Barry Awards 2024

 

The Barry Awards 2024. The Barry Awards are awarded by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine. The winners in each category were announced at the Opening Ceremonies of the Nashville Bouchercon on 29th August 2024. 

Best Mystery or Crime Novel
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Harper)

Best First Mystery or Crime Novel
The Peacock and The Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria)

Best Paperback Original Mystery or Crime Novel
Who The Hell is Harry Black by Jake Needham (Half Penny)

Best Thriller
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

Congratulations to all the nominated authors

Private Eye Writers of America - Shamus Award Winners 2024

The Private Eye Writers of America 2024 Shamus Award Winners were presented on Thursday 29^th August 2024 at Bouchercon in Nashville. 

Best Hardcover P.I Novel

Heart of the Nile by Will Thomas 

Best Original Paperback P. I Novel

Liar’s Dice by Gabriel Valjan 

Best P I Short Story

“Errand for a Neighbour” by Bill Bassman  (January/February 2023, EQMM)

Congratulations to all!

Rob Starr on The Importance of Having Female Led Characters in Crime Novels

When I wrote my first novel What the Tide Brings Back it felt totally natural for me to make two out of the three main characters female, with Lilly and Marlene.  Lilly particularly fascinated me when I was writing about her and her need for revenge against those who wronged her was as frightening as it was necessary.  And Marlene, who is based on a real person by the same name, is one of the kindest and most interesting people I know.

When I started to write my latest novel, The First Widow, I again found myself instinctively making my main protagonists female, with Kiara Fox, Sophia and The Lady.  In fact all the main characters in The First Widow happen to be female.   I should say that this was not by design, it just felt natural to write it this way. Making the villains of the book all female as well was really interesting for me as it meant that Kiara had to struggle between on the one hand understanding why the Widows were taking revenge on their abusive husbands but on the other hand not being able to square that circle with taking a life.  I don’t think I could have written that juxtaposition if either Kiara or the Widows had been male.

Going forward I am really excited about developing Kiara Fox’s character and seeing what else she can achieve and how she is able to face the challenges thrown at her.  Working as a fraud investigator really allows Kiara to face so many different challenges, and if I am able to I want to always try to challenge her by throwing in moral dilemmas that mean she doesn’t condone what they do, but totally understands why.

Interestingly if I think back to other books that have had a lasting effect on me it seems that they always have females as the lead, or certainly as major contributors to the story.

For instance, characters like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series or Celie from The Colour Purple really resonated with me not only because of their strength but also because of their vulnerabilities. Strength and Vulnerability, being equal in measure, somehow seem harder to portray and believe in a man than they do in a woman.

I think that as a male reader, strong female characters create much more empathy and understanding. By stepping into the shoes of a well-rounded female protagonist, it feels like I can get more of an insight into the experiences and struggles that women face, which are very different from my own. This perspective is eye-opening for me and challenges my sometimes-preconceived notions about gender roles. 

In many books, especially crime, female characters have usually been relegated to much more passive roles, defined by their relationships with the lead men in the story. However, strong female leads break away from these restrictive moulds and challenge our stereotypes that have long dictated what it means to be a woman. Woman should not be confined to the roles of damsels in distress or supporting characters; instead, because they are complex, multifaceted individuals with their own goals and desires, they should be allowed to take a lead role in the same way a man does.

By creating strong female characters in my books, I can really focus on what women can be and do, both in fiction and of course in the real world. In real life woman are leaders, creatives and visionaries, each with their unique strengths and weaknesses. This is crucial in a world that often seems to pigeonhole individuals based on gender.

I am fortunate to be married to the most capable, talented and extraordinary women. Sharon is talented, creative, kind and so capable that marriage has been one of partnership.  And the roles we have taken in our life together have not been based on gender ability, they have been based on our individual abilities.  Both of us have been able to achieve so many things together, but I know with absolute certainty that if I wasn’t around that she would keep achieving and achieving and would be as incredible as she is with me next to her.  I imagine that the reason I have created such strong female characters in my books is very much down to being married to someone as strong and capable as Sharon is. 

 The First Widow by Rob Starr (Just Once Publishing) Out Now.

Over a hundred husbands dead, one prisoner, one fraud investigator and countless secrets. The most horrifying case of Kiara Fox’s career… Kiara Fox leads a seemingly ordinary life as a highly respected fraud investigator for SEICO Insurance. With a loving husband and twin daughters, her world seems perfect. But when a case involving a wealthy man named Martin Power lands on her desk, she senses something off. Despite her husband, work colleagues and friends urging her to approve the claim and move on, Kiara can't shake the feeling that something sinister is at play. Forced to pay the claim, Kiara soon discovers that Martin Power's folder has vanished. In a shocking twist, she finds the missing folder hidden within another investigator’s files—Michael Hall from the Bristol office. It’s identical to her own case, sparking her determination to uncover the truth. As innocent people begin to die, she realises there’s more behind this than first meets the eye. She finds herself up against the widows, a ruthless group of women murdering their husbands for life insurance payouts. Torn between protecting her own family and uncovering the masterminds behind the widows, Kiara faces an impossible choice. Can Kiara stop the widows before more innocent lives are lost?

More information about Rob Starr and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on X @author_starr and on Instagram @robstarr_author and on Facebook. 

2024 Ngaio Marsh Award Winners

 The Verdict Is In: 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award winners explore societal prejudices and characters under fire

A trio of superb Kiwi writers were honoured at WORD Christchurch Festival last night as they scooped the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards for novels offering readers insights into people and place alongside cracking crime tales

In the fifteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, Rotorua author Claire Baylis won Best First Novel for her harrowing examination of jury beliefs and biases in Dice (Allen & Unwin), while Scotland-based DV Bishop scooped Best Novel for his Renaissance Florence-set mystery Ritual of Fire (Macmillan), and Wellington writer Jennifer Lane joined rare company by winning Best Kids/YA for smalltown mystery Miracle (Cloud Ink Press).

“I’m stoked we have a special award this year recognising writers of crime, mystery, and thriller tales for younger readers,” says Ngaios founder Craig Sisterson. “Many of us owe any lifelong passion for books, and all the good that come along with that, to the children’s authors we read when we were youngsters ourselves. Aotearoa has amazing kids authors, across many genres. In future we plan to award our Best Kids/YA Book prize biennially, alternating with our Best Non-Fiction prize that returns in 2025.”

Last night, ‘Bookshop Detectives’ Gareth and Louise Ward interrogated several of the prime suspects, aka 2024 Ngaios finalists, in person and by video before a large crowd of witnesses in Tūranga, before revealing whowunnit. “It’s the kind of denouement Dame Ngaio may have enjoyed,” says Sisterson.

First up, Lane was stunned to find herself onstage accepting the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Kids/YA, adding to the Best First Novel prize she won in 2018 for All Our Secrets. She joins Paul Cleave, Jacqueline Bublitz, and Michael Bennett as winners of multiple Ngaio Marsh Awards. The judges praised Miracle, which stars a teenager trying to deal with devastating events and clear her father’s name after he’s arrested for a brutal attack, as “poignant and funny, with a complex storyline and memorable, well-developed characters including a fascinating heroine with her authentic adolescent voice”.

Lane’s fellow IIML graduate Claire Baylis was equally thrilled to win Best First Novel for Dice, a unique courtroom drama inspired by her research for the trans-Tasman Jury Project. Her debut gives readers insights into some harsh realities in our criminal justice system through the eyes and beliefs and biases of 12 jurors serving on a tricky sexual assault case. “Both timely and sensitively handled, there is so much that’s clever and surprising about Dice,” said the Ngaios judges. “Inventive, devastating, infuriating.”

The international judging panel for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Awards comprised leading crime fiction critics, editors, and authors from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the United States.

The Best Novel judges praised Bishop for crafting great characters and “vividly evoking the glorious but menacing Medici-era Florence with convincing historical details seamlessly woven” into Ritual of Fire’s terrific story of Cesare Aldo, a gay court officer at a time when that was punishable potentially by death, trying to uncover the murderers of rich merchants burned to death in disturbing echoes of a religious sect.

“I’m delighted, and amazed frankly because the standard of the books on the longlist this year, let alone amongst the finalists, was incredible,” said Bishop over video from his home south of Edinburgh, when he was surprised with the news Ritual of Fire had won the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

For more information on any of our 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners or finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com, or founder Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com

Miracle by Jennifer Lane (Cloud Ink Press)

Born in the middle of Australia’s biggest-ever earthquake, Miracle is fourteen when her world crumbles. Thanks to her dad’s new job at Compassionate Cremations — which falls under suspicion for Boorunga’s spate of sudden deaths — the entire town turns against their family. Miracle is tormented by her classmates, even by Oli, the boy she can’t get out of her head. She fears for her agoraphobic mother, and for her angelic, quake-damaged brother, Julian. When Oli plays a cruel trick on Miracle, he sets off a chain of devastating events. Then her dad is arrested for a brutal attack. Miracle takes the full weight on her shoulders. How can she convince the town of her dad’s innocence?

Rituals of Fire by D V Bishop (Macmillan UK)

Florence. Summer, 1538. A night patrol finds a rich merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main piazza. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier on this date, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way in the same place. Does this new killing mean Savonarola’s vengeful spirit has risen again? Or are his fanatical disciples plotting to revive the monk’s regime of holy terror? Cesare Aldo has his suspicions but is hunting thieves and fugitives in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the ritual killing. When another important merchant is slain even more publicly than the first, those rich enough to escape the summer heat are fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous places. Soon growing religious fervour combines with a scorching heatwave to drive the city ever closer to madness, while someone is stalking powerful men that forged lifelong alliances during the dark days of Savonarola and his brutal followers. Unless Aldo and Strocchi can work together to stop the killer, Florence could become a bonfire of the vanities once more . . .

Dice by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)

Four teenage boys invent a sex game based on rolling dice and doing what the numbers say. They are charged with multiple sexual offences against three teenage girls. Twelve random jurors are brought together in a trial to work out what actually happened. Only they can say whether crimes have been committed and who should be punished. How does the jury find?

New book recycling service, Bookloop by Bookshop.org, gets platform onto circular economy

 

New buy-back scheme for used books, powered by Zeercle

Customers can trade old books for new on Bookshop.org

Authors to benefit from second hand book sales through shared fund

London, Wednesday 28 August 2024. Bookshop.org is announcing today the launch of Bookloop by Bookshop.org, a buy-back service powered by a new partnership with Zeercle, that enables customers to exchange pre-owned books for store credit to use on future Bookshop.org purchases.

An easy-to-use scan and collect-from-home service, Zeercle already operates partnerships in France, Germany and on the UK high street through bookselling chain WHSmith. Thanks to Bookloop by Bookshop.org, independent booksellers in the UK will have access to this online circular economy market for the first time, with the opportunity to benefit directly from customers spending the credit they receive on new books through Bookshop.org.

Through this new partnership, Bookshop.org will not be selling used titles on its platform, which will continue to carry exclusively new books. Instead, as part of the agreement, Zeercle will sell on any traded titles through online marketplaces that explicitly exclude Amazon-owned and operated websites.

Bookshop.org’s commitment to a sustainable economy has always been a key priority for the company. From offsetting all their deliveries, to acquiring the prestigious B Corp Best for the World status in 2022, Bookshop.org is now helping independent bookshops to benefit from the fast-growing retail sector of online second hand books, and take part in a broad consumer move into pre-owned consumer goods and the circular economy.

As part of Bookshop.org’s win-win ethos, authors will also benefit. Zeercle are committed to contributing a percentage of second hand book sales to authors, through an arrangement with the Society of Authors and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) called 'Bookloop by Bookshop.org for Authors'. The plan is for accumulated royalties to be distributed initially through a shared author fund, to be reviewed from March of next year. In this way, authors and independent bookshops will benefit from sales of second hand books from launch.

Nicole Vanderbilt, Managing Director of Bookshop.org UK, said: “We are very excited to launch Bookloop by Bookshop.org, powered by our new partnership with Zeercle. While as a platform we carry exclusively new books, we are keen to offer the opportunity to our customers to exchange their pre-owned books for credit to use on our website. This will still bring a benefit to independent booksellers, boosting sales that will help them gain extra commissions, as well as authors via the arrangement with ALCS and the Society of Authors, while ensuring the second-hand books don’t end up on Amazon.”

Eric Gagnaire, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeercle, said: “We are incredibly excited to partner with Bookshop.org to launch the Bookloop service in the UK. At Zeercle, our mission is to promote sustainability in the retail industry, and this service aligns perfectly with our goals. By giving books a second life, we are not only reducing waste but also fostering a community of readers who value sustainability and support independent bookshops. This initiative is a win-win for both the environment and the local economy.”

Anna Ganley, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors, said: “We’re thrilled to support the launch of Bookloop by Bookshop.org in the UK, and it’s great to see the thoughtful way Zeercle and Bookshop.org have brought their win-win approach to the second hand book market. At a time when authors, like independent bookshops, are under so much pressure through technology and changes in the way books are bought and sold, we’re excited to see how authors will benefit, and hope it will strengthen the connection between authors and bookshops.”

Amber Harrison, Co-Founder of independent bookshop FOLDE in Dorset, said “We're excited to see this new initiative launch. Independent bookshops have led the way in retail when it comes to sustainability, from being more environmentally responsible to reducing waste. Closing the loop on getting pre-owned books to new readers while benefiting both bookshops and authors feels extremely positive. It's a really sustainable way of getting books into the hands of more people, without cost being a barrier.”

To find out more, please visit the dedicated Bookloop by Bookshop.org page here.

 

Britains’s Biggest Crime Prize Searches For The Next Bestselling Writer of Colour

 

The Joffe Books Prize is looking for a talented new crime fiction writer of colour, with one of the UK’s largest literary prizes for the winner.

This year the Joffe Books Prize judging panel includes A.A. Chaudhuri, bestselling author of She’s Mine, and literary agent Gyamfia Osei from Andrew Nurnberg Associates.

The prize invites submissions from unagented authors from Black, Asian, Indigenous and minority ethnic backgrounds writing in crime fiction genres including: electrifying psychological thrillers, cosy mysteries, gritty police procedurals, twisty chillers, unputdownable suspense mysteries and shocking domestic noirs.

The winner will be offered a prize package consisting of a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize, and a £25,000 audiobook offer from Audible for the first book.

The submission period ends at midnight on 30 September 2024.

HOW TO ENTER

Entrants are invited to submit their full-length manuscript, written in English, along with a synopsis of the book and author biography, to prize@joffebooks.com.

This prize is open to UK residents and British citizens (including those living abroad) only. The opening date for entries is 15 May 2024. The competition closes 30 September 2024, 23.59 GMT. No entries received outside this period will be accepted.

Read the full Terms & Conditions here.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

The winner will be offered a prize package consisting of the following: a two-book publishing contract with Joffe Books on its standard author agreement terms; a £1,000 cash prize; a two-year membership to the Society of Authors; a £25,000 audiobook contract with Audible for the first book. The prize is a package and can only be accepted in its entirety.

The prize will be offered to the selected winner. Joffe Books may choose an alternative winner if acceptance is not confirmed within one week.

Northumberland-based Christie J. Newport won the inaugural prize in 2021, followed by Sam Genever in 2022 and Renita D’Silva in 2023. Christie’s winning entry and debut novel, The Raven’s Mark, is available online and in all good bookshops now!

THE JUDGES

The 2024 judges are A.A. Chaudhuri, Gyamfia Osei, Emma Grundy Haigh, Jasmine Callaghan, Jasper Joffe and Kate Lyall Grant. The winner of the competition will be selected by these judges based on the quality and commercial potential of the work.

A.A.CHAUDHURI, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SHE’S MINE: “I am so incredibly thrilled and honoured to be a Judge on the Joffe Books Prize Panel. Since its inception in 2021 this fantastic competition, which continues to go from strength to strength, has allowed a plethora of exceptionally talented writers of colour in the crime fiction genre to shine through, and I’m beyond excited to be a part of that process this year.”

GYAMFIA OSEI, LITERARY AGENT: “I'm delighted to be judging the Joffe Books Prize this year alongside A.A. Chaudhuri and Emma Grundy Haigh. The cohort of writers were brilliant last year so I can't wait to dive into the 2024 entries!”

EMMA GRUNDY HAIGH, FORMER EDITORIAL DIRECTOR AT JOFFE BOOKS: “The Joffe Books Prize, now in its fourth year, just keeps going from strength to strength. The prize is dedicated to amplifying #ownvoices and publishing truly excellent crime fiction. With Audible’s involvement, it is also the largest prize package for crime fiction in the UK. We have great plans for this year and the addition of Jasmine Callaghan as one of the judges is just the start!”

JASMINE CALLAGHAN, COMMISSIONING EDITOR AT JOFFE BOOKS: “I couldn’t be more excited to join the panel of the Joffe Books Prize. I feel honoured to be taking part in the competition, which is actively addressing the lack of diversity in publishing and amplifying underrepresented voices with real passion. I know this is going to be the best year yet.”

ABOUT A.A. CHAUDHURI

A.A. Chaudhuri is a former City lawyer, turned thriller writer. She is the author of The Scribe and The Abduction, featuring feisty lawyer Maddy Kramer. Her first highly acclaimed psychological thriller, She’s Mine, was named the L.J. Ross Book Club pick of the month. Alex lives in Surrey with her family. Besides being an avid crime fiction reader, she enjoys fitness, films, anything Italian and a good margarita!

ABOUT GYAMFIA OSEI

Gyamfia Osei represents an array of brilliant authors writing across adult and children's books, including Dean Atta, Busayo Mataluko and Frances Mensah Williams. She is a keen advocate of commercial fiction and, in the crime and mystery space, particularly loves cosy crime, domestic suspense and thrillers with a strong romantic thread. She is always looking for well-plotted, fast-paced narratives with authentic characters who lodge themselves in her mind long after she’s finished reading.

ABOUT JOFFE BOOKS

Joffe Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers of excellent commercial fiction, especially crime and mystery fiction. Joffe Books is renowned for working closely with authors from across the world to create fantastic books and turning them into bestsellers. Since 2014, Joffe Books has published more than 500 books by more than 70 authors and has sold over 10 million books. The publisher’s roster of award-winning authors and New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestsellers includes Joy Ellis, Faith Martin, Robert Goddard, Rick Mofina, Volker Kutscher, Simon Brett and Stella Cameron. Joffe Books won Trade Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards in 2023 and was a finalist for Publisher of the Year at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards 2023 and shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2024 for the fifth year in a row.

While Joffe Books maintains open submissions for all authors, this competition is designed to offer an opportunity to Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, who are particularly underrepresented in crime fiction publishing.

Jo Cunningham on Twenty years to publication - how not to become an overnight success

My debut novel, ‘Death by Numbers’ has just been published. It’s a cosy crime mystery that follows Una, a risk averse actuary, as she uncovers a series of mysterious deaths and must put herself in danger to find the culprit, even if it means losing the no-claims-bonus on her personal injury policy.

Please don’t think this is a novel that I simply turned my hand to during the lockdowns, or just ‘wrote itself’ after I decided to take the plunge. Getting to publication took me twenty years while I worked full-time in IT. 

If you want to achieve a similar level of delayed gratification here are my top three tips:

Tip 1 – Tell your work colleagues you’re writing a novel

Early on in my writing efforts, I disclosed to my colleagues that I was working on a novel. My fellow workers reacted by telling me, ‘You’re going to be the next Dan Brown!’, ‘The coffee round’s on you’ or in one case, ‘Why bother writing a novel? It’s all made-up. I only read non-fiction myself.’ As the years passed, the comments morphed into ‘Are you published yet?’ before ending up with a plaintive ‘Still writing?’. But workmates continued to ask, and joking aside, I appreciated people taking an interest, even if my updates became less enthusiastic. They still thought of me as someone who wrote, so perhaps I should too.

Tip 2 – Spend too much time uncritically consuming detective series 

I’m always happy to reach for a book that has a dénouement scene near the end. And I think it’s fair to say that ITV3 is my spiritual home. I even enjoy the adverts for cruises and recliner chairs. But it took me a long, long time to take a step back and start to analyse books and television programmes in order to become a better writer. 

I now find it difficult to switch-off when reading a detective novel - I’m churning over how the clues have been planted or when the first murder took place, or how the author is upping the stakes. Don’t get me wrong, I still love reading these books but I’m trying to push myself to improve by learning from writers who are better than me at their craft.

And I don’t just analyse cosy crime books – I might look at a thriller and think about how the author creates pace and a page-turning quality. Sci-fi can be a rich guide to world-building. Romance can show to build an emotional connection with characters. Obviously, I’m being a bit broadbrush and you don’t learn only ‘one thing’ from a book or genre – I just want to get across that I enjoy learning from books that are in a totally different genre from mine. I’m not sure how successful I am in translating my analysis back into what I’m writing, but that’s part of the process too.

Tip 3 – Don’t send your book out to agents

My first three novels went straight in the ‘bottom drawer’ i.e. a document folder on my laptop. Given how long it took me to fashion an IKEA desk from three brutal planks of MDF, I probably wouldn’t have the wherewithal to construct an actual bottom drawer, or even one of the middle ones.

I didn’t seriously consider sending these fledgling books out to agents. I think I was hampered by a fear of rejection and the more straightforward realisation that they weren’t good enough and would need a huge effort to bring them up to a decent standard. By the fourth attempt, I redrafted the novel multiple times and when I couldn’t take it any further, I send it out to a handful of agents. I received some personal rejections – the comments were gently encouraging but I knew this novel was missing something – it went in the bottom drawer. But I felt I’d made progress, and I started on Death By Numbers back in 2017. 

I was now on book five and painfully aware of my limitations as a writer. I had improved on the basics (reading back over early work told me that) but I’d also realised that I needed to be much more persistent and critical with redrafts. I really took my time reading many novels (Tip 2!), reading books on aspects of craft I was poor at (Setting! Show not tell!) and most of all redrafting until I was bored silly looking at my book. Then once more I psyched myself up to submit it to agents.

Some writers are gifted enough to be published with their first novel whereas I’ve had to graft to improve. By the time I was on my fifth book, I’d become so involved that I knew I’d continue writing novels, no matter whether or how they got published. And that’s another area that’s changed since I started writing, there are many more routes into publication now.

So, there you have my three tips on delaying publication of your novel.

Despite my terrible advice, there is a happy ending… eventually a lovely agent plucked my manuscript off the slush pile and took a chance on me. And having that one person say ‘yes’ made me forget all the ‘no’s’, for a good half an hour or so…

Death by Numbers by Jo Cunningham. (Constable, Little, Brown) Out Now

Una has always been more comfortable working with numbers than people. As an actuary for an insurance company, her job is to spot patterns that other people might miss. When the data for her latest project - into the predicted number of deaths in seaside resorts - shows a blip in her forecasts, Una's untarnished reputation at work is at risk. That is, unless she can work out why there's been an unusual spate of accidental deaths by the coast. Death by Hanging Basket? She's not seen that before. Where better to begin than her mother's hometown of Eastbourne, where strange fatalities are befalling her mother's bingo crowd. But as Una puts her spreadsheets aside and begins to investigate, a sinister pattern begins to emerge and she realises that there is nothing accidental about these casualties. Can Una stop the killer in this small seaside town, before she becomes a not-so-vital statistic?

The Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist

 

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced all the categories for the Ned Kelly Award Shortlists. 

2024 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist for Best International Crime Fiction:

Birnam Wood By Eleanor Catton

Dice by Claire Baylis

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

The Only Suspect by Louise Candlish

The Search Party by Hannah Richell

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

2024 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist for Best True Crime:

Crossing the Line by Nick McKenzie

Killing for Country by David Marr

The Murder Squad by Michael Adams

Reckless by Marele Day

The Teacher’s Pet by Hedley Thomas

2024 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist for Best Crime Fiction:

Killer Traitor Spy by Tim Ayliffe

Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

The Seven by Chris Hammer

Ripper by Shelley Burr

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson

Everyone on this train is a suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

2024 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist for Best Debut Crime Fiction:

Four Dogs Missing by Rhys Gard

Gus and the Missing Boy by Troy Hunter

Lowbridge by Lucy Campbell

Murder in the Pacific: Ifira Point by Matt Francis

The Fall Between by Darcy Tindale

The Beacon by P.A. Thomas

Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl by Fiona Britton

Congratulations to All! 

CFP Crime Fiction and the Global Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

 

Monash University, Melbourne / Hybrid 25-27 June 

Crime fiction has long since refuted the assumption that its socio-political engagement is somehow not genuine – that it tends to reduce “social problems to so much local colour or authenticating detail” (John Sutherland). Nordic Noir, in particular, is often lauded for its analysis of Scandinavian welfare and gender politics, yet the critical orientation is prominent in contemporary world crime fiction more broadly. Using the nexus of crime and investigation as its lens, the genre is increasingly defined by abandoning the idea of local and containable criminality in favour of a conception of individual crime as a manifestation of larger global challenges such as gender-based violence, economic inequality, climate change, migration, Indigenous rights and the crisis of democracy. Given this orientation towards the key challenges of our time, it is no exaggeration to say that world crime fiction today, like the nineteenth-century realist novel according to Georg Brandes, is defined by its determination to “place problems under debate”.

The conference will focus on crime fiction and the global challenges of the twenty-first century. While this topic allows a new critical assessment of individual crime novels, it also has broader ramifications for our understanding of the crime genre and its global distribution and impact. On the one hand, it enables an examination of how crime fiction’s socio-political engagement requires a revision of classic tropes, for example due to the emerging non- individualistic conception of victimhood and culpability. On the other hand, it opens up opportunities for a new comparative approach to crime fiction focusing on the ways in which shared global issues are dealt with by authors in different countries and regions.

Papers at the conference will examine the global socio-political engagement of crime fiction from a broad range of perspectives, drawing on examples from across the world. We particularly welcome abstracts dealing with one of the previously identified challenges and offering comparative readings of literary texts from different countries and regions. We also welcome papers that reinterpret earlier crime narratives in light of the genre’s contemporary socio-political engagement.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: 

• Crime fiction and the climate emergency 
• Crime fiction and the crisis of democracy 
• Crime fiction and economic inequality 
• Crime fiction and gender and sexual freedom 
• Crime fiction and migration 
• Crime fiction and war 
• Crime fiction and gender-based violence
• Crime fiction and global capitalism 
• Crime fiction and extractive economies 
• Crime fiction and new forms of totalitarianism 
• Post-truth crime fiction 
• First Nations Crime fiction 
• Non-political crime fiction 
• Comparative perspectives on world crime fiction 

Please submit your 250-word abstracts for 20-minute presentations and proposals for panels and a short bio-note (about 100 words) via this form. Submissions are due on 15 December 2024. For postgraduate students and ECRs, a workshop will be held on 24 June before the conference proper begins. If you need an immediate response to apply for funding, please indicate this in your application form. 

Please address any questions to: CaptivatingCriminality@monash.edu

Beyond whodunnit: 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards Finalists Announced.

Beyond whodunnit: 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists offer page-turning tales and social critiques across time and place.

From stem cell research to sexual assault juries, the dangers of a surveillance society to mental health and animal abuse, the finalists for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards offer readers a diverse array of page-turning mysteries and thrills entwined with societal issues, set against a variety of locales and eras from Renaissance Florence and Nazi Germany to contemporary Aotearoa.  

“While crime and thriller fiction is often talked about in terms of its page-turning plotlines, or puzzling twists and surprising reveals, nowadays it’s also a fantastic vehicle for exploring character and society,” says Ngaio Marsh Awards founder Craig Sisterson. “Our 2024 Ngaios finalists beautifully showcase that, with a kaleidoscopic range of tales full of engaging and memorable characters, exploring a wide variety of social issues in many different places.”

Now in their fifteenth season, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate excellence in mystery, thriller, crime, and suspense writing from Aotearoa New Zealand storytellers. The 2024 finalists were announced today in Best First Novel, Best Novel, and Best Kids/YA categories.

“I’m absolutely delighted that we’re celebrating some of our terrific kids’ mystery and thriller writers as a separate category this year,” says Sisterson. “Many of us develop our love of reading, and all the benefits that brings us throughout our lives, thanks to children’s authors. In Aotearoa we have amazing kids’ authors, across various forms and genres.”

The finalists for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Kids/YA are:

Caged by Susan Brocker (Scholastic)

Katipo Joe: Wolf's Lair by Brian Falkner (Scholastic)

Miracle by Jennifer Lane (Cloud Ink Press)

 Nikolai's Quest by Diane Robinson (Rose & Fern Publishing)

 Nor'east Swell by Aaron Topp (One Tree House)

Falkner, an Auckland storyteller now living in Queensland, won the first-ever special award for Best Kids/YA in 2021. Wellington author Jennifer Lane has previously won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, while Bay of Plenty writer Susan Brocker, Auckland author Diane Robinson, and Hawke’s Bay author Aaron Topp are all first-time Ngaios finalists.

“Moving forward, we hope to award a Best Kids/YA prize biennially,” says Sisterson, “alternating it with our Best Non-Fiction category that has been running since 2017.”

This year’s finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, a prize that in recent years has gone to authors including Jacqueline Bublitz and Michael Bennett, are:

Dice by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)

El Flamingo by Nick Davies (YBK Publishers)

Devil’s Breath by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)

A Better Class of Criminal by Cristian Kelly

Mama Suzuki: Private Eye by Simon Rowe (Penguin SEA)

“It’s really heartening each year to see the range of new voices infusing fresh perspectives into the crime and thriller backstreets of our local literary landscape,” says Sisterson. “Our 2024 finalists are Kiwi storytellers based on four continents, each offering something new and exciting, from madcap capers in Latin America to an unusual Japanese sleuth or a neurodivergent professor of toxic botanicals, to former police detective Cristian Kelly and legal researcher Claire Baylis harnessing real-life expertise in captivating fictional tales.”

Lastly, the finalists for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel are:

Dice by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)

The Caretaker by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins)

Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop (Macmillan)

Pet by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

Devil’s Breath by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)

Going Zero by Anthony McCarten (Macmillan)

Expectant by Vanda Symon (Orenda Books)

“It’s a strong group of finalists to emerge from a dazzlingly varied field,” says Sisterson. “This year’s Ngaio Marsh Awards entrants gave our international judging panels lots to chew over, and plenty of books judges enjoyed and admired didn’t become finalists. ‘Yeahnoir’, our local spin on some of the world’s most popular storytelling forms, is certainly in fine health.”  

Crime writing is a broad church nowadays, notes Sisterson, including but going beyond traditional murder mysteries and whodunnits in the style of Dames Ngaio and Agatha Christie, to deliver insights about society and humanity alongside rollicking reads.

“As the likes of Val McDermid have said, if you want to better understand a place, read its crime fiction,” says Sisterson. “Many of our finalists hold up a mirror to society, taking readers into varied lives through their stories, alongside page-turning entertainment.”

The 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists will be celebrated and this year’s winners announced at a special event held at the WORD Christchurch Festival on Wednesday, 28 August.

For more information on any or all of our 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com, or founder Craig Sisterson craigsisterson@hotmail.com.

 

Agent Alert: New Hardback Covers

Memorandum sent 12/08/2024
 
Classification: Gold level (For Your Eyes Only)
 
To our agents in the field,

Today, August the twelfth, marks precisely 60 years since the death of Ian Lancaster Fleming – journalist, father, ‘the world’s worst stockbroker’, and of course author of the beloved stories detailing the exploits of our very own James Bond.

To mark this date, and celebrate Fleming’s legacy, Ian Fleming Publications are pleased to reveal the covers for their new hardback editions of all fourteen of Fleming’s original Bond adventures, created by legendary designer Michael Gillette.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Saima Mir

 Name:- Saima Mir

Job:- Author and Journalist

Website:- www. saimamir.com

X - @SaimaMir

Instagram - @saimamor_author

Introduction:-

Saima Mir is an award-winning journalist and author. Her novel The Khan is a Times and Guardian Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Specsavers Crime Fiction Debut Award.  It was also longlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Portico Prize. Her current book Vengeance is the second in The Khan trilogy.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

All The Colours of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

I’m writing the third in The Khan trilogy.

Favourite book:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Kishore Kumar and Stevie Nicks, because their sound takes me away to other times and places.

How do you relax?

I’m still figuring that out!

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

We Begin at The End – I love the character of Duchess and she lives in my head.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Keep writing but do it for the love of the story and the craft. No one else gets to decide if your story is worth telling. It is your job to tell it.

How would you describe your latest published book?

Vengeance is about the power that women could wield if we found each other and came together.

With  A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

Grace by Jeff Buckley

Sholay soundtrack

Ghalib by Jagjit Singh

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

Fleetwood Mac for the talent and the drama.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

I saw Franz Ferdinand when I was in my 20s. I was with friends I loved, we were a bunch of bright young journalists and life was better than I knew.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Hanging out with all the talented authors and hearing them speak in beautiful surroundings where the arts are celebrated.

Vengeance by Saima Mir (One world Publications)

Two years into running her organised crime syndicate in the north of England, Jia Khan stumbles on a notebook her father - the previous Khan - kept on arrival from Pakistan in the 1970s. And what Jia finds in the journal sends her deep into the family's past. But once the sleeping dogs from those years are woken, they are set for attack. Meanwhile, Jia struggles to control unrest amongst those that oppose her. Worst of all, Jia must unravel a puzzling but terrible warning - one of her staff lies brutally slain, his corpse displayed in her garden despite her sophisticated security... Could a traitor be part of her inner sanctum.

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. #HCFW24

Louise Mumford on how her place within the thriller genre has evolved – from dystopian fiction to locked room mysteries

The great thing about the thriller genre is how wide and welcoming it is, encompassing elements of the domestic, the gothic and the psychological amongst others. I’ve now written four thriller books and in that time I started off in the near-future with my first book Sleepless and ended up in the present day in a festival in mid-Wales in my latest one called The Festival. I’ll try to explain how I navigated that path.

My first thriller Sleepless centres around a desperate insomniac who jumps at the chance to be part of a new sleep technology trial. But once she arrives at the island where the trial is to take place she realises that the technology company don’t want to simply help her sleep, but control it. In this book I’m writing in the near-future – not quite dystopian yet but the world I’m describing is fast speeding towards it! The sleep technology designed to help fix a person’s sleeping patterns does not yet exist, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time.

From there I went into the forest and into a bunker-like house in the woods for my next thriller The Safe House. I’m very inspired by locations – houses or islands like in Sleepless, the island in that inspired by Caldey Island just off the coast of Tenby in Wales. This bunker in the woods – why is it air-tight and sealed off? Who lives there and feels they have to live this way? The inhabitants, Hannah and her severely asthmatic daughter Esther, believe that the world outside is a dangerous place due to, not war or famine, but the air itself – polluted beyond repair. The unravelling of this belief is the driving force behind the rest of the story.

And then that is where I left the near-future and made the leap to write in the here-and-now. My third and fourth thrillers are very location-based, carrying on the inspiration that fuelled my first two books. In The Hotel I wanted to write about a dramatically ruined Gothic hotel on the equally dramatic coastline of West Wales. Essentially trapping my characters within its walls for most of the action (with a little trip to its overgrown maze!) meant I could do what interests thriller writers the most: push ordinary, everyday characters to their limit with their backs against the wall and see how they react. In this case it is four old friends led by my main character Bex who lost one of their group, Leo, on a past trip to explore the ruined hotel and have to team up again a decade on to finally discover what happened to him.

With my fourth book I found myself wanting to continue with that idea of trapping characters somewhere but having the location be more open and chaotic – of course, a big outdoor British music festival fit the bill perfectly. The festival in my book is called Solstice and is entirely imaginary, centred around welcoming the longest day but the inspiration is very much Green Man festival near Crickhowell and, of course, the behemoth that is Glastonbury. My main character Libby wins tickets to it but, once she’s there and her friend disappears, she realises that finding her is going to uncover a very dark side to this sunny festival and put her own life in danger.

Will I stray into the near-future again? Who knows? There’s a real thrill to creating my own idea of what the future has in store for us but, at this moment, I think I can say with confidence that I’m very happy in the present.

 The Festival by Louise Mumford (Harper Collins Publishers) Out Now

Missed out on Glastonbury this year? Solstice Festival promises to be a KILLER weekend…

 Libby can’t believe her luck when she wins two tickets to the biggest event of the summer: Solstice, a music festival celebrating the longest day of the year. Wanting to escape their problems for a few days, Libby, and her best friend Dawn head deep into the Welsh countryside for a weekend of sun, fun and festivities. But what promised to be an exciting trip quickly turns into Libby’s worst nightmare. The scorching heat intensifies, the music becomes wilder, the people more unpredictable. When Dawn goes missing, Libby worries that something sinister has happened to her friend. And as Libby learns more about the festival’s dark origins, she begins to fear that something might happen to her too…

More information about Louise Mumford can be found on her website.  You can also find her on Facebook, follow her on X @louise_mumford and on Instagram @louisemumfordauthor