Best Novel:
Return to Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
Also nominated: A Divine Fury, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan); Woman, Missing, by Sherryl Clark (HarperCollins); Home Truths, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin);
17 Years Later, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette); The Call, by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin); and Prey, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)Best First Novel:
The Defiance of Frances Dickinson, by Wendy Parkins (Affirm Press)
Also nominated: Dark Sky, by Marie Connolly (Quentin Wilson); Lie Down With Dogs, by Syd Knight (Rusty Hills); A Fly Under the Radar, by William McCartney (Independently published); The Call, by Gavin Strawhan (Allen & Unwin); and Kiss of Death, by Stephen Tester (Heritage Press)
Best Non-fiction:
The Crewe Murders: Inside New Zealand’s Most Infamous Cold Case, by Kirsty Johnstone and James Hollings (Massey University Press)
Also nominated: The Trials of Nurse Kerr: The Anatomy of a Secret Poisoner, by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman); The Survivors, by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins); The Last Secret Agent: The Extraordinary Story of a WW2 Spy in Her Own Words, by Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin); Gangster’s Paradise, by Jared Savage (HarperCollins); and Far North, by David White and Angus Gillies (Upstart Press)
In a wrap-up post on Facebook, Craig Sisterson, the founder of this annual prize contest, called the 2025 Marsh Awards season “by far our longest and most full-on ever, including 30+ events around Aotearoa showcasing a huge range of #yeahnoir storytellers and supporting local libraries, and a very tough judging year too.”
This group of awards takes its name, of course, from Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh, a prominent crime writer during the 1920s and ’30s, the so-called Golden Age of Detective Fiction. She’s recognized principally for her more than 30 novels starring Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a “gentleman detective” with London’s Metropolitan Police.
* * *
While we’re focused on the world’s Antipodean extremes, note as well that the Australian Crime Writers Association today revealed the recipients of its 2025 Ned Kelly Awards, in four categories.Best Crime Fiction:
The Creeper, by Margaret Hickey (Random House Australia)
Also nominated: Shadow City, by Natalie Conyer (Bonnier Echo); Sanctuary, by Garry Disher (Text); Unbury the Dead, by Fiona Hardy (Affirm Press); Cold Truth, by Ashley Kalagian Blunt (Ultimo Press); Highway 13, by Fiona McFarlane (Allen & Unwin); 17 Years Later,
by J.P. Pomare (Hachette Australia); and Storm Child, by Michael Robotham (Hachette Australia)Best Debut Crime Fiction:
All You Took From Me, by Lisa Kenway (Transit Lounge)
Also nominated: Down the Rabbit Hole, by Shaeden Berry (Bonnier Echo); A Town Called Treachery, by Mitch Jennings (HarperCollins); The Chilling, by Riley James (Allen & Unwin); Everywhere We Look, by Martine Kropkowski (Ultimo Press); and Those Opulent Days, by Jacquie Pham (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Best True Crime:
A Thousand Miles from Care, by Steve Johnson (William Collins)
Also nominated: They’ll Never Hold Me, by Michael Adams (Affirm Press); The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin); Meadow’s Law, by Quentin McDermott (HarperCollins); and The Lasting Harm, by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (HarperCollins)
Best International Crime Fiction:
A Case of Matricide, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Text)
Also nominated: Return to Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster UK); Leave the Girls Behind, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin); The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin); Moscow X, by David McCloskey (Swift Press); and Home Truths, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
A video of that announcement can be enjoyed here.
Since we explained the source of the Ngaio Marsh Awards moniker, let us do the same with the annual “Neddies.” They are named after Edward “Ned” Kelly, one of Australia’s last 19th-century “bushrangers” (robbers and outlaws operating in that country’s extensive bush lands), “known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police,” as Wikipedia explains.
Congratulations to the nominees for all of these commendations!
No comments:
Post a Comment