2023 Ngaio Marsh Award Longlist Revealed

 

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.

Now in their fourteenth season, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate excellence in New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing. They are named for Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, who penned bestselling mysteries that entertained millions of global readers from her home in the Cashmere Hills. “I’d like to think Dame Ngaio would be proud of how our modern Kiwi storytellers are continuing her literary legacy, bringing fresh perspectives and a cool mix of fascinating tales to one of the world’s most popular storytelling forms,” says awards founder Craig Sisterson. “In recent years we seem to be going through our own golden age, with our local writers offering a treasure trove of terrific stories for readers at home and all over the world.”

The longlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel includes a mix of past winners and finalists, several first-time entrants and new voices, and the long-awaited return of one of the leading lights of the early 2000s New Zealand literary scene. “In crime and thriller writing it’s natural for authors to make it really tough on their characters,” says Sisterson, “but our entrants made it tough on our judges too. This year’s longlist is a wonderful showcase of Kiwi creativity, with a great range of stories that explore some deep and very important issues in among the page-turning intrigue and thrills.”

The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The longlist for this year’s Best Novel prize is: 

Too Far From Antibes by Bede Scott (Penguin SEA)

Exit .45 by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)

Remember Me by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)

Blue Hotel by Chad Taylor (Brio Books)

Poor People With Money by Dominic Hoey (Penguin)

The Darkest Sin by DV Bishop (Macmillan)

The Doctor's Wife by Fiona Sussman (Bateman Books)

Miracle by Jennifer Lane

Better The Blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)

In Her Blood by Nikki Crutchley (HarperCollins)

The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)

Blood Matters by Renée (The Cuba Press)

The Slow Roll by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)

Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing)

The longlist is currently being considered by an international judging panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Finalists for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Non-Fiction will be announced in August, with the finalists celebrated and the winners announced as part of a special event held in association with WORD Christchurch later in the year.

 A video of the Longlist can be found below.

For more information on this year’s Best Novel longlist, or the Ngaio Marsh Awards in general, please contactngaiomarshaward@gmail.com, or founder and judging convenor Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com  

Dark Deeds and Fresh Blood: 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award longlist revealed

 

Intrigue and betrayal in Renaissance Florence and 1930s Singapore, the ghostly voice of a ‘pretty dead girl’ in New York City, and a romp of a whodunnit fizzing through 1990s Auckland that took 25 years to write are among the ‘fresh blood’ in a diverse array of Kiwi storytellers named today on the longlist for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

“A dozen years after we launched the Ngaio Marsh Awards to celebrate Kiwi crime, thriller, and mystery writing, it’s really gratifying to see how our local authors, experienced and new, continue to raise the bar and produce world-class stories,” says founder Craig Sisterson.“This year’s longlist is a terrific showcase of exciting and innovative storytelling, with our authors harnessing a diverse array of characters, settings, and styles, challenging tropes, and bringing fresh perspectives to a genre that’s thrilled readers globally for 150-plus years.”

The longlist for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel includes three past winners, several past finalists and longlistees, and five first-time entrants. “It was a really strong group of entrants this year, with many books our judges thoroughly enjoyed missing out,” says Sisterson. “Our local ‘yeahnoir’ scene keeps going from strength to strength. It’s high time more Kiwis realised that just like we accept and even expect our local sportspeople to compete at the highest levels on the world stage, likewise our authors – not just in crime and thriller writing, but across many genres and styles – are among the best in the world.” The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The longlist for this year’s Best Novel prize is:

City of Vengeance by DV Bishop (Macmillan)

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)

The Quiet People by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)

To The Sea by Nikki Crutchley (HarperCollins)

Polaroid Nights by Lizzie Harwood (The Cuba Press)

Isobar Precinct by Angelique Kasmara (The Cuba Press)

Nancy Business by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)

She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (Te Herenga Waka University Press) 

The Last Guests by JP Pomare

The Devils You Know by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)

Quiet in her Bones by Nalini Singh (Hachette)

Waking The Tiger by Mark Wightman (Hobeck Books)

The longlist is currently being considered by an international judging panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The finalists for both the Best Novel category and Best First Novel will be announced in early August. The finalists will be celebrated, and winners announced, as part of a special event at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival, held from 31 August to 4 September 2022. 

For more information on this year’s Best Novel longlist, or the Ngaio Marsh Awards in general, please contact founder and judging convenor Craig Sisterson, (craigsisterson@hotmail.com)

Click on the link for the online video highlighting the long listed authors and their books.

Young offenders, criminal histories: Ngaio Marsh Award long list revealed

An extraordinary literary tag-team is among several tales inspired by historic events to be named today on an eclectic long list for the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

“It’s surreal and strangely fitting that in our tenth season of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, and almost forty years after Dame Ngaio’s passing, our judges are considering a story that she began writing herself during the Second World War,” says founder Craig Sisterson. 

The Dame faces plenty of stiff competition for this year’s prize, with several award-winning authors on the long list for the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

“Our international judging panel faces quite a challenge this year, that’s for sure,” says Sisterson. “Along with Stella Duffy’s brilliant resumption of Inspector Alleyn, we have superb fictional explorations of real-life crimes from another local Dame and a past Ngaios winner, exciting new tales from past finalists, and several hard-hitting stories about young people.”

The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010, and this year’s long list runs the gamut of settings from rural New Zealand to New York City, time periods from the 1940s to modern day, and themes ranging from teen bullying to societal discrimination and the verisimilitude of memory.

The long list for the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel is:

No One Can Hear You by Nikki Crutchley (Oak House Press)

Cassie Clark: Outlaw by Brian Falkner (OneTree House)

This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman (Penguin)

Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney (HarperCollins)

Call me Evie by JP Pomare (Hachette)

The Stakes by Ben Sanders(Allen & Unwin)

Make a Hard Fist by Tina Shaw (OneTree House)

The Vanishing Act by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan Publishing)

Rain Fall by Ella West (Allen & Unwin)

The long list is currently being considered by a judging panel of crime, thriller, and suspense writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

An online video announcing the long listed awards can be seen below.

The finalists will be announced on 2 August, along with the finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel and Best Non-Fiction. All the finalists will be celebrated, and the winners announced, as part of a special WORD Christchurch event on 14 September. 

For more information on this year’s long list, or the Ngaio Marsh Awards in general, please contact founder and judging convenor Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com

2017 Ngaio Marsh Award Longlist

The Longlist for the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel: The Ngaio Marsh Award represents the very best in Kiwi Crime.

Dead Lemons, by Finn Bell (e-book)
Pancake Money, by Finn Bell (e-book)
Spare Me the Truth, by C.J. Carver (Bonnie Zaffre)
Red Herring, by Jonothan Cullinane (HarperCollins)
The Revelations of Carey Ravine, by Debra Daley (Quercus)
The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton, by Katherine Hayton (Katherine Hayton)
Presumed Guilty, by Mark McGinn (Merlot)
Marshall’s Law, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
A Straits Settlement, by Brian Stoddart (Crime Wave Press)
The Last Time We Spoke, by Fiona Sussman (Allison & Busby)

Craig Sisterson, organizer of the Ngaio Marsh Award, is a lapsed Lawyer, and major Crime Fiction Fan and Writer who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He also blogs at Crime Watch.

Here's what Craig has to say about this year's long list:

A self-inflicted, self-described cripple dangling off the edge of a cliff above the raging sea near the bottom of New Zealand, clinging precariously to life after getting too noisy with his dangerous neighbours, probably wasn’t the kind of hero Raymond Chandler ever had in mind.

 “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid,” wrote the cranky king of crime fiction in “The Simple Art of Murder”, an oft-quoted essay for the Atlantic Monthly published a few short weeks after the end of the Second World War.

Seventy-plus years on, the hero of Otago author Finn Bell’s exciting crime debut Dead Lemons is both tarnished, and afraid. And he’s not the only ‘hero’ among this year’s crop of Ngaio Marsh Award longlistees who breaks the classic crime mould. New Zealand authors are unafraid to put their own spin on crime, blending it with other genres, and taking their tales into varied locales and times.

A record number of entries gave the judging panel plenty to ponder, with plenty of new blood joining the local #yeahnoir ranks (credit to Steph Soper of the Book Council for the cool hashtag).

Candidly, it was a tough ask for our judges to narrow down the longlist, with plenty of good local reads that judges liked missing out. While that’s a great situation for the overall health of New Zealand crime writing, it made for some tough calls, differing opinions, and debate.

With such variety on offer (and the fact I’m only personally batting about .500 in terms of correctly picking the winner over the years), I’m not even going to try to play bookie with the contenders.

If you’re a fan of crime fiction, or just good writing, I’m sure there’s something here that could tickle your fancy.

The international judging panel of Ayo Onatade (UK), Greg Fleming (New Zealand), Janet Rudolph (United States), Karen Chisholm (Australia), Paddy Richardson (New Zealand), Stephanie Jones (New Zealand), and Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Iceland), are currently considering the long list.

The finalists will be announced in August, along with the finalists for the Best First Novel and Best Non Fiction categories. The finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced at a WORD Christchurch event in October.

2016 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists revealed

A FADING All Black, a teen runaway, a cop in witness protection, and a robotic private eye are among the memorable characters at the heart of novels named today as finalists for the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Awards. 

“We had a record number of entrants this year, which gave several headaches to our international judging panel,” says awards founder and Judging Convenor Craig Sisterson. “Not only are our local authors producing novels of exceptional international quality, they are breaking the shackles of convention and stretching the boundaries of genre to explore crime storytelling in unique and exciting ways. We were comparing apples with feijoas.” 

An extended judging process has led to two very strong shortlists, says Sisterson. This year, not only will the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, established in 2010, be presented at the Great New Zealand Crime Debate at WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival on 27 August, but also a new Best First Novel prize for debuts. 

The finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel are:

• INSIDE THE BLACK HORSE by Ray Berard (Mary Egan Publishing);

• MADE TO KILL by Adam Christopher (Titan Books);

• TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press);

• THE LEGEND OF WINSTONE BLACKHAT by Tanya Moir (RHNZ Vintage); and

• AMERICAN BLOOD by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin).

The finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel are:

• INSIDE THE BLACK HORSE by Ray Berard (Mary Egan Publishing);

• THE FIXER by John Daniell (Upstart Press);

• THE GENTLEMEN’S CLUB by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan Publishing); and

• TWISTER by Jane Woodham (Makaro Press).

“I’d like to thank all our entrants for making our job so tough,” says Sisterson, “along with all our judges and WORD Christchurch for their ongoing support of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Local crime writing is in fine fettle.”

And Then There Were Nine: Longlist revealed for 2016 Ngaio Marsh Award

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 long-list for their 2016 award today.

“In past years our judging panels have had some very close calls when it came to picking the winner, or tough choices for who’d be finalists, but this is the first time we’ve had such a log-jam of good books battling for the longlist,” says Judging Convenor Craig Sisterson. “Even with nearly a dozen debutant authors entering our new Best First Novel category instead, and the majority of our past winners and finalists not being in the running this year, the pool has never been broader or deeper.”

“That’s terrific for our local crime writing scene, of course, but does make life hard for the judges, and means some good novels that judges’ enjoyed have missed out. So I’d like to thank all the entrants this year, along with everyone who has come out and supported our Murder in the Library series of events up and down the country, celebrating local crime writers, the past few weeks.”

The longlist for the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime novel is:

• INSIDE THE BLACK HORSE by Ray Berard (Mary Egan Publishing);
• MADE TO KILL by Adam Christopher (Titan Books);
• TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press);
• STARLIGHT PENINSULA by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage);
• COLD HARD MURDER by Trish McCormack (Glacier Press);
• THE LEGEND OF WINSTONE BLACKHAT by Tanya Moir (Vintage);
• THE MISTAKE by Grant Nicol (Number Thirteen Press);
• AMERICAN BLOOD by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin);
• SOMETHING IS ROTTEN by Adam Sarafis (Echo Publishing).

The judging panel of seven crime writing experts from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Nordic countries, will announce the finalists in late July. The winner will be announced at the 2016 WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival on 27 August.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards were established in 2010 and are made annually for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novels written by New Zealand citizens and residents. For more information, visit the Awards' Facebook page here or email ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com

Ngaio Marsh Award Longlist

Craig Sisterston (Crime Watch) has announced the longlist for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best New Zealand Crime Novel. On Saturday, 30 August, the fifth recipient of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will be announced following the Great New Zealand Crime Debate event at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2014.

The shortlist for the Ngaio Marsh Award will be announced in August. However, it was thought that it would be good to announce the 8 books on the longlist.

The longlisted titles for the 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award are as follows –

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Joe Victim by Paul Cleave

The Beckoning Ice by Joan Druett

Frederick’s Coat by Alan Duff

My Sister’s Keeper by Donna Malane

Where Dead Men Go by Liam McIlvanney

Cross Fingers by Paddy Richardson

Only the Dead by Ben Sanders

Congratulations to all the nominated authors.

H/T to Janet Rudolph and Mystery FanFare.

2012 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel

The 2012 Ngaio Marsh Finalists have been announced and they are as follows –

Collecting Cooper by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)

Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)

By Any Means by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)

Bound by Vanda Symon (Penguin)

It has been a very tough decision for the international expert judging panel, which this year included writers, reviewers, publishers, and festival organisers from New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.  

When the long list was announced back in early June, Craig Sisterston said, “There were some exceptional crime, mystery, and thriller fiction penned by New Zealanders last year.  It is great to see one of the world’s most popular forms of writing starting to flourish a little more on our own shores, though it makes our job harder.”  Having gone through the judging process that has certainly been borne out. 

On a related - and important - point, readers all around the world also still have the opportunity to win a full set of the seven long listed titles (see entry information here).  So if you would like to try the books for yourself, and see whether you agree with the expert judging panel's opinion, make sure to enter the draw.

The long list was as follows:-

Collecting Cooper by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)

Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)

Furt Bent From Aldaheit by Jack Eden (Pear Jam Books)

Traces of Red by Paddy Richardson (Penguin)

By Any Means by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)

Bound by Vanda Symon (Penguin)

The Catastrophe by Ian Wedde (Victoria University Press)

So, who do you think will be amongst the finalists?  Which is your favourite?  Who would you like to see follow in the footsteps of Alix Bosco (Cut & Run) and Paul Cleave (Blood Men) to take home the impressive trophy - created and crafted by local sculptor Gina Ferguson?