Cleave Scores a Triple

Best-selling Christchurch author Paul Cleave has notched a record third win in the annual contest for New Zealand’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, this time scoring with his 2015 psychological thriller, Trust No One. Meanwhile, Inside the Black Horse, by Cleave’s fellow Cantabrian Ray Berard, has picked up the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. These announcements were made today during the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival.

Ngaio Marsh judging convener Craig Sisterson is quoted in a news release as saying, “It was a tough year for our judges. We had a record number of entries, launched a new category, and ended up with eight superb finalists that illustrate how varied local crime writing can be. There was everything from a former All Black entwined in French match-fixing to a robotic private eye.”

Here’s the full lineup of 2016 prize finalists:

Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel:
• Inside the Black Horse, by Ray Berard (Mary Egan)
• Made to Kill, by Adam Christopher (Titan)
• Trust No One, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
• The Legend of Winstone Blackhat, by Tanya Moir (RHNZ Vintage)
• American Blood, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)

Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel:
• Inside the Black Horse, by Ray Berard (Mary Egan)
• The Fixer, by John Daniell (Upstart Press)
• The Gentlemen’s Club, by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan)
• Twister, by Jane Woodham (Makaro Press)

Cleave first won the Ngaio Marsh Award in 2011 for Blood Men, and again in 2015 for Five Minutes Alone. This New Zealand crime-fiction competition was established by Sisterson in 2010.

READ MORE: “Moments of Madness: The Winners of the Ngaio Marsh Crime-Writing Awards,” by Craig Sisterson (Stuff).