Ngaio Marsh Awards

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.

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.

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.

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! 

The usual suspects took a back seat as first-time crime writers Fiona Sussman, Finn Bell, and Michael Bennett swept the spoils at the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards in Christchurch on Saturday night.

The talented trio made history on several fronts at a special WORD Christchurch event hosted in Dame Ngaio’s hometown by Scorpio Books as part of nationwide NZ Bookshop Day celebrations.

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.

Re-started this late on Sunday, the first in the Dan Forrester series.

From the Blurb:

Dan Forrester, piecing his life back together after the tragic death of his son, is approached in a supermarket by a woman who tells him everything he remembers about his life - and his son - is a lie.

Grace Reavey, stricken by grief, is accosted at her mother's funeral. The threat is simple: pay the staggering sum her mother allegedly owed, or lose everything.

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? 

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.

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:

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. 

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. 

Another from the Ngaio Marsh piles - this time a police procedural styled book set in Auckland.

From the Blurb:

This is more of a novella - entered in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards.

From the Blurb:

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.

For the last couple of years I've had the enormous privilege of being one of the judges on the New Zealand Crime Fiction Ngaio Marsh Awards, and I'm not joking when I call it a privilege. I've always been a fan of the work of New Zealand's fine band of Crime Fiction writers, but in the last couple of years, there's something going on over there that demands close attention. There's a sense of risk taking, of boundary pushing that's now palpable, along with an increasing pride in place and culture that's just wonderful.

I think it's fair to say that we both loved this book, but came away from it with very different view points.

Deb Wood's take on The Legend of Winstone Blackhat

Karen's take on The Legend of Winstone Blackhat

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. 

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.

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?

The Ngaio Marsh Award are running a competition where readers around the world can go into the draw to win a personally signed copy of the eventual NM Award-winning novel. There are no geographic limits on the prize.

FOUR OUTSTANDING novels have been announced as the finalists for the 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which will be presented on 30 August following The Great New Zealand Crime Debate event at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival. The Ngaio Marsh Award is made annually for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident.