Crime Watch
Investigating crime fiction from a Kiwi perspective
Friday, February 9, 2024
Review: EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Review: THE LAST WORD
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Review: EVERYBODY KNOWS
Monday, November 27, 2023
Character first: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners deep-dive into the personal and societal impact of violence and tragedy
2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel winner Charity Norman (right) with New Zealand's modern 'queen of crime' Vanda Symon |
A trio of superb New Zealand writers were honoured at a special WORD Christchurch event on Friday night as they scooped the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards for books delivering rich character studies alongside exquisite crime storytelling.
In the fourteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, Hawke’s Bay author Charity Norman won Best Novel for Remember Me (Allen & Unwin), while renowned journalist Steve Braunias scooped Best Non-Fiction for Missing Persons (HarperCollins), and acclaimed filmmaker and author Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) made Ngaios history when he was named the winner of Best First Novel for Better the Blood (Simon & Schuster).
“It was a superb night to cap an outstanding year for the Ngaio Marsh Awards, with our terrifically strong and varied group of finalists,” says founder Craig Sisterson. “This year’s winners are world-class writers, who collectively showcase how our local take on one of the world’s most popular forms of storytelling – and our Kiwi creative artists in general – can like our sportspeople match up against the best from anywhere.”
On Friday night, following a celebratory quiz held at Tūranga in association with WORD Christchurch, Kiwi crime queen and recent Traitors NZ star Vanda Symon announced Braunias as the winner of the biennial Best Non-Fiction prize for Missing Persons, his collection of 12 extraordinary tales of death and disappearance in Aotearoa. “A fascinating investigation of where people had become lost: to society, themselves, their families,” said the judges. “His writing is so informed and informative. Braunias has put in the legwork, knows his material, and because of that manages to make each piece something personal.”
Braunias accepts the non-fiction prize |
Bennett became the first storyteller to collect fiction and non-fiction categories at the Ngaio Marsh Awards, having won the first-ever Best Non-Fiction prize in 2017 for In Dark Places: The Confessions of Teina Pora and an Ex-cop's Fight for Justice. Braunias was a finalist that year for The Scene of the Crime.
The judges praised Better the Blood, the tale of a Māori detective confronting her own heritage while hunting a serial killer, as an “audacious and powerful blend of history, polemic, and crime thriller” that upends the typical serial-killer sleuth dynamic while exploring the violence and legacy of colonisation.
Winning a Ngaio is the latest accolade for Bennett’s crime fiction debut, which has also been shortlisted for awards and named on ‘best of the year’ lists in the UK and US, translated into several European languages, and earlier this year became the first detective novel ever shortlisted for the Acorn Prize for Fiction.
Norman, a three-time Ngaios finalist, was “overwhelmed” when Symon announced she’d won Best Novel for Remember Me, a tale set in the Ruahine Ranges where a family and community are upturned by disturbing revelations about a young woman’s disappearance. “There’s an Olympian degree of difficulty in this novel,” said the judges. “To write about characters facing devastating, mind-altering health diagnoses and blend these everyday tragedies – all too familiar to some readers – into an elevated suspense novel, while steering clear of mawkishness and self-pity … Remember Me is an astounding piece of work.”
Norman receives $1,000 courtesy of WORD Christchurch, long-time partner of the Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Mina, Russell, McSorley and Morrison: 2023 McIlvanney finalists revealed
"Now in our third year of sponsoring these prestigious awards with the Glencairn Glass, we’re very proud to be a part of this amazing Scottish annual event in the world of crime fiction. We continue to be impressed and enthralled by the talented authors who enter and we wish everyone the very best of luck."
Legendary Scottish authors Val McDermid, Liam McIlvanney, and Denise Mina at the torchlit parade at a past Bloody Scotland |
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Review: PROM MOM
Thursday, August 10, 2023
History and humanity: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists revealed
History and humanity: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists plunge readers into page-turning tales about who we are
From heart-wrenching tales of families torn apart by disappearance or deportation to examinations of historic crimes, swindles, and injustices to page-whirring novels about former cops and former convicts, the finalists for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards offer a diverse array of storytelling excellence
“When we first launched New Zealand’s own annual prizes for crime, mystery, and thriller writing in 2010, we modelled our Ngaio Marsh Awards on the Hammett Prize in North America, which celebrates literary excellence in crime writing,” says Ngaio Marsh Awards founder Craig Sisterson. “The Ngaios have never been solely about detective fiction; instead highlighting and celebrating outstanding Kiwi storytellers whose tales, fictional and factual, explore the investigation of crime or the impact or effects of crime on people and society.”
The 2023 Ngaios finalists announced today across three categories, like many previous years, says Sisterson, underline that original ethos. This year’s finalists range across an array of styles, settings, and stories, exploring important topics from radical empathy and redemption in one of the world’s most notorious psychiatric facilities to familial grief, dealing with dementia, mass surveillance, and the ongoing impact of colonisation and the Dawn Raids.
“The consistent thread throughout this diverse array of Kiwi books is quality storytelling that struck a chord with our international judging panels of crime writing experts from several countries,” says Sisterson. “As the likes of Val McDermid have said, if you want to better understand a place, read its crime fiction. Crime writing is a broad church nowadays, including but going far beyond the traditional puzzling mysteries of Dames Ngaio and Agatha Christie, and can deliver insights about society and humanity alongside rollicking reads. Many of our finalists showcase something about who we are, as people and a nation.”
The finalists for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Non-Fiction, a biennial prize previously won by filmmaker Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) for IN DARK PLACES, a book about the wrongful conviction of Teina Pora, by Kelly Dennett for THE SHORT LIFE AND MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF JANE FURLONG, and most recently by Martin van Beynen for BLACK HANDS:
- A NEW DAWN by Emeli Sione (Mila’s Books)
- THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Dr Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne (Faber)
- DOWNFALL: THE DESTRUCTION OF CHARLES MACKAY by Paul Diamond (Massey University Press)
- THE FIX by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman Books)
- MISSING PERSONS by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)
Each of this year’s non-fiction finalists delivered compelling stories that immersed readers in a variety of subject matters, from historical figures and crimes to deeply personal stories.
“There were some stellar non-fiction reads this year,” said the international judging panel of Scottish journalist and true crime writer turned novelist Douglas Skelton, Auckland lawyer Darise Bennington, and Ngaios founder Craig Sisterson. “From well-researched and fascinating dissections of historic events to deeply informed and personal tales, to disturbing yet engrossing accounts of the humanity behind shocking acts, we have terrific finalists.”
The finalists for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel are:
- ONE HEART ONE SPADE by Alistair Luke
- TOO FAR FROM ANTIBES by Bede Scott (Penguin SEA)
- BETTER THE BLOOD by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
- SURVEILLANCE by Riley Chance (CopyPress Books)
- THE SLOW ROLL by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
- PAPER CAGE by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing)
“There is no shortage of fresh ideas in New Zealand crime fiction, nor in breadth of style, with this year's entrants running from chilling thrillers to the cosier end of the spectrum,” says British journalist and book reviewer Louise Fairbairn, the Chair of an international judging panel for the Best First Novel category that also included South African writer Sonja van der Westhuizen, British reviewer and longtime CWA Daggers judge Ayo Onatade, and Australian podcaster and author Dani Vee. “Those debuts that particularly caught our attention were unafraid to explore difficult real-life issues and embed themselves in an authentic New Zealand of rough edges and grey areas, rather than glossy make-believe.”
Lastly, the finalists for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel are:
- EXIT .45 by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
- BLUE HOTEL by Chad Taylor (Brio Books)
- REMEMBER ME by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
- THE DOCTOR’S WIFE by Fiona Sussman (Bateman Books)
- BETTER THE BLOOD by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
- BLOOD MATTERS by Renée (The Cuba Press)
- THE SLOW ROLL by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
“It’s a very strong group of finalists to emerge from a dazzlingly varied longlist,” says Sisterson. “This year’s entrants gave our international judging panels lots to chew over, and plenty of books judges enjoyed and loved didn’t become finalists. ‘Yeahnoir’, our local spin on some of the world’s most popular storytelling forms, is certainly in fine health.”
The winners of the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards will be announced at a special event held in association with WORD Christchurch in Spring, details and date to be confirmed soon.
For more information on any or all of our 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com, or founder Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com
Friday, June 30, 2023
Poker, poverty, and the power of storytelling: 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.
- 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 (Cloud Ink Press)
- 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)