The 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award winners were announced on August 27 at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010.
BEST FIRST NOVEL
BEST NOVEL
BEST KIDS/YA
DASHIELL HAMMETT AWARD
The winner of the 2023 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing was named by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch) on June 17. The award is given to a book, originally published in the English language in the United States or Canada, “that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”
Other Nominees
NGAIO MARSH AWARDS
The organizers of New Zealand’s annual Ngaio Marsh Awards have released their longlist of 12 nominees for the 2024 Best Novel prize:
The longlist is currently being considered by an international panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Finalists for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Kids/YA will be announced in early August, with the finalists celebrated and winners announced as part of a special event held in association with WORD Christchurch in late August.
KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION
Finalists have been announced for the 2024 Silver Falchion award given by the Killer Nashville Writers Conference in Franklin, Tennessee. The Silver Falchion award categories cover the spectrum of popular literature.
BEST MYSTERY
STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARDS
The Strand Magazine has announced the nominees for its 2024 Strand Magazine Critics Awards.
BEST MYSTERY NOVEL
BEST DEBUT MYSTERY
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (both)
PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS ASSOCIATION WRITING COMPETITION
At the Public Safety Writers Association Conference, the winners of the PSWA Writing Awards were announced.
The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Writing
Best Book Cover
Published Fiction Books–Police Procedural
Published Fiction Books–Thriller
Published Fiction Books–Suspense
Published Non-Fiction Book
Best Published Memoir
Living With Mr. Fahrenheit by Lisa Beecher
The 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award winners were announced on November 24 at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010.
BEST FIRST NOVEL
BEST NOVEL
BEST NON-FICTION (a biennial prize)
The Ned Kelly and Ngaio Marsh award shortlists, and the Petrona Award longlist have been announced in recent weeks.
NED KELLY AWARDS
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has unveiled the shortlist for the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards.
The Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes for crime fiction and true crime writing, established in 1995.
The shortlisted titles in each category are:
BEST TRUE CRIME
BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION
(Published in Australia)
BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION
BEST CRIME FICTION
NGAIO MARSH AWARD
The shortlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, was announced on August 5.
BEST NON-FICTION (a biennial prize)
A New Dawn, by Emeli Sione (Mila’s Books)
The Devil You Know, by Dr. Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne (Faber)
Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay, by Paul Diamond (Massey University Press)
The Fix, by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman)
Missing Persons, by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
One Heart One Spade, by Alistair Luke (Your Books)
Too Far from Antibes, by Bede Scott (Penguin SEA)
Better the Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
Surveillance, by Riley Chance (CopyPress)
The Slow Roll, by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
Paper Cage, by Tom Baragwanath (Text)
BEST NOVEL
Exit .45, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
Blue Hotel, by Chad Taylor (Brio)
Remember Me, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
The Doctor’s Wife, by Fiona Sussman (Bateman)
Better the Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
Blood Matters, by Renée (The Cuba Press)
The Slow Roll, by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
THE PETRONA AWARD
Twelve crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have made the longlist for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.
The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.
Three more crime fiction awards announced their winners or longlists in June.
2023 ELEANOR TAYLOR BLAND EMERGING CRIME FICTION WRITER OF COLOR AWARD
The winner of the 2023 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award was announced by Sisters in Crime on June 20.
The winner of the 2023 Award is Nicole Prewitt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her winning submission, “Harts Divided”, follows Neema Hart, a black, bisexual thief-turned-P.I., who owns a detective agency and therapy office with her estranged wife, Genie Hart. When what should be a bread-and-butter infidelity case results in unsuspecting women getting burned, in more ways than one. The Harts are pushed to prove their commitment to their clients, their community, and each other.
The winner receives a $2,000 grant intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The grant may be used for activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work.
Prewitt’s story was selected from over 60 submissions by 2023 judges Shizuka Otake — winner of the award in 2022 — plus novelists R. Franklin James and Andrea J. Johnson.
Sisters in Crime also awarded five runners-up a year-long membership to the organization:
THE NGAIO MARSH AWARDS 2023 LONGLIST
The 14 books up for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, were announced June 29.
DASHIELL HAMMETT AWARD
The winner of the 2022 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing was named by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch) on June 24. The award is given to a book, originally published in the English language in the United States or Canada, “that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”
[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for these stories.]
Jacqueline Bublitz swept the field when the winners of the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards for best novel were announced on September 15.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The results were revealed at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival.
BEST NOVEL
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
LINDISFARNE PRIZE FOR CRIME FICTION
The Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction is a literary prize which recognizes outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction. The 2022 winner has been announced.
The winning entry is awarded a prize of £2500 to support the completion of their work and funding towards a year’s membership of both the Society of Authors (SoA) and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
NGAIO MARSH AWARDS
The finalists for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, have been named.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The winners will be announced as part of a special event at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 31-September 4.
BEST NOVEL
• The Devils You Know, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
• She’s a Killer, by Kirsten McDougall (Te Herenga Waka
University Press)
• Quiet in Her Bones, by Nalini Singh (Hachette)
• The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
• Nancy Business, by R.W.R. McDonald (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
• Isobar Precinct, by Angelique Kasmara (Cuba Press)
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
• Waking the Tiger, by Mark Wightman (Hobeck)
• Small Mouth Demon, by Matt Zwartz (Poetry in Motion)
• Shadow Over Edmund Street, by Suzanne Frankham (Journeys
to Words)
CAPITAL CRIME FINGERPRINT AWARDS
Capital Crime, a crime fiction con in London, has announced the finalists for The Fingerprint Awards 2022. The public can vote for the winners at the link. The winners will be announced September 29.
CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
HISTORICAL CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
DEBUT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
GENRE-BUSTING BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for these stories.]
DASHIELL HAMMETT AWARD
The winner of the 2021 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing was named by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch) on June 17. The award is given to a book, originally published in the English language in the United States or Canada, “that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”
The award judges were Mae Woods (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Meta Carstarphen (Editor at Communication Booknotes Quarterly), and Jennifer Fremlin (writer and professor, Huntingdon College, Alabama).
2022 NGAIO MARSH AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL LONGLIST
The 12 books up for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, were announced June 23.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The finalists for both the Best Novel category and Best First Novel will be announced in early August. The winners will be announced as part of a special event at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 31-September 4.
The longlist for this year’s Best Novel prize is:
[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the links.]
The winners of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards for best novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, were announced October 30.
BEST NOVEL
BEST FIRST NOVEL
BEST NONFICTION (BIENNIAL)
INAUGURAL PRIZE FOR NOVEL FOR YOUNGER READERS
The shortlist for the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, was announced September 15.
BEST NOVEL
BEST FIRST NOVEL
BEST NONFICTION (BIENNIAL)
INAUGURAL PRIZE FOR NOVEL FOR YOUNGER READERS
The winners will be revealed during an online event in association with WORD Christchurch on October 30.