Who Will Land the Marshes?

Today brings the announcement of which books and authors have been nominated for New Zealand’s 2019 Ngaio Marsh Awards, in three categories. The winners are set to be declared on Saturday, September 14, as part of this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival.

A press release quotes awards founder Craig Sisterson saying, “It’s been a really remarkable year for our international judging panels across all three categories. For one, we never could have envisaged when we began in 2010 and chose to honour our legendary Kiwi queen of crime with our awards name that years later a book that Dame Ngaio herself began more than 75 years ago would become a finalist.”

Here’s the list of a dozen nominees:

Best Novel:
• 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 Vanishing Act, by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan)

Best First Novel:
• One for Another, by Andrea Jacka (Red River Pony)
• Crystal Reign, by Kelly Lyndon (Remnant Press)
• Call Me Evie, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette)

Best Non-fiction:
• The Great New Zealand Robbery, by Scott Bainbridge (Allen & Unwin)
• The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Jane Furlong, by Kelly Dennett (Awa)
• Behind Bars, by Anna Leask (Penguin)
• The Cause of Death, by Cynric Temple-Camp (HarperCollins)

Congratulations to all of the contenders!