crime he completed a masters degree in Strategic studies and penned an award winning research paper on cross cultural interviewing.
I was born in England, Lived in London and immigrated to New Zealand where I learned to play rugby, chase girls and play the viola and guitar. During the 1970s I worked for the National Art Gallery and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Tina Clough grew up in Sweden and now lives in Hawke's Bay New Zealand. She left a career in corporate administration and divides her time between writing and looking after a one-acre field full of fruit trees, hens and various forms of wildlife, and taking visitors on wine tours.
Mike White is a senior writer at North & South magazine. He investigated Scott Guy's murder for more than a year and was present throughout Ewen Macdonald's five-week trial. At the 2013 Canon Media Awards, he won the Magazine Feature Writer of the Year award for his coverage of the case.
Julie started writing at the age of eight, stories about pre-revolutionary Russian princesses who rode troikas through the snow. She has worked in the media for over 25 years, radio, TV and film. She has written three novels and seven feature film scripts. In 2011 she sold her house in Auckland and moved two hours south to Cambridge, a glorious English style village, not unlike St Mary Mede. She shares her house with a highly intelligent and manipulative, but affectionate cat, Chloe, and is passionate about music, cooking and sport. She writes from the heart about subjects that she feels passionate about and her motto is "To dream of the person you could be is to waste the person you are." And also, "It was a brave man who ate the first oyster."
Damien Wilkins writes fiction, and he has published short stories, novels, and poetry. His writing has been described as ‘exuberant and evocative, subtle and exact, aware of its own artifice yet relishing the idiosyncrasies and possibilities of language’. Wilkins has had books published in New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and he has won and been nominated for a range of prizes and awards. He also edited the award-winning anthology, Great Sporting Moments: The best of Sport magazine 1988-2004 published in 2005.
Fiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet. Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society. She has published a large and exciting range of fiction and poetry, and has worked as a librarian, producer and critic. Kidman has won numerous awards, and she has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and other significant honours, as well as being a consistent advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the President of Honour for the New Zealand Book Council, and has been awarded an OBE and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.
Neil Cross lives in New Zealand with his wife and two sons. in 2006 Neil began working for Spooks, the BBC drama series set in the MI5 world of espionage. In 2007, the Spooks production company Kudos asked Neil to work as lead writer for the Spooks Series 6. He wrote four episodes of ten including the epic opening two parter. The series will air in the UK in late 2007. Neil is now working on a number of other television and film projects, as well as a new novel.
Scott Bainbridge is one of New Zealand's best-known true crime writers. He is the author of four books, including Shot in the Dark.
TINA SHAW has published a wide range of fiction for adults and children. Her short stories have been published in anthologies, literary magazines, and been broadcast on Radio New Zealand. She has held the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency, and was the 2005 Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato. Her latest publication is the Bateman New Zealand Writer's Handbook. She is a manuscript assessor and creative writing tutor, and her website is http://www.tinashaw.co.nz
Ken Smith was born in London, England. He was educated in South Africa, mainly at Durban High School and Natal University. He is an admitted Attorney of the High Courts of South Africa and Lesotho, Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, who practised law in South Africa for many years. He now resides in New Zealand.
Puppeteer, children's entertainer, owner of a model agency, TV talk show panelist, luxury accommodation owner, entrepreneur: storyteller Leonie Mateer has lived a full and diverse life. Born and raised in New Zealand, Mateer moved to the United States in her 30s to pursue business opportunities. She returned to New Zealand for several years in the 2000s, running a luxury lodge in Northland - which has been an inspiration for her crime series - and now splits her time between Northland and the United States.
Alan Carter was born in Sunderland, UK, in 1959. He holds a degree in Communication Studies from Sunderland Polytechnic and immigrated to Australia in 1991. Alan lives in Fremantle with his wife Kath and son Liam. He works as a television documentary director. In his spare time he follows a black line up and down the Fremantle pool.
Author that lives in Brisbane, who has written a book set in a particularly brutal part of the New Zealand wilderness.
From the Blurb:
“The Maori call this place Ata Whenua—Shadow Land.”
Television reporter Callie Brown likes safe places with good coffee. But she joins friends from the past on a trek into New Zealand’s most brutal wilderness, in the hope of healing a broken heart.
What she doesn’t know is that someone wants them all dead.
Paul Cleave became the Crown Prince of antipodean crime writing when his thriller FIVE MINUTES ALONE was named the winner of the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel on Sunday night.
THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD, in association with WORD Christchurch and The Press, is pleased to reveal that whodunit and who-won-it will be announced at a great event at the Court Theatre on 4 October.
First from this NZ based, Swedish born author.
From the Blurb:
Karen's life is abruptly thrown into chaos when her flatmate is gunned down in front of her in the street where they live.
Within days she is forced to take drastic action to ensure her own safety. She criss-crosses New Zealand to evade the killers, changes her appearance and settles into a small community as 'Cara'. But danger still stalks her and she is forced to make dramatic choices in the face of threats and brutal violence.
FIVE OUTSTANDING novels full of mystery and intrigue have been announced as the shortlist for the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which will be presented at a WORD Christchurch(link is external) event in late September.
Started this on the weekend, new book from the collaboration of Linda Olsson and Thomas Sainsbury.
From the Blurb:
When budding writer Brent Taylor dies a horrific death in the Auckland University Library, his friend, sex worker Jade Amaro, refuses to believe it is suicide. She seeks help from Sam Hallberg, a former government advisor on terrorism, now working as a mechanic.
The second book from a weekend's reading - started this on Sunday after being momentarily distracted by Sherlock on the TV.
From the Blurb:
Over the weekend I picked up Databyte, which is the sixth book in the Byte Series, none of which I've read before.
From the Blurb:
When information becomes misinformation, how much of what you see should you believe?
Wanted for a murder she didn't commit and on the run from the FBI and Metro, Special Agent Ellie Conway has to protect an actor with close ties to Delta A from a serious threat as well as trying to clear her name.
Very nice way to spend a weekend - in the company of one of my favourite Policemen around.
From the Blurb:
AUGUST 1987: Against the backdrop of the nuclear ships stand-off with America; the rich and powerful gather in Auckland for a lavish election-night party. Before the night is out, a seventeen-year-old girl will be murdered and several lives utterly changed.
Over the long weekend some serious reading took place, starting with this debut from NZ author Ben Atkins.
From the Blurb:
In a city of elusive agendas, it's hard to find the truth. It's even harder to find what's right. A bootlegger's dream is rocked by an attempt to destroy his lucrative business. What begins as a curious evening snowballs into a night-time odyssey as Fontana searches for answers he never thought he'd have to find. The city is saturated with criminal and political extremism - is there anyone he can trust?
Such a fabulous author of thrillers, I always end up kicking myself when I let these books linger too long.
From the Blurb:
A mesmerising tale of three women who must overcome the past and beat the odds to find hope for the future.
Inspired by a true story, set in Victorian London, this book is about a scandalous accusation and the subsequent trial.
From the Blurb:
The Victorian gossipmongers called them The Petticoat Men. But to young widow Mattie Stacey, they are Freddie and Ernest, her gentlemen lodgers. It is Mattie who admires their sparkling gowns, makes their extravagant hats and laughs at their stories of attending society balls dressed up as the glamorous 'Fanny' and 'Stella'.
Historical New Zealand Crime fiction - with the central thread being corruption, land grabs and bad behaviour over money. Seems like some things never change...
From the Blurb:
The most dangerous people are those with the most to lose.
It is 1887. The young colony of New Zealand is in the grip of a deep depression. Insolvent speculators conspire with corrupt politicians while Maori land slips from the hands of its owners.
For some reason getting hold of the latest Paul Cleave books here has become a bit of a marathon - but once they arrive - straight to the top of the pile.
From the Blurb:
In the latest thriller by the Edgar-nominated author of Joe Victim, someone is helping rape victims exact revenge on their attackers, prompting an edge-of-your-seat, cat-and-mouse chase between old friends, detectives Theodore Tate and Carl Schroder.
I was born in Zambia and raised in Malawi – a country known as the Warm Heart of Africa but made famous as the place where Madonna finds her children. At 14 I moved from the warm heart of Africa to the cold lungs of Edinburgh, where I discovered the true meaning of the term ‘culture shock’. After Edinburgh I studied history at Cambridge. Then off to London where, before I had time to find a career, a career in communications found me. In my search to return to warmer weather, I moved to beautiful New Zealand in 2003, where I have lived ever since with my wife and two children. Except for 2014 where I moved to France and divided my time very unevenly between cat-sitting and writing my second book. The cat just about survived - sorry Molly! - and I finished my second book - Please Do Not Disturb. I am now back in New Zealand writing book three.
Vanda Symon grew up in Tauranga and Hawkes Bay before heading south to study at the University of Otago. After graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmacy, Vanda returned to Hawkes Bay to work as a pharmacist in the community and local hospice. After starting a family and making the decision to be at home with the children, she had the opportunity to indulge in her love of writing. Vanda now lives in Dunedin with her husband and two young boys.
Craig Marriner (born 1974) is a novelist from Rotorua, New Zealand. His 2001 novel Stonedogs won a Montana New Zealand Book Award and in 2003 the film rights were sold to Australian production company Mushroom Pictures, a film based on the book is currently in production. His second novel Southern Style was published in 2006. He is currently working on a third novel about a group of backpackers trekking through Europe during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Chad Taylor was born in New Zealand in November 1964. He grew up in Manurewa, South Auckland and read English and Art History while doing a Fine Arts degree at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts. ("I wanted to do something creative and I wanted to find out how art worked. Also, all my favourite bands had gone to art school," he says.) While studying he wrote music and film reviews for Rip It Up magazine.
Cat lives in the Wellington region of New Zealand with her husband (Action Man), and their youngest children (The Boy Wonder, Squealer and Breezy). They share their home with a cat named Missy and Romeo the Greyhound. Cat has found the time to author 11 novels her latest being The _Byte series featuring Supervisory Special Agent Ellie Conway - published by Rebel e Publishing. When Cat is not writing she is sewing, tie-dying, reading, or hanging out with her family and the Admins. (Admin One, Admin Bubbles and Cat spent April 201
