2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards Finalists Announced

 

Character first: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists 

offer page-turning tales that explore people and place.

From a young Māori chef to a grieving family torn asunder by internet disinformation, wartime spies to comical Northland drug runners, the finalists for the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards offer readers a kaleidoscopic array of unforgettable characters, fictional and real, among compelling tales full of mystery and thrills, touching on vital issues of modern times and eras past.

“In our fifteenth anniversary season of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, we’ve been blessed with a fascinating range of entries across our three categories, from a diverse array of Kiwi voices and stories, styles, and settings, making our international judging panels’ jobs both very enjoyable and at times very tricky,” says Ngaio Marsh Awards founder Craig Sisterson.

Now in their sixteenth season, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate excellence in mystery, thriller, crime, and suspense writing from Aotearoa storytellers. The 2025 finalists were announced today in Best Non-Fiction, Best First Novel, and Best Novel categories.

“As the likes of Val McDermid and Dennis Lehane have said, if you want to better understand a place, read its crime fiction,” says Sisterson. “Crime writing in its wider sense can deliver interesting insights alongside rollicking entertainment, and is an ideal form for delving into people and place, as well as broader societal issues. And in our case with the Ngaios, we certainly see that across both our fiction and non-fiction entries and finalists.”

The Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Non-Fiction is a biennial prize first presented in 2017, and previously won by Michael Bennett, Kelly Dennett, Martin van Beynen, and Steve Braunias. From a fascinating array of 2025 entrants, this year’s six finalists explore some truly remarkable real-life tales, ranging from a fresh look at New Zealand’s most infamous cold case to the little-discussed deadly legacy of a 1930s Devonport nurse. 

The finalists are:

The Trials of Nurse Kerr by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman Books)

The Survivors by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)

The Crewe Murders by Kirsty Johnstone & James Hollings (Massey Uni Press)

The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)

Gangster's Paradise by Jared Savage (HarperCollins)

Far North by David White & Angus Gillies (Upstart Press)

This year’s finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, an annual award first presented in 2016, and won last year by Rotorua author Claire Baylis for DICE, her extraordinary novel providing a jury-eyed-view of a sexual assault case, are:

Dark Sky by Marie Connolly (Quentin Wilson Publishing)

Lie Down With Dogs by Syd Knight (Rusty Hills)

A Fly Under The Radar by William McCartney

The Defiance of Frances Dickinson by Wendy Parkins (Affirm Press)

The Call by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin)

Kiss of Death by Stephen Tester (Heritage Press)

“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. This year that ranges from a mystery set at Tekapo's Mt John Observatory to a legal thriller set against the Spanish flu epidemic, from a blackly comic crime caper from a Devonport lawyer to the gritty first novel from one of our most acclaimed screen storytellers.

Lastly, the finalists for the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, selected by an international panel of crime and thriller experts from a remarkable 15-book longlist, are:

Return to Blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)

A Divine Fury by DV Bishop (Macmillan)

Woman, Missing by Sherryl Clark (HarperCollins)

Home Truths by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)

17 Years Later by JP Pomare (Hachette)

The Call by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin)

Prey by Vanda Symon (Orenda Books)

“It’s a dazzling group of finalists to emerge from a terrific longlist, and a fascinating broader group of entries that seems to get deeper and stronger every year,” says Sisterson. “Our international judges were full of praise for the entire longlist, and remarked on the world-class writing as well as compelling storytelling in many books that didn’t become finalists, as well as the overall variety within #yeahnoir, our Kiwi take on a globally popular genre.”

The 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists will be celebrated and this year’s winners announced at a special event, “The Ngaio Marsh Awards and The Murderous Mystery”, to be held in association with WORD Christchurch at Tūranga on Thursday, 25 September. The thrilling evening includes an improv murder mystery performance by the famed Court Theatre

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.

 

The Barry Award Nominations 2024

 

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

Best Mystery or Crime Novel

Dark Ride by Lou Berney (Morrow)

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper (Mulholland)

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Harper)

The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty (Blackstone)

Best First Mystery or Crime Novel

Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Atlantic Monthly Press)

The Peacoock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria)

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos (Minotaur)

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Minotaur)

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor (Riverhead)

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (Morrow)

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita (Berkley)

Best Paperback Original Mystery or Crime Novel

Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)

Every Thing She Feared by Rick Mofina (MIRA)

Who the Hell is Larry Black? By Jake Needham (Half Penny)

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderer's by Jesse Sutanto (Berkley)

Expectant by Vanda Symon (Orenda)

Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime

Best Thriller

Burner by Mark Greaney (Berkley)

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

Moscow Exile by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly)

Going Zero by Anthony McCarten (Harper)

Drowning by T. J. Newman (Avid Reader Press)

Zero Days by Ruth Ware (Gallery/Scout Press)

Congratulations to all the nominated authors..