Graham Beattie discusses Ngaio Marsh longlist

Earlier this week, the longlist for the 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel was released, with seven books currently being considered by the expert panel of New Zealand and international (UK, USA, Germany) judges. The finalists will be announced next month, with the winner named following a crime fiction debate and event at the Christchurch Writers' Festival later this year. The festival programme hasn't yet been released, but I understand there will be at least a couple of crime fiction sessions or events, with New Zealand and international crime writers, at this year's festival. It's great to see the Christchurch Writers' Festival return, after the 2010 festival was cancelled due to the first major Christchurch earthquake.

The longlisted titles for the 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award are:

• 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)

On Tuesday, Finlay MacDonald (filling in for Jim Mora) chatted to Ngaio Marsh Award judge Graham Beattie (pictured above right) about the diverse array of books on this year's longlist. You can listen to Graham's initial thoughts about the longlist by clicking below.