The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010, and are judged by a panel of crime-, thriller-, and suspense-writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

The finalists will be announced in July, along with the finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. The finalists will be celebrated, and the winners announced as part of a special event at the WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 29 to September 2, 2018.

“We shattered our record for entries in the Ngaio Marsh Awards this year, with 69 different books entered across our two fiction categories,” says founder and Mystery Scene contributor Craig Sisterson. “Along with a surge in first-time Kiwi authors choosing to write tales of crime, mystery, and suspense—more than 50 new voices in the past three years—it’s been great to see more experienced local authors veering to the darker side as well as past crime writers returning to the fold.”

2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel Long List

Marlborough Man, by Alan Carter (Fremantle Press)
Baby, by Annaleese Jochems (VUP)
See You in September, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
The Lost Taonga, by Edmund Bohan (Lucano)
The Easter Make Believers, by Finn Bell
The Only Secret Left to Keep, by Katherine Hayton
Tess, by Kirsten McDougall (VUP)
The Sound of Her Voice, by Nathan Blackwell (Mary Egan Publishing)
A Killer Harvest, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
The Hidden Room, by Stella Duffy (Virago)

Congratulations to all the worthy contenders! And stay tuned for the finalists announcement in July.

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