The Marsh Awards Race Is On

Can this be true? Is 2019 really the 10th year in a row that the Ngaio Marsh Awards will honor New Zealand-published works of crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense fiction? Sure enough, when I check back through the Rap Sheet files, the inaugural prize was presented in 2010 to Cut & Run, by “Alix Bosco” (aka Greg McGee). There have been more than a few fine nominees since.

Below is the longlist of 10 contenders for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, as announced by award founder Craig Sisterson:

• No One Can Hear You, by Nikki Crutchley (Oak House Press)
• Cassie Clark: Outlaw, by Brian Falkner (Onetree House)
• This Mortal Boy, by Fiona Kidman (Penguin)
• Money in the Morgue, by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)
• The Quaker, by Liam Mcilvanney (HarperCollins)
• Call Me Evie, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette)
• The Stakes, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
• Make a Hard Fist, by Tina Shaw (Onetree House)
• The Vanishing Act, by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan)
• Rain Fall, by Ella West (Allen & Unwin)

Expect to see a shortlist of candidates in that category released by August 2, together with registers of this year’s finalists for both the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Non-fiction. The winners in all three classes will be announced during a WORD Christchurch event on September 14.