2017

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.

Australia

Fiction

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).

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.

In the days after the Awards Ceremony it's wonderful to watch the congratulations for much deserved winners rolling in.

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 Australian Crime Writers Association today announced the shortlists for the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards for the best in Australian crime writing.

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.

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.

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. 

All the submissions to the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards have just been announced and as usual, every year as the entries start to roll in, I start to fret about the ones I haven't had a chance to read yet - this year, needless to say is no different :) Check out the full list at: http://www.austcrimewriters.com/2017-submissions(link is external) or follow the links below to those that somebody here have been lucky enough to review.

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: