Ngaio Award Nominations

2015MarshAward
Ngaio Marsh is considered to be one of the four “Queens of Crime”—women mystery writers who dominated the genre in the 1920 and 1930s.

Marsh, along with the other “queens,” Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham, helped usher in that first Golden Age of Detective Fiction and made readers take notice.

The work of each of these women writers still is in print. We honor Sayers with the crime fiction message board DorothyL and Marsh and Christie with awards named after them.

We need something named after Allingham—a Margery, perhaps?

Marsh was born in New Zealand and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. Her most famous character was the intelligent Inspector Roderick Alleyn.

The Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel was established in 2010 with the blessing of her closest living relative, John Dacres-Manning.

The Ngaio Marsh Award is given annually for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident. This year’s winner will receive the Ngaio Marsh Award trophy, a set of Dame Ngaio’s novels courtesy of her publisher HarperCollins, and a cash prize provided by WORD Christchurch, a literary festival.

The award will be presented at a WORD Christchurch event in late September.

The award’s short list is called “The Famous Five.”

Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleave (Penguin NZ)
The Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewing (Head of Zeus)
Swimming in the Dark by Paddy Richardson (Upstart Press)
The Children’s Pond by Tina Shaw (Pointer Press)
Fallout by Paul Thomas (Upstart Press)

In the press release, the judges praised each novel.

Cleave’s Five Minutes Alone was called “gritty and thoroughly absorbing,” a “one-sitting” novel that “evokes complex feelings regarding retribution and morality.”

Ewing’s The Petticoat Men is “an immaculately researched” take on a real-life 1870s event that is “spirited, full of strong characters” and “a joy to read.”

The panel hailed Swimming in the Dark as “an elegantly delivered, disturbing, and ultimately very human tale” that showcased Richardson’s talent for “damaged characters and tackling grey areas.”

Shaw gave a “mesmerizing” character study in The Children’s Pond, using deft and spare language to craft a tale with a sublime sense of both place and menace that is “a delight to read.” Paul Thomas’ Fallout is “compelling and character-rich,” a “superb continuation” of the Ihaka series; “excellent writing… funny, but also serious.”

For more information on the Ngaio Marsh Award, go to www.facebook.com/NgaioMarshAward  or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or to contact the Judging Convenor directly: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Oline Cogdill
2015-07-22 20:15:00