Review: BLACK VELVET AND VENGEANCE

BLACK VELVET & VENGEANCE by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, 2026)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Late 1872. When twenty-five-year-old Sydney undertaker Tatiana Crowe travels to Auckland to embalm the body of Evan Hunter's father events go horribly wrong, leaving Tatty stricken.

Back at home, Tatty has some enormous decisions to make, but finds herself facing challenges both personal and professional. When bodies start to go missing, seemingly snatched from the funeral train en route to the cemetery, it looks like someone is targeting Tatty's business and everything she holds dear.

Who has a vendetta against Tatty, and why? With the aid of the family she has made for herself among the misfits of Sydney she must fend off extortion demands, an irate grieving mother, Darlinghurst Gaol tittle-tattlers and the threat of ruin.

This book is the third in Deborah Challinor’s Tatty Crowe Series, set in the second half of the nineteenth century in Sydney. Tatty Crowe is a woman, an undertaker, a good friend, and a fearsome enemy. As with previous instalments, the reader learns a lot about the funeral business (in this case more than they would probably prefer!), and about loyalty, the difficult decisions women must often make, and about learning to trust others.

Black Velvet & Vengeance includes bodies stolen and held for ransom, women abused, and people killed – these crimes being a springboard for character depiction and social commentary. Tatty is no stranger to weighing up justice and culpability, having previously “murdered a husband, killed a second man in self-defence, and hunted down and terminated the activities of several Sydney baby farmers”. Her busy life continues in this novel, the plot kicked off by Evan Hunter, a character from the previous novel in the series, luring Tatty to Auckland to embalm his father.

Her trip to Auckland, a “town of around only twelve thousand”, is made with her colleague Hannah. It is a frantic trip, with Tatty resorting to cannabis to get her across the stormy Tasman Sea. Tatty’s use of cannabis is just one of the mentions of the routine use of drugs at the time – cannabis, opium (laudanum), and cocaine – for nausea, pain (including during childbirth), and in baby tonics!

Auckland proves worse than the voyage over: Hunter executes his appalling plan to get his claws on her successful Sydney business. His mother Viola reveals herself to be just as nasty as her son. And my goodness, embalming a body that’s been dead a week! When they return to Sydney from such an eventful and horrible trip, Tatty is not sure how much to report back to the others at Crowe Funerals. Especially whether to tell Henry, groom at the business and devoted to Tatty: “She loved Henry but sometimes he could be a tiny bit … bossy.”

Needless to say, Tatty’s Auckland problems don’t stay on their side of the Tasman – and soon she’s losing bodies she should be burying and finding others she shockingly recognises. She navigates the turmoil in her usual straight talking (“No, she was a bitch”), no-nonsense style. But she does find herself getting moody, emotional, and becoming prone to mental wandering – her life is getting even more complicated.

Much of Black Velvet & Vengeance is about “all the different forms that motherhood could take”, and the dangers, social views, and confusion of childbearing. At the time there was a terribly high rate of death in childbirth and of infant mortality – Tatty knows this from running a funeral business. There are the genetic fears of bearing a child of a ‘bad’ person, especially if through rape. And the social dangers of having children in non-traditional situations: “people liked to draw their own conclusions, and the more sensational the better.”

In some circles childbirth was seen as brutish and to be kept hidden: “Most women didn’t even go out in public once they were showing.” Tatty’s cook and second mother, Maggie, talks to her about how parents don’t live on if their daughters die childless. She also advises Robert, Hannah’s lover, that fornicators getting trapped for eternity in the second circle of hell. Hannah’s mother Edith responds: “I wouldn’t worry about the second circle, I’ve heard it’s just a bit windy.”

Tatty is dealing with all these concerns while trying to protect her business and those she loves. As well as Tatty, Black Velvet & Vengeance is chock-a-block with great characters, some of whom are from other series by the author, all “women with their chequered histories”. Maggie is a character whose arc in the story the reader gets to see more clearly than the other characters do. And Viola Hunter, although an evil woman, becomes a stark tragic figure as she descends into dishevelled madness.

There are amusing bits in the book despite these serious topics – such as Tatty becoming delightfully easily distracted: “She felt like a tropical tiger she’d seen as a child at the zoo in Regent’s Park in London, stuck in its little cage, endlessly circling. Not that her body was as lithe as a tiger’s – small as she was, she still felt like a hippopotamus. There had been one of those at the zoo too.”

The historical details are fascinating – almost as good as the novel are the Author’s Notes at the end, where Challinor details some of her research. Black Velvet & Vengeance can be read as a standalone, although reading the series adds to the enjoyment of following Tatty’s exploits. Of which I’m sure there will be more!

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Review: THE GAMBLER

THE GAMBLER by JP Pomare (Hachette, 2026)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing.

But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life?

Any new novel from JP Pomare needs to be approached with caution. You're going to have to make sure that you've cleared your calendar, stacked up the pre-made meals, and maybe set some alarms to remind you of the animal medication schedules and feeding rounds, because I can just about guarantee that the "well I don't know what's going on here" is rapidly going to suck you in and hang onto you until the final page.

He's a deceptive writer, this man. Setting up a story in THE GAMBLER that started out almost gently, creating a few doubts that the planning mentioned above would be required (luckily I've been here before), it's a slow builder. Private Investigator, Vince Reid, is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse, and his friend can't do. Maybe therein lies the reason for the gentle deceptive start, Reid also thinks this one is going to be a bit of a doddle - find out why a young woman was shot at a political rally. Why she was targeted by a seemingly respectable older local woman who drove into that rally and fired, seemingly directly, at a young woman she didn't know or have any connection to whatsoever. The gunwoman herself was killed almost immediately afterwards by a young man who did actually have a connection to the victim, but he's elusive, hard to track down, hard to understand, increasingly hard to explain who or exactly what he is to do with the whole thing. It's as Reid tries to understand his part in the main that the connections get even more murky, and the layers in this deceptively chilling tale of manipulation, control, money, power and cruelty start to emerge. 

From small towns, to online communities, the Amish and working class families who just want to know what the hell happened, Reid starts out on an investigation that seems like it would be easy money, only to find it's anything but. In fact, it gets more and more dangerous as it gets more and more complicated, and it gets less and less clear who he can trust, and just how high the stakes are.

THE GAMBLER is the second novel in the PI Vince Reid series, the first being THE WRONG WOMAN. Both these novels are set in the US, in small towns dealing with what seems unimaginable, and turns out to be anything but. As is also often the way with his novels, victims are complicated, motivations are messy, and outcomes are always beset by edge cases and questions unanswered. Reid is a perfect character around which to centre such a complicated world, as is his friend and mentor - both of whom are either hiding, dodging or dealing with a lot of personal stuff. 

Clever and fascinating, utterly unputdownable, THE GAMBLER is standalone in story, but readers would benefit from reading the first novel simply because Reid is a character in whose company time is not wasted.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: THE JIBE

THE JIBE by Robyn Cotton (Hatherop Books, 2024)

Reviewed by Carolyn McKenzie

Ella Hampton makes a mayday call from Aurora on the Hauraki Gulf saying her husband has been lost overboard during a jibe manoeuvre. A body identified as Dean Hampton washes up with a gash to the head and other injuries. The coroner rules it an accident.

Amy Fagin, Dean's sister, while dealing with her recent diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson's disease, suspects something is amiss. Determined to find the truth about her brother's fate, she convinces Frank Smythe, of the Maritime Police Unit, to investigate the case further. Frank partners with Anahera Raupara to determine what really happened aboard Aurora.

Sailing back to Auckland after a few days on Great Barrier Island, Dean Hampton is lost overboard. His wife, Ella, is the only crew member and her mayday call sets a search in motion. Several days later Dean’s body is found with significant injuries probably caused by a propeller blade and a head injury which ties in with Ella’s account of Dean being hit on the head by the boom as the yacht changed direction. The coroner’s decision that it was an accident is widely accepted, although anyone who knew Dean is surprised that he wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Among the mourners at the loved and respected dentist’s funeral are his sister Amy, and Frank Smythe who had sailed with Dean many years ago. Now, as a detective in Auckland’s Maritime Police Unit, Frank also accepts that it was an accident until Amy contacts him to say there are some things which don’t add up. Could it have been murder?

What follows unwinds as a cunningly constructed plot which seesaws between the certainty that Ella must be innocent to no, she must be guilty, but then how did she do it? I can imagine readers with a sailing background joining Frank in calculating how winds and tides impacted the marine tragedy.

The story clips along at a good pace and is hard to put down, with any hint of the solution held back until the very last pages. 

Sailing on the Hauraki Gulf is central to the story but the terminology is so well explained that non-sailors won’t have any trouble understanding what supposedly happened and what really happened. Great Barrier Island, Waiheke, Westhaven Marina and Sea Cleaners all play their part in this mystery along with the police launch Deodar III. The concept of setting a lot of the action in the Gulf rather than onshore is a refreshing novelty.

The Jibe is a novel about Kiwis doing things that we can all relate to: in spite of not being close to her sister-in-law, Amy puts her all into catering for the visitors who flock to Ella’s place to pay their respects after Dean is killed. Amy is less stoic than Ella – her grief is heightened by her young-onset Parkinson’s disease and the book discreetly informs readers of what living with this illness is like and answers some FAQs about it.

Given the essentially kiwi nature of this novel, I was at first puzzled by Cotton’s choice of jibe rather than the British English gybe to describe the fatal manoeuvre. There isn’t a lot of US English in the book, so when there is, it grates – turn off the faucet, instead of tap. However, jibe has other meanings besides the sailing one and these sit well with how the plot unfolds. To jibe with means to agree with and as the story moves along, various accounts and theories of what happened to Dean certainly don’t jibe with each other. As well, to make a jibe at means to taunt and there is plenty of that in the lies and the surprising truths that lay a false trail throughout. 

The Jibe is Cotton’s first book in the crime fiction genre and I’m looking forward to reading more from her.

This review was first published in FlaxFlower reviews, which focuses on in-depth reviews of New Zealand books of all kinds, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Flaxflower founder and editor Bronwyn Elsmore. 

Review: OKIWI BROWN

OKIWI BROWN by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

The Burke and Hare anatomy murders of 1828 terrify Edinburgh, until Burke is hanged and Hare disappears. Over a decade later, in the early days of New Zealand colonial settlement, a whaler washes up on the eastern shores of Port Nicholson. He calls himself Ōkiwi Brown, sets up a pub with an evil reputation and takes in a woman abandoned on his beach. Nearby, children sing dark nursery rhymes of murder.

One afternoon, Õkiwi is visited by a pair of ex-soldiers, a bosun looking for a fight, and itinerant worker William Leckie with his young daughter, Mary. When a body is discovered on the beach, it could be that a drunken man has drowned. But perhaps the gathered witnesses know something more.

Cristina Sanders is a new to me author who has written a number of books in the past along the same lines of ŌKIWI BROWN - a fictionalised version of historical events that incorporate early tales (tall and true) of Aotearoa. 

This story is told in a series of anecdotes, incorporating the story of a man, a waler who washed up on the eastern shores of Port Nicholson many years ago, in the early days of colonial settlement. He sets himself up with a pub and makes a home with a woman found abandoned on the nearby beach, quickly developing a reputation for evil and nasty going's on. 

The set up to this is an unusual one, perhaps not so out of the ordinary for Cristina Sanders if the blurbs for her other books (MRS JEWELL AND THE WRECK OF THE GENERAL GRANT, JERNINGHAM and DISPLACED) are anything to go by, although this one appears to be the only novel that so directly connects the possibility of past and present murders, and a potential character from history. 

Told with incredible strength, and a profound sense of place, ŌKIWI BROWN never shies away from the intrinsic evil of that unknown waler, or the difficulties of life in the new colony, whilst weaving in enough of the story of Burke and Hare to give the assumption of identity some credence. 

Overall it's well depicted, although populated by a lot of characters and some very disparate stories. All in all, it was increasingly disconcerting to think about the possibility of who else washed up on what shores in the days of very limited communications.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: THE MIRES

THE DEEPER THE DEAD by Catherine Lea (Bateman Books, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the near future, they become neighbours in a coastal town in Aotearoa New Zealand. Single parent Keri has her hands full with four-year-old tearaway Walty and teen Wairere, a strange and gifted child, who always picks up on things that aren't hers to worry about. They live next door to Janet, a white woman with an opinion about everything, and new arrival Sera, whose family are refugees from ecological devastation in Europe.

 

When Janet’s son Conor arrives home without warning, sporting a fresh buzzcut and a new tattoo, the quiet tension between the neighbours grows, but no one suspects just how extreme Conor has become. No one except Wairere, who can feel the danger in their midst, and the swamp beneath their street, watching and waiting.

Hopefully more and more of us are looking for answers to the state of the world in the right directions, but then again you look at the state of world politics and the rise of the nationalistic mobs, environmental degradation and climate change denial, and it's getting hard to see any light at the end of an increasingly long, dark tunnel. Tina Makereti has chosen to take this situation, and the hopelessness generated hyper-local, with THE MIRES. Into a small community, living on top of a swamp in Kapiti, on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand which is trying to coexist, and it's in their interactions and responses to threats that we have been given the opportunity to learn something,

The story is centred around three women - all from different countries and different decades, all of whom with children and life experience that vary dramatically. First up is Keri, a Māori woman who lives with the aftermath of domestic violence, struggling to feed her two children - a lively four year old called Walty and her reserved teenage daughter Wairere, who hears the voices of her ancestors and has the gift of sight.

She lives between, on the one side, refugees from ecological breakdown in Europe - Sera, her husband Adam and baby Aliana. On the other Janet, another survivor of domestic violence, she's a white New Zealander woman with very fixed ideas about how everybody else should live. Meanwhile her son, Conor, is becoming increasing radicalised, behaving very secretly and strangely.

These three women - Keri, Sera and Janet - form the core of this novel, but it's Conor who becomes the catalyst, returning home without warning, sporting tattoos and a buzzcut, his behaviour really causing the tension to ramp up. Whilst the older women may not immediately realise just how warped Conor's beliefs have become, Wairere immediately senses the danger.

As with the outstanding and very moving KATARAINA, central to the core of the Māori people is their connection to vital areas of the landscape - in this case, again, a swamp that forms both part of the community and their sensibility for want of a better description. The novel starts out quite deceptively, with the feel of a gentle, domestic styled story about women, families and living in small communities or suburbs. As friendships are formed, and the younger children in particular form initial bridges between them, the novel itself starts to build through the gathering of strangers and the perceived threat of difference to a very particular threat within. Conor and his extremist right-wing connections, isolation, and targeting of women and migrants in particular becomes something that could break this small, almost insulated world apart.

Informed strongly by indigenous sensibilities, beliefs and spiritual connections to Country, and ancestors, THE MIRES also isn't afraid to use the examples of the horror of white supremacy, the massacres that are all too often performed in its name, and attempt to shine a light on that darkest of human behaviour whilst more importantly, providing examples of how the best of humanity can rise above. 

Whilst parts of THE MIRES were devastating, and very discomforting to read, it's message of hope and connection shone through. It has a particularly indigenous sensibility - the things that matter - people / community / connection to those and to place, always to place, feels very much like an answer we could all be looking towards. .

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

“Unique, enthralling mystery" - review of THE NANCYS AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING NECKLACE

THE NANCYS AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING NECKLACE by RWR McDonald (Orenda Books, Nov 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Eleven-year-old Tippy’s uncle and his boyfriend turn up in her small New Zealand town to look after her when his mother is away over Christmas, but when her schoolteacher is found dead and her best friend has a near-fatal accident, the trio turns detective, dubbing themselves The Nancys, and launching a chaotic, hilarious investigation.

I don't know if I've grinned as much reading a crime novel for quite a long time. There's such a lovely sense of exuberance to Melbourne-based Kiwi author RWR McDonald's debut mystery, which is set in a fictional small town in the deep south of New Zealand.

Delightful, charming, heartfelt, exuberant; they're not usually the words that come top of mind when musing on a crime novel, but they absolutely fit for The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace, which has an adolescent heroine but is very much an adult mystery novel (not a young adult or juvenile mystery).

I can certainly see why the then-unpublished manuscript was highly commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (a pipeline that has highlighted the likes of The Dry by Jane Harper, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, and The Nowhere Child by Christian White).

There's just something, well, je ne sais quoi, about The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace that makes it quite different to much of the great rural and small-town crime writing coming out of Australia and New Zealand in recent years. While it has some of the quirky local characters and secrets-behind-closed-doors you'd expect with 'rural noir', there's a different energy and tone, delightfully so.

At its heart, and the book has a big one, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace centres on the misadventures of an unlikely investigating trio and the colourful South Otago townsfolk they encounter. along the way.

Tippy Chan is an eleven-year-old Riverstone local delighted by a visit from her beloved Uncle Pike, a Sydney hairdresser who could body double for Santa Claus. Pike has returned to the riverside town he fled years before - "the town that style forgot", as the blurb aptly describes - with his fashionista boyfriend Devon in tow, to look after Tippy while her mother goes on a cruise.

It's been a tough time for the Chan family, with Tippy's father passing away in the past year and even more stress heaped on her mother, Pike's sister, who could do with a good break away. Tippy loves her uncle’s old Nancy Drew books, and when her best friend falls off a bridge and then her teacher’s body is found near the town's only traffic light, the trio see a chance to solve a mystery for real. At the same time they're juggling other local adventures, including a surprising makeover of a glum teenage neighbour for a local show, and Pike dealing with his past history in the town.

Overall The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace is a real delight, a charming mystery that is much more than charm, packed with lovably unruly characters and chaotic events and perfectly seasoned with humour and heart. First-time novelist McDonald has opened his account with a real belter, a unique and enthralling tale.

[I originally reviewed this book for the New Zealand Listener and this blog on its original Australian and New Zealand release a few years ago. Today a newly edited and updated version, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace has been published for the first time for UK, USA & global market] 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND

A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND by Tina Shaw (Text Publishing, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre carpark. Important work files—and her job as a result. Her marbles? ‘Mild cognitive impairment’, according to the doctor. Time for a nursing home, according to her daughter, Rose.

Rose has her own troubles with a recurring vision of a locked cupboard, claustrophobic panic. Something in the shadows. Something to do with the old family house in Kutarere.

Back in that house by the beach, Maxine and Rose try to find their bearings. But they can’t move forward without dealing with the past—and the past has a few more surprises in store.

The idea of losing things being a precursor to something more sinister is one of those noises lurking at the back of many minds of a "certain age". On the one hand we're always told that forgetting names, losing your keys, forgetting where the car was parked - it's all part of life busy noise. You get it when you're juggling too many things in too small a space of time with not enough sleep because along with that forgetfulness come the aches, pains and niggles. Did I mention dropping things? Am I projecting here? Quite possibly, but A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND was a memorable reading experience because of so many things it's hard to know where to start.

When Maxine's doctor diagnosed 'mild cognitive impairment', he probably should have included a diagnosis for her daughter Rose, who is on edge and suffering some form of PTSD right from the start of this novel. Which means, despite her doctor's explicit instructions not to drive, when Maxine heads out to drive from Auckland to the family bach at Kutarere, she causes panic and resentment. She's hoping that whatever it is that's really important about going there will come to her when she arrives, but a near miss with a truck and a crash into a ditch mean that Rose is called and she could really. Live. Without. The four-hour-drive to collect Maxine. This is not the first drop everything and run episode with Maxine and Rose is annoyed, Rose's husband is tetchy and Maxine doesn't seem to care.

Once Rose gets there though, the idea of an extra night at the house, where there are so many happy memories, seems like a good idea. And then the reader starts to discover just what a car crash Rose's own life has become, even without her mother's dramas. Infertility challenges and a less than invested partner, a job as an early childhood educator adding to the sense of personal failure, to say nothing of the strain of working with other people's children in general. Claustrophobia, and a therapist that can treat her over the phone, at the location of the worst of her childhood triggering memories seems like a good plan, as does the chance to find some way of reconnection with her mother. But Maxine is dealing with her own stirred memories - not all of them good, and there's something, in particular that's worrying her, making her feel guilty and stressed. 

A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND is a interesting approach to what is a very convincing portrayal of somebody's slip into dementia. Giving that the twist of a mystery to be solved seems to reflect the way that life goes - for the sufferer and their families, little mysteries of what / why and when being solved on a regular basis, but this time, with something bigger behind it. It seems that the author of this work has some personal experience of parts of this scenario and the narrative reads as both convincing and sympathetic but realistic, warts and all with humour and sadness, and past and present, leading inexorably to a future that needs some getting used to.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL

SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL by Chris Blake (Echo Publishing, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.

But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?

In 2018 a novel barnstormed its way into the Ngaio Marsh Awards with THE SOUND OF HER VOICE making it to double finalist in both the Best First and Best Novel categories. At the time I remember thinking this is an author with such potential, and knowing it was a pseudonym, stood by patiently waiting to see if the author would be able to emerge, or would continue to write under that name. Chris Blake is that author, and his second novel, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is as good as that debut, continuing on with the intense, unsparing, and oh so realistic stylings of the first offering.

Following on with Matt Buchanan's career and personal story, for some context, from my review of the first book:

Every year the Ngaio Marsh awards for New Zealand crime fiction throw up an unexpected perspective, something brave and unusual that will set you back on your heels and make you think. For this reviewer, this year, that book was THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. In what's a combination of police procedural, and tragic police perspective, Detective Matt Buchanan has been in the job too long, and he's had a gut full of the nastiness of human nature. Unsolved murder cases haunt him, people being bastards haunt him, everything haunts him. He's bitter and he's well on the way to being twisted, and the murder of 14 year old Samantha Coates puts him on the trail of something big, and even nastier than he had even thought possible.

This second outing for Buchanan sees him back in uniform, in a small town, doing typical small town policing. And he's more settled, seemingly happier in himself, and what might seem like a demotion to some, is a chance to regroup, and rethink life and career, although the quieter world of traffic offences, kids behaving badly and the odd drug dealer, suddenly gets blown apart when his much admired predecessor in the job, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet in his head. Gus had been doing a bit of digging around in an old murder-suicide in the local area, the parent's bodies discovered but their daughter never found. For all the world it looked like a violent and controlling father had inevitably flipped, and the missing daughter had always been assumed dead, as there had never been a trace of her. Matt's detective spider senses are tweaked though, and as much as he doesn't want to think it, it seems that there's been some rifts in this seemingly close-knit community, until more murders push him firmly back into his old detecting ways.

Refreshingly this novel doesn't make out that all the higher-ups and/or colleagues are idiots, and Buchanan isn't set up to be a lone wolf that saves the day. Rather the effects of his own trauma, and loss, are incorporated into the story of a decent bloke, trying to do the right thing, by a community of people he feels responsible for. He's also able to make some forward movement in his personal life, which very nearly doesn't work out, something that was surprisingly moving. 

SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is one of those crime novels that, on the face of it, is a standard police procedural, written by somebody who knows that world back to front (Blake runs the Behavioural Science unit of the NZ Police in Wellington). He's also incredibly skilled at making it all about the story, not the process, and at no stage does this read like a training manual, or a self-help treatise.

Instead, this is a fast paced, nicely twisty mystery with a particularly nasty killer at the centre of it - killing to protect themselves from their past, as is so often the way. There is also something very real about the way this story addresses the complications and trauma of an ongoing policing career, and how the connections with other serving officers who understand, and a community that supports and sympathises can be the difference between burn out and thriving.

Told in a brisk, no nonsense tone that is richly interlaced with laconic humour, and compelling observation, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL delivers and then some on the promise of THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. Bring on the third novel please.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

"Deftly draws readers into character and place" - review of LUCKY THING

LUCKY THING by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When brilliant young student Jessica Mowbrie is left in a coma after being abandoned in a remote patch of New Zealand bush, the local Masterton police don't have a clue what happened. Isolated and under-resourced, the detectives struggle even to begin piecing it together.

Police records clerk Lorraine Henry will not accept that Jessie simply had a lucky escape. She thinks whoever hurt her needs to be hunted down, and worries that her employers are a bit hopeless.

As Jessie's life hangs in the balance, it looks as if Lorraine will do the hunting. She's not getting any younger, of course. But she has all the police records at her fingertips - and as much information about who hates who as anyone in their small town. Plus, she's used to being under-estimated. And you should never under-estimate a middle-aged woman with justice in her sights...

A Barry Award nominee earlier this year for his excellent mystery debut Paper Cage – which was also shortlisted for awards in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand - fresh storytelling talent Tom Baragwanath may live among the urban buzz of Paris, but he ‘returns home’ once again to the rural landscapes of the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s north island with Lucky Thing. And to intrepid smalltown police station records clerk Lorraine Henry, an unlikely yet highly engaging sleuth.

Lorraine is still feeling the effects of the events in Paper Cage, as are others in Masterton and surrounds, but her days are brightened by regular horse rides, and her niece Sheena expecting baby #2. 

Then some visiting hikers stumble across badly beaten local girl Jessica Mowbrie in a remote patch of the Tararua mountain range. She’s lucky to be alive, a very lucky thing indeed. But how did she get way up there, and with who? The victim can’t tell the police anything; she’s in a coma.

As the under-resourced local police struggle to make any semblance of what happened, whispers fuel long-simmering tensions between locals whose families have lived and worked the fertile region for decades. Loraine knows many of the players, several who are entwined in her own potted family history, and tries to uncover threads that’ll lead to a culprit. Then another teenager goes missing…

Baragwanath deftly draws readers into the lives, connections, and divisions of Lorraine’s neighbours.

Nothing is neat or easy. Investigations, questions; all carry weight and consequences in a place like this. Secrets, desires, half-truths, and lies. Lucky Thing is very well-written crime fiction that goes beyond procedure or standard plotlines. In a growing sea of rural noir, it still stands out. 

I’m really looking forward to more from Baragwanath.

[This review was first published in the Fall 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Fun characters among the dark deeds" - review of FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT

FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT by GB Ralph (Sept 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s opening night at the theatre and Addison Harper has front-row seats with Sergeant Jake Murphy. This might just be his perfect date.

The variety show promises spooky Halloween fun, ghoulish drag queens, frightening musical numbers, and the scariest thing of audience participation. Of course, the unlucky victim dragged from the safety of his seat is a mortified Addison. In a production full of twists and turns, he has no idea what’s coming next but nobody could have anticipated witnessing a sudden, absolutely unscripted, and very real death.

A dreadful accident? Or was it foul play? As the curtain falls before a horror-struck audience, Addison Harper finds himself once again in the spotlight at centre stage....

Like Cabot Cove with Jessica Fletcher, or St Mary Mead with Miss Marple, the fictional small town of Milverton in the Manawatū region of New Zealand’s North Island is a bucolic place with a quirky array of locals that on the surface seems like a great place to live or visit. Other than having far more than its fair share of murders, thanks to cosy mystery writer GB Ralph.

This fourth novel in Ralph’s charming Milverton Mysteries series sees Wellington city slicker, marketing man, and accidental amateur sleuth Addison Harper back again in Milverton, dealing with the creaking house inherited from his uncle, as well as a romantic entanglement with local police Sergeant Jake Murphy. In Fright on Stage Right, Addison has made the move to Milverton more permanent; he’s about to begin a new job with the mayor, promoting the town to tourists.

But first, date night with Jake, front row at a local Halloween variety show packed with spooky fun, ghoulish drag queens, and audience participation. Then Addison is dragged onstage with the mayor to judge the contestants, only to witness a very sudden, very unscripted onstage death.

Accident, negligence, or something far more sinister

Ralph creates a lovely tone in an intriguing cosy mystery laced with plenty of fun characters and grin-inducing elements among the dark deeds, suspects, and red herrings. A lighter read, really enjoyable; those who love TV shows like Murder, She Wrote or The Brokenwood Mysteries may also fall in love with the Milverton mysteries. Even as someone who more often reads darker, grittier crime fiction, I’m certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

[This review was first published in the Fall 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: THE NIGHT SHE FELL

THE NIGHT SHE FELL by Eileen Merriman (Penguin, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

‘When I last saw Ashleigh, she was lying in a pool of blood . . . Her eyes were open, staring sightlessly into the sky. I’d like to think she saw the stars before she died; that in her last moments she flew, soaring on serotonin, dreamy with dopamine. I’d like to think she didn’t suffer . . .’

A beautiful young law student dies on the concrete below her third-storey window in chilly Dunedin. It’s clear enough how she died. What isn’t is why — or who’s involved.

Plenty of people had a reason to hate Ashleigh, with her straight As and perfect looks. She’s fallen out with her flatmates, and her boyfriend Xander is having second thoughts about their future together. And then there are the weird messages.

A beautiful young law student is dead. Falling from her third-storey window onto concrete below in chilly Dunedin, the house is a shared with other university students. The question is did she fall (suicide), was she pushed (murder), coerced (equally murder) or is this staged (suicide with complications). And is her being the beautiful one, with straight A's, a long term devoted boyfriend, and a future all mapped out something to do with all of this or a distraction.

Building on a what feels like a convenient set up of the rich beautiful pain in the neck girl, with a poor but seemingly devoted boyfriend Xander, who is tight with her family, and grateful for the largesse that comes his way, add in the quiet, nowhere near as dazzling or life of the party flatmate Ronnie, and create a love triangle for the ages, and this could all feel a bit contrived. And it does at points, also a bit on the circular side as Ronnie and Xander sneak about and Ashleigh behaves like a spoilt brat, and the rest of the household get to actively dislike her, and suddenly you realise you're not short of suspects, although there's always something a bit brittle, stagey or showy about Ashleigh and the reader can't help but wonder would she throw herself out of a window in the ultimate of "grand gestures".

It's very teenage angst meets rich bitch, girl who will wait, the boy who can't decide, and it's all a bit breathless in a weirdly engaging way for large parts of the novel. Whilst also getting creepy, with some really good moments, and then some things that were a bit cringeworthy (who knew apples could tighten people's groins...).

A psychological thriller more than anything else, THE NIGHT SHE FELL isn't action based, rather it's an investigation into young adulthood tensions, trauma, changes and difference. It's a very successful attempt at much of that, and I was particularly engaged by the catalyst motif, although I can't for a moment pretend that there weren't some aspects of it that weren't quite so gripping.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: THE DEEPER THE DEAD

THE DEEPER THE DEAD by Catherine Lea (Bateman Books, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

On the morning of her granddaughter’s first day of school, DI Nyree Bradshaw receives a chilling call: there’s been a double homicide on a private island in the Far North. One victim is the woman who inherited the island over her two brothers. The other victim is unknown.

As Nyree and her team begin their investigation into the murky labyrinth of greed, betrayal and bitter disputes that surround the ownership of the island, they make a shocking discovery: a search of the vicinity unearths the remains of a child who vanished twenty years before.

Old resentments and long-held secrets boil to the surface of the close-knit town, leaving Nyree to ask: Is the child’s killer on the loose again?.

THE DEEPER THE DEAD is the third book in the New Zealand based police procedural series feature DI Nyree Bradshaw at the centre of a personal and professional storm. This is definitely one of those sets of books that would be worth reading in order, Bradshaw has a backstory which will allow readers to see the full picture behind the storm that is going on in her personal life, although you can definitely see the impact.

In the last book in the series Bradshaw found herself sort of guilted / sort of keen to accept custody of her very young granddaughter, whose mother had recently died. Her father, Bradshaw's son, is in jail but even before that she had a fractured relationship with him, and would be the first to admit that motherhood wasn't her thing, but police work, and solving crimes most definitely is. So taking on a young girl's care and welfare right now is quite the thing, especially as she's still flat out with cases, and the social workers are hovering. Not a great combination for Bradshaw's often tetchy temperament, especially as the current case is a double homicide on a private island in the Far North. An island that can only be reached by boat, which is wet going. And the weather's generally wet, and somebody's taking liberties with her crime scenes, and paying very fast and loose with the truth.

Victim number one of this double homicide is the young woman who owns this island, courtesy of the contentious will of her recently deceased father. Ownership which annoys the hell out of her two brothers, and continues to be a cause of considerable grief for the local Māori people, who hold the island sacred not least of all because of the ancient burial grounds. Burial grounds which reveal a much more recent body - that of a young child who vanished twenty years earlier. The second victim, also brutally shot and left where he fell, is initially an unknown, slightly mysterious young man who doesn't seem to have had a reason to be there, or much by way of connection to the island or the family at the heart of all this.

How Bradshaw handles this messy, complicated case, which has lots of aspects of a locked room about it, and then not, as movements to and from the island start to look very complicated, and way too suspicious for her liking, is a bit of a masterclass in juggling. Juggling all the leads and non-leads, juggling the information that is and is not forthcoming, juggling her granddaughter's needs and, it has to be said, demands as they both adjust to this new life. And juggling the expectations of everybody who has an opinion about her, her life, her family and the job.

She's a prime example of a woman who is forced into biting off more than she can chew and then chewing like hell. I really like the way this character is always vaguely chaotic but in control, just. Always aware of the things that are a bit off, a bit wrong, and more than a bit on the nose. Be it old or recent murders, crime scenes that turn to ash, locked rooms that aren't, past and present tensions, and people sending strange signals.

What she does from here - on the personal side is anybody's guess, as at one point I did think there was a glimmer of something on the horizon in terms of family and support, but then it moved away again. It will be interesting to see if Bradshaw decides to take to family problems as firmly, decisively and sheer doggedly as she does the professional ones.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: BLACK SILK AND BURIED SECRETS

BLACK SILK AND BURIED SECRETS by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Sydney, 1871. Twenty-five-year-old widow Tatty Crowe is the owner of busy undertaking firm Crowe Funerals. Life and business are good until Tatty notices how many women are dying after illicit abortions and after a terrible tragedy close to home, she vows to expose the culprit.

And then there are the dead babies abandoned around the city. Once again Tatty sets out to investigate the crisis and finds herself immersed in the dark and heartless world of baby farming. Along the way she encounters an old foe, and clashes with a new adversary who, it transpires, is far more dangerous.

From the grim slums of Chippendale and Newtown to the grand houses of Woolloomooloo to Sydney's rowdy Criminal Court, comes the next chapter in the story of compassionate and clever - but headstrong - Tatty Crowe..

The author of this series of now two novels, is a bestselling historical fiction writer, and you can tell just how impeccable her research is, even without reading the author's notes at the end of both novels, expanding on the thinking, and investigations that went into the construction of these stories.

Featuring the now twenty-five-year old, and widowed, Tatty (Tatiana) Crowe, the first female undertaker in Sydney, her life now, post the death of her awful husband, is going well. The business, originally her husband's family's, is doing well under her guidance, they are providing a sensitive service to paying customers, and plenty of free services where required. The household is functioning smoothly and there is much that you'd think Tatty would be well within her rights to rest on the laurels of. But there's something happening to women and babies in Sydney, with an increasing number of dead babies being found, and an increasing number of women dying from botched abortions. 

In the process of identifying the worst of the backyard butcher abortionists, Tatty does her absolute best to refute the shame that women and their families feel (with some well adjudged asides at the men involved - most of whom seem to be happy to ignore their marriages, families, responsibilities, and just walk away), although when the consequences get very close to home, she struggles with grief as well as deep anger.

The thing I really like about the character of Tatty Crowe is her determination, and her anger. In a time when it's easy to think that women just put up with, made the best, and carried on in quiet suffering, she's one of those women that fights back. Albeit quietly, often underhandedly, but she's not afraid to right some wrongs and kick some heads along the way. New readers to this series would be well served to start out with the first book Black Silk and Sympathy for a very big indication of just how far she's prepared to go, although there are plenty of references to that in this book as well.

Supported by a great cast of female and male characters, this is historical crime fiction which takes on societal attitudes and expectations from a female perspective, without getting strident. Instead there's that quiet, steely determination, something I was reminded needs to nurtured in the armoury for now and the future.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

History-makers and historical crimes: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award winners revealed

History-makers and historical crimes: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award winners revealed in Dame Ngaios’ hometown 

A quartet of talented Kiwi writers were honoured at a special WORD Christchurch event on Thursday night as they scooped the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards for books meshing compelling narratives with important issues

In the sixteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, journalist Kirsty Johnston and academic James Hollings won Best Non-Fiction for their in-depth re-examination of our nation’s most notorious cold case in The Crewe Murders (Massey University Press), while Otago-based academic turned author Wendy Parkins scooped Best First Novel for her historical tale of gaslighting, abuse, and one woman's fight in the 19th century in The Defiance of Francis Dickinson (Affirm Press), and Auckland filmmaker and author Michael Bennett  (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) made Ngaios history by winning Best Novel for his second Hana Westerman tale Return to Blood (Simon & Schuster).

“It was a great night to cap an outstanding season for the Ngaio Marsh Awards, thanks to a terrifically strong and varied group of finalists,” says awards founder Craig Sisterson. “We were particularly stoked to have the marvellous Court Jesters involved, delivering a wonderful improv murder mystery we’re sure would have tickled theatre-loving Dame Ngaio; a full circle moment back to our original plans in 2010.”

Wendy Parkins (right) with modern 
Queen of NZ crime Vanda Symon

Last night, following the interactive improv murder mystery, the 2025 Ngaios winners were revealed in among readings from the attending finalists. Parkins was stunned to find herself onstage accepting the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, joining a roll of honour for that debut prize that includes past winners like JP Pomare (Call Me Evie), RWR McDonald (The Nancys), Jacqueline Bublitz (Before You Knew My Name), Michael Bennett (Better the Blood) and last year’s winner Claire Baylis (Dice).

The judges praised Parkins’ novel, which was inspired by a sensational Edwardian trial, as a “skilfully written historical tale that soaks readers in an era and attitudes which have some scary echoes today”.

Hollings, an Associate Professor at Massey University in Wellington, was thrilled to receive the trophy for Best Non-Fiction for The Crewe Murders, on behalf of himself and Kirsty Johnston, one of Aotearoa’s leading investigative journalists. The non-fiction judging panel praised the duo for centring the Crewes in their scrupulously researched book, layered with forensic and legal detail, and went on to say: “Among a small library of writing about the Crewes and Arthur Allan Thomas, this should be regarded as the definitive record of one of New Zealand’s most infamous and troubling crimes”. 

The Ngaios evening closed with more history, as acclaimed filmmaker and author Bennett became the first-ever Best First Novel winner to then go on to win the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel with a later book. He also joined Paul Cleave, the modern King of Kiwi Crime, as the only three-time Ngaios winner, having previously won the Best Non-Fiction category in 2017 for In Dark Places, his stunning account of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction and long fight to clear his name. 

The Best Novel international judging panel, which included several leading critics from Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, praised Return to Blood for its "Excellent characters that populate a nuanced and telling plot that tackles a juxtaposition of ideas of what constitutes justice”, noting Bennett’s second novel featuring Māori sleuth Hana Westerman heralds “what’s already looking like superb crime series”. 

Bennett’s Hana Westerman novels have been into several languages, become the only detective series shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, won or been shortlisted for several other prestigious awards in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, United States, and Japan, and are in development for a screen series. 

For more information on any of our 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners or finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com.

15 Years of the Ngaios: our first trophy and first winner, belatedly photographed

When the Ngaio Marsh Awards was originally launched in 2010, it marked a new era in New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing (later nicknamed #yeahnoir, thanks Steph Soper).

We finally had an award to celebrate our best Kiwi works in the world's most popular storytelling genre. Murmurs around the local literary world were largely positive, and a big September 200 event - including a murder mystery-themed performance by the famous Court Theatre - was scheduled to headline that year's Christchurch Writers Festival in the prime Saturday night slot.

Unfortunately, everything changed when a few days beforehand the first of two major earthquakes struck Christchurch. Fortunately no lives were lost then (unlike the devastating 'quake a few months later), but infrastructure was badly damaged, and the festival was cancelled. Then, in December 200 a good crowd turned out for a one-off special event, fundraising for earthquake recovery, complete with finalists Vanda Symon and Neil Cross, and Christchurch crime writer Paul Cleave. Unfortunately, as s/he was writing under a pseudonym at that time, the inaugural winner was not there to claim their well-earned prize in person: Alix Bosco for their terrific debut thriller CUT & RUN.

For a while we thought we may see our first Ngaios winner onscreen, as it was in development, with Robyn Malcolm set to star as heroine Anna Markunas, a middle-aged legal researcher who gets caught up in a celebrity murder case. But we never had a picture of our very first winner with the first award - a terrific and distinctive handcrafted trophy created by sculptor Gina Ferguson. We did get some great pics of Paul Cleave with his 2011 Ngaio, and Neil Cross with his 2012 one, etc.

Our original Ngaios evening was still a fabulous night, and it was great to have New Zealand crime fiction finally being celebrated in such a way. The Ngaio Marsh Awards have gone from strength to strength in the years since, but as founder of the Ngaios it did irk me for a while that we didn't have a picture of Greg McGee (who 'came out' as Alix Bosco in 2011) with the very first trophy.

Fortunately, a few years later, thanks to talented Kiwi photographer Maja Moritz, we did. 

The lovely photo above was part of a photographic series of 43 New Zealand authors that Moritz did for DPA Picture Alliance in Germany in association with New Zealand being the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As part of that project, Moritz took some photos of Greg McGee at his house, including this one of him holding up the Ngaio Marsh Award he'd won as 'Alix Bosco' a couple of years before. Later, Maja and I connected, and she kindly let us use the pic of Greg and the Ngaios trophy.

Thank you Maja. As we approach our 15th anniversary event in Christchurch tonight, we still really appreciate you sharing your talent, and work, with us in our early years. So who will be taking pics with Ngaios trophies in 2025? You can find out tonight at "The Ngaio Marsh Awards and The Murderous Mystery" at Turanga Christchurch City Libraries from 6pm. 

For those in the Canterbury area, here's some further and details for last-minute tickets: https://wordchristchurch.co.nz/programme/the-ngaio-marsh-awards-and-the-murderous-mystery/

Here are the prime suspects (2025 finalists) who are in the running, across three categories. 

BEST NON-FICTION

• 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)

BEST FIRST NOVEL

• 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)

BEST NOVEL

• 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)

So, whodunnit and whowunnit? We'll find out very soon who's joining Greg McGee and several other superb Kiwi crime, mystery, and thriller writers on our Ngaio Marsh Awards roll of honour. 

Character first: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists revealed

 

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.  

Review: THE POOL

THE POOL by Hannah Tunnicliffe (Ultimo Press, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Prince of spin and life of the party, Baz King, is missing. Nine years ago, at an innocent summer barbecue in Melbourne, everything imploded. For the Kings and the four other young families there that fateful day marriages fractured, friendships crumbled and lives were upended.

Nothing would ever be the same.

Now in their forties and their children teenagers, Baz King cannot be found. Has his charm finally run out? With a history of dodgy dealings and no shortage of motives, anyone could be a suspect – his ex-wife, Birdie; his colleague, Alex Turner; his lover, Jess and her husband, Richard; his friend’s nanny and new wife, Madison – who wants him out of the picture?.

The promotional material pushes the connection, and it's hard not to get a vibe of THE SLAP from the blurb of this one  - young families, a tragedy at a BBQ that implodes relationships, crumbles friendships and all, but fear not if you're feeling like this is another commentary on parenting, because I will confess that's kind of the worry I had going in as well, and not the feeling I had coming out the other side of Hannah Tunnicliffe's THE POOL.

The catalyst of this story is events at a BBQ, nine years ago in Melbourne, after which prince of spin, life of the party, father, Baz King vanished. It's easy to imagine that he's simply done a runner, what with a history of dodgy dealings and a plethora of reasons for him to disappear himself, but there's a lot of suspects on that day including ex-wife Birdie, new wife Madison, colleagues, friends and a complicated interweaving of children, staff, lovers, and married partners who also have lovers. And a eye-watering and skin-crawling tendency towards flaunted privilege, tacky interpersonal relationships, misogyny, and, it has to be said, some truly bloody awful parenting.

So a lot going on, and a big cast of characters which means readers may find themselves floundering a bit in the early stages - particularly as there's a type here - big noting, big talking, basically not a lot there blokes, and pretty, vapid, put upon women. There's leering, there's suggestive talk, there's men at the BBQ, women in the kitchen, and the constant bickering over who is watching what kids, and there's alcohol. All of which leads to a tragedy, which leads to fracturing, which leads to the idea that it's nine years later, things are finally setting down, and all those people, with all those motives have finished with their own dramas and look to what really happened back then. 

There's also a lot of points of view, and what is, ultimately a cast of pretty unlikeable people, which may not necessarily appeal to many readers, but it had a feeling of real life about it, perhaps because of that. It also made the drama that bit more heightened, the number of potentially unreliable narrator's high, and the mystery and lying all the more believable.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect THE POOL is the sort of novel that will appeal directly to lovers of books of the sorts of suburban noir that writers like Liane Moriarty, Sally Hepworth, Caroline Overington and Louise Candlish are known for. There will be others that I should have included on that list. Blame too many books, too few brain cells left for any unforgivable omissions.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction.