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.

2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards Announced

 Through the eyes of children: debut tales win Ngaio Marsh Awards

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.

Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu) scooped the Best Novel prize for AUĒ (Makaro Press), a novel infused with domestic violence and gang life, told from the perspectives of eight-year-old Arama, his teenage brother Tauriki, and young woman Jade. She’s the first debut author to win Best Novel since 2010.

"A breath-taking expose of lives lived on the margins, and the fight for redemption and absolution,” said the judges. “Manawatu doesn’t use crime as a plot device but shows it woven into the fabric of her characters’ lives, defining them, sometimes destroying them, and serving as a perverse unifier.”

AUĒ joins THIS MORTAL BOY by Fiona Kidman as the only novels to have won both the Ngaio Marsh Award and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

RWR McDonald grew up on a sheep and deer farm in South Otago, and now lives in Melbourne with his two daughters and extended rainbow family. He won the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel for THE NANCYS (Allen & Unwin), an exuberant small-town murder mystery where eleven-year-old Tippy Chan teams with her visiting uncle and his boyfriend to solve the murder of her teacher.

“Hilarious and inventive; the dynamic between the young protagonist and the adult characters is unusual and special,” said the judges. “A clever hat-tip to one of the most indelible female characters in the genre, and a story that blends crime and humour in unexpected ways.”

It’s a little surreal to realise this is the tenth anniversary of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, said founder Craig Sisterson. The awards were established in 2010 to celebrate excellence in local crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing. Sisterson noted that the Ngaios were modelled somewhat on the Hammett Prize in North America, which has been won by the likes of Margaret Atwood and focuses on ‘literary excellence’ in novels entwined with crime, so isn’t restricted to detective novels or whodunnits.

“We’ve been blessed to have some extraordinary books to consider and celebrate over the past decade, and this year has further added to the growing depth and diversity of local crime writing.”

Becky Manawatu received a trophy and $1,000 courtesy of WORD Christchurch. McDonald won a trophy and cash prize from the Ngaio Marsh Awards. “We feel very fortunate to have been able to hold a real life event before a live audience to celebrate our finalists and winners this year,” said Sisterson. “Huge thanks to Rachael King and WORD Christchurch for all their hard work in such a challenging year, as well as for their ongoing support every year since we launched in 2010.”

2020 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlists

This year’s Ned Kelly Crime Awards entries are testimony to the strong increase in crime reading and crime writing, despite a challenging year for book publishing and retailers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian Crime Writers Association chair Robert Goodman said the large number of entries in this year’s awards demonstrates that Australian crime writing and reading has never been stronger.

‘This is not just evident in the number of submissions but the diversity and quality of the entries. Congratulations to all our entry authors.’

‘Fiction entries include page turning thrillers, police procedurals, lone detectives and dirty dealings with many fascinating characters across a range of vividly portrayed settings.’ Goodman said.

This year, for the first time, the Ned Kelly Awards also include a category for Best International Crime Fiction published in Australia, adding to the regular categories of Best Crime Fiction, Best Debut Crime Fiction and Best True Crime.

‘It is exciting to be able to recognize not only our incredible home grown talent but also some of the world’s top international crime authors,’ Goodman said.

BEST CRIME FICTION

The 2020 shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards headline category, Best Crime Fiction features: Death of a Typographer, by Nick Gadd, a ‘quirky and original story which is funny and very Melbourne’; The Strangers We Know, by Pip Drysdale, a ‘conspiratorial well-paced read that keeps you glued to the page’; The Scholar, by Dervla McTiernan, ‘an elegant and tightly constructed read with depth and excellent characterisation’; The Wife and the Widow, by Christian White, is ‘cleverly plotted with a major plot twist threaded extremely well through the action’; River of Salt, by Dave Warner, is an ‘evocative tale about the Australian surf scene in the early 1960s with compelling characters’; and True West, by David Whish-Wilson, is a book with ‘a distinct sense of time and place where you can almost smell the outback’.

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

The Debut Crime Fiction shortlist covers a diverse range including Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley, an ‘original medical thriller viewed through the lens of the migrant experience’; Where the Truth Lies, by Karina Kilmore, is ‘a great read with an interesting new setting and good twists’; Lapse, by Sarah Thornton, is ‘atmospheric rural crime with well-drawn characters’; The Nancys, by RWR McDonald, is ‘full of quirky characters and pays homage to Nancy Drew’; Six Minutes, by Petronella McGovern, considers ‘the nightmare scenario of a missing child’; and Present Tense, by Natalie Conyer, ‘has a great setting, complex taut plot and flawed characters’

BEST TRUE CRIME

This year’s True Crime shortlist includes Dead Man Walking: The murky world of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich by Kate McClymont which has a cast of true characters to rival any fiction novel; Bowraville, by Dan Box, addresses themes of endemic racism and justice as well as the ethics of true crime reporting; Shark Arm, by joint authors Phillip Rooper and Kevin Meagher, centres on an old but almost forgotten tale retold with great research and powerful writing; and Snakes and Ladders, by Angela Williams, about a young mother’s experience of addiction, recovery and serving time clean.

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

The new Ned Kelly Award for international crime fiction included submissions from some of the world’s biggest-selling crime fiction authors and the shortlist has been narrowed down to: The Night Fire by US author Michael Connelly, The Last Widow by US author Karin Slaughter, The Chain by Irish author Adrian McKinty and Cruel Acts by Irish author Jane Casey.

ABOUT THE NED KELLY AWARDS

The Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes for crime fiction and true crime writing. First established in 1995 and now in their twenty-fifth year, previous winners include: Peter Temple, Shane Maloney, Gabriel Lord, Candice Fox, Garry Disher, Helen Garner and Duncan McNab.

2020 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlists

BEST CRIME FICTION:

Death of a Typographer by Nick Gadd (Australian Scholarly Publishing)

The Strangers We Know by Pip Drysdale (Simon & Schuster Australia)

The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan (Harlequin Enterprises Australia)

The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (Affirm Press)

Rivers of Salt by Dave Warner (Fremantle Press)

True West by David Whish-Wilson (Fremantle Press)

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION:

Present Tense by Natalie Conyer (Clan Destine Press)

Eight Lives by Susan Hurley (Affirm Press)

Where the Truth Lies by Karina Kilmore (Simon & Schuster Australia)

The Nancys by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)

Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern (Allen & Unwin)

Lapse by Sarah Thornton (Text Publishing)

BEST TRUE CRIME:

Bowraville by Dan Box (Penguin Random House Australia)

Dead Man Walking: The murky world of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich by Kate McClymont (Penguin Random House Australia)

Shark Arm by Phillip Rooper and Kevin Meagher (Allen & Unwin)

Snakes and Ladders by Angela Williams (Affirm Press)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION:

Cruel Acts by Jane Casey (Harper Collins Australia)

The Night Fire by Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin)

The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Hachette Australia)

The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter (Harper Collins Australia)