Here I Go Again, (Not) on my own...

a cast of unusual suspects in 2012 as Neil Cross won
the Ngaio Marsh Award for Luther: The Calling

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

So last week, quite a lot earlier in the year than usual, I began the very early planning for the 2025 Mystery in the Library season, which is a nationwide and sometimes beyond annual series of free/koha author panel discussions held at libraries in cities, towns, and rural areas all across Aotearoa New Zealand, in association with the Ngaio Marsh Awards, which are my home country's annual book prizes for crime, mystery, thriller and suspense writing.

Now why would I, a Kiwi in London, spend lots and lots of my time each year programming library events all across New Zealand that I never get to attend? (current strike rate = 1 of 86 NZ MITL events + 1 of 4 international ones)

Well, it's because I'm the crazy fool who kickstarted the Mystery in the Library series back in 2015 (possibly sleep-deprived as a new father chaperoning Miss Now-Ten, Then Three Month's first visit with both sets of her grandparents). And after all, I was just doubling down on my even crazier idea in 2010 to establish the Ngaio Marsh Awards in the first place. There were plenty of doubters in the local books world; people I otherwise really respected who thought there was no way an annual prize celebrating excellence in Kiwi writing was sustainable. 

Anyway, flash forward to now; we're on the cusp of our 15th anniversary season of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, which continue to go from strength to strength (eg we'll have more entries this year, and each of the past few years, than the first few years combined), as well as celebrating ten years of Mystery in the Library events. 

Paul Cleave with this first of his
record three Ngaio Marsh Awards
for Best Novel, in 2011

It's funny, but I find often it's easier to focus on the things we haven't done (yet) than to appreciate the things we have done, or been part of. Not that you're not appreciative or enjoy those things as they happen, just that you keep moving on to the next. Whereas the ideas not yet fulfilled linger in the mind. Similar to chance not taken, I guess. At least that's how I sometimes find it, as someone who organises events and other things in relation to the crime and thriller world. In my head are all the things I've thought I could or should do at some stage, but haven't yet. Other ways to help authors, build communities, connect writers and readers. 

To shine a light on cool creatives and the power and joy of reading.

Right, not to get too philosophical, but that leads in to why I - a 6ft 2, 300lb man from New Zealand that often gets compared to Vikings - found himself tearing up in front of a library computer in SW London last week.

You see, I'd decided to start revving the engines a little earlier than usual for this year's Ngaio Marsh Awards, given 2025 is our 15th anniversary season (man, time flies) and we're going to be doing a few extra things to celebrate. Before launching into the planning of our Mystery in the Library series of event, which have formed part of the 'Ngaios season' for the past decade, COVID lockdown and restrictions years apart, I thought I should tally up all the MITL events we'd done so far, and the authors involved. 

I kinda ballpark had an idea, but didn't know exactly. 

So it turns out my random wee idea to hold an author panel event at the Takapuna Library back in May 2015 had blossomed quite significantly. 

So far, we've held 86 free/koha events at 34 libraries across Aotearoa (plus another four events at libraries in Australia, UK, and Iceland), featuring 208 diff Kiwi storytellers (approximately 300-350 total author appearances - still need to tally that exactly). 

Wow. Perhaps supporting and celebrating Kiwi crime writing was sustainable, after all. 

Sitting there in a SW London library this past week, thinking of how the Ngaios was partially sparked by visits to two libraries several thousand miles apart, in Vancouver and Auckland, how important libraries have been to me throughout my whole life (even as a kid with a wonderful home life that didn't need escaping from), and reflecting on all the hundreds of authors and dozens of libraries who'd been involved over the years, I was just overcome. 

With gratitude. 

Rather than thinking about the things I hadn't yet done, the events (including a second Rotorua Noir festival) cancelled or kiboshed by COVID, the crime writing projects and ideas that hadn't happened yet - a Ngaios website, anyone? an official New Zealand crime writing association? - I was overwhelmed by how much WE had all actually done, together. As the list of names and locations grew and grew and grew and grew, I was just so very grateful. 

How cool that our shared love of storytelling has led to something like this? 

Before we even start our 2025 Mystery in the Library season - likely our biggest and hopefully our best yet - we're held 90 free/koha events, connecting hundreds of authors and many thousands of readers, supporting libraries big and small, city and country, all over our map. All done on 'the smell of an oily rag', as my Mum used to say, rather than any arts body funding etc. It's amazing what you can do with a lot of goodwill, and a lot of great people. 

 

(Thanks to the fab folks at Wellington City Libraries, you can watch recordings of several of our Mystery in the Library events held at their Karori or Newtown Libraries in recent years, such as this 2024 Newtown event above)

Sometimes I think I get far too much credit for some of the things that have happened in the #yeahnoir (NZ crime, mystery, and thriller writing) world - eg I cringe at the title of this otherwise really lovely interview I did with a Kiwi journalist and booklover in 2023, about the Ngaios and Kiwi crime writing. 

I just saw a gap back in 2009-2010, and thought that perhaps I could help. I've loved tales of mysteries and thrills since I was a kid, so it's always seemed a great privilege to get to be more involved in the genre, around the outskirts in various ways, whether reviewing books, interviewing authors, appearing at festivals, putting together events, judging awards, or editing anthologies.

And how awesome to get to connect, sometimes in person and often from afar, with so many fellow crime-lovers, and get to create events where authors and readers and libraries can all come together. 

I'm a lucky man, surrounded by amazing people. 

Sorry to get philosophical on you, dear readers, but I just thought I'd share that oh-so-strong moment of gratitude that struck me this past week. Gratitude is a cure for ills, as they say, or a balm at least. And despite many hours of data collation and entry to realise just what we'd done, I certainly felt recharged and refreshed, rather than fatigued. It also fired me up in the days since, to see just what we could do with our 2025 Ngaios and events. 

Watch this space. We're just getting started. 

Until next time, ka kite anō. 

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou ka ora ai te iwi”

(with your basket and my basket, the people will thrive)

dozens of Rotorua Noir attendees at the official opening of 
NZ's first ever crime festival at the famed Te Papaiouru Marae 

Getting bloody in Scotland

Chris Brookmyre won the 2024 McIlvanney Prize for his outstanding meta-fiction
mystery THE CRACKED MIRROR (Bloody Scotland/Colin Hattersley)

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

Well it's been a rather whirlwind week or so, full of bookish goodness. While I sadly couldn't make it across to Bouchercon in Nashville this year, and had to watch along from afar, last weekend I got to revisit possibly my favourite festival of all, Bloody Scotland! Held each year in historic Stirling, a small city in the heart of Scotland, an hour or so outside of each of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Bloody Scotland is a tremendous annual gathering celebrating superb Scottish and international crime and thriller writing. 

I've had the pleasure and privilege of being involved each year over the last decade - in fact my very first weekend in the UK in 2014 was spent at Bloody Scotland! I was so warmly welcomed by everyone there, catching up with a few authors I'd interviewed in New Zealand, or by phone over the years, or at my one prior overseas festival at Harrogate in 2012, and making so many new friends and contacts who've played such an impactful role in my life in the UK the last ten years. So Bloody Scotland has always been special to me. 

A legal eagles panel at 2015 Bloody Scotland, my first UK chairing gig where I chatted with lawyer-novelists Neil White, Jeffrey Siger, and Steve Cavanagh

Each year is different of course, with various highlights, favourite moments, and events. Things evolve and change, and Bloody Scotland has grown massively since I was there as 'media' in 2014, only the third festival, and back again as a panel chair in 2015 (including a lawyers-turned-crime writers panel with Murder is Everywhere's Jeffrey Siger and then rookie author Steve Cavanagh), and then returning every year since. I understand this year was the biggest year ever in terms of tickets sales and turnouts, and it was fantastic to see the Albert Halls and other venues packed once more, back to pre-COVID levels (and beyond) for the likes of Ann Cleeves and other big stars of the genre. 

Along with catching up with crime fiction pals and having an inspiring weekend full of creativity and craic, I was really looking forward to this year's Bloody Scotland for several reasons, including that I'd had to cancel trips to some other festivals this year, that I always enjoy visiting Scotland, and that several cool New Zealand and Australian authors were coming over specifically for Bloody Scotland, including good pals Chris Hammer, Michael Bennett, and Vanda Symon, and cool Aussie author Benjamin Stevenson who I'd yet to meet in person. Combined with a few UK and Europe-based Aussies and Kiwis, it was quite the antipodean crew in Stirling this year!

Rather than me jabbering on, here's a wee photo essay of some of last weekend's happenings, onstage and off:

Fantastic to welcome fellow antipodeans, Bloody Scotland first-timers, and fantastic authors Vanda Symon, Michael Bennett, Benjamin Stevenson, and Chris Hammer

Festival director Bob McDevitt with a member of the pipe band who were part of opening night festivities, following the awarding of this year's McIlvanney Prize

The Wickedest Link game show entertained on Friday night, cut-throat quizzing with stars Chris Brookmyre, Elly Griffiths, Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Marion Todd, Craig Robertson, Mark Billingham, Tony Kent, Vanda Symon and Vaseem Khan.

Three outstanding storytellers who are helping evolve and diversify the crime and thriller genre we love: Vaseem Khan, Michael Bennett, and Abir Mukherjee

Me with Scottish reviewer Louise Fairbairn, who I got to present with a special limted-edition tee given her recent service as a Ngaio Marsh Awards judge

Visiting Māori author Michael Bennett getting to see British newspaper article on his Spitfire pilot father in the green room

Bloody Scotland co-founder Alex Gray showcasing some terrific fresh voices in crime writing, including Kiwi author Tom Baragwanath (PAPER CAGE)

Our Kiwi Crime panel on Saturday afternoon with Vanda Symon and Michael Bennett was really informative and lots of fun in front of a large, enthusiastic audience

One of my fave things about festivals is the spontaneous hang-outs and meals with various people. We had a fab dinner full of laughs and inspiring chat on Saturday with a multi-national crew: Emma Styles, Ajay Chowdhury, Michael Bennett, myself, Vanda Symon, Chris Hammer, Louise Fairbairn, and DV Bishop

Given global spread (four continents) we rarely have many Ngaios judges in same room. Thanks to Bloody Scotland here's four past-present judges (me, Louise, Ayo Onatade, Jacky Collins) with Ngaios winners DV Bishop and Michael Bennett

Emma Styles and I taking first-timers Michael Bennett and Tom Baragwanath on an early morning exploration of historic Stirling (Stirling Castle in background)

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou ka ora ai te iwi”

(with your basket and my basket, the people will thrive)

"There is Nothin' Like A Dame"

The 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists; fifteenth edition of Aotearoa New Zealand's
annual prizes for excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

From a weatherboard house in the Cashmere Hills in Christchurch, New Zealand, a woman named Ngaio lived an extraordinary life, helping resurrect professional theatre across her country, painting, driving an ambulance during the war and a sleek black Jaguar in peacetime, as well as becoming one of the world's most famous novelists in the interwar years and mid-20th century. A contemporary of Agatha Christie, one of her fellow four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. 

Many decades later Dame Ngaio Marsh's murder mysteries are still beloved worldwide, and new generations of Kiwi writers have taken the Dame’s baton and run with it, using tales of crime, mystery, and thrills to provide puzzles and entertainments, while also deeply examining people and place. 

Patrick Malahide (left) starring as Marsh's elegant sleuth
in the 1990s BBC adaptation The Inspector Alleyn mysteries 

And since 2010, those Kiwi storytellers as determined by some expert international judging panels (often including top critics, university professors, and/or crime writers from UK and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, USA and sometimes elsewhere) to have written the year's crime/thriller novels have been awards with a Ngaio Marsh Award, celebrating both crime writing present and crime writing past. 

Last week, the finalists for the fifteenth iteration of the Ngaio Marsh Awards were revealed, across three categories: for Best First Novel, Best Novel, and Best Kids/YA. Given my involvement in the Ngaio Marsh Awards (I helped establish them back in 2010), I was particularly delighted that this year we’re celebrating some of our terrific Kiwi kids’ mystery and thriller writers as a separate category this year, for only the second time in Ngaios history. As I mentioned in a press release: 

“Many of us develop our love of reading, and all the benefits that brings us throughout our lives, thanks to children’s authors. In Aotearoa New Zealand we have amazing kids’ authors, across various forms and genres. Moving forward, we hope to award a Best Kids/YA prize biennially, alternating it with our Best Non-Fiction category that has been running since 2017.”

The finalists for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Kids/YA are:

• CAGED by Susan Brocker (Scholastic)
• KATIPO JOE: WOLF’S LAIR by Brian Falkner (Scholastic)
• MIRACLE by Jennifer Lane (Cloud Ink Press)
• NIKOLAI’S QUEST by Diane Robinson (Rose & Fern Publishing)
• NOR’EAST SWELL by Aaron Topp (One Tree House)

Falkner, an Auckland storyteller now living in Queensland, Australia won the first-ever special award for Best Kids/YA in 2021. Wellington author Jennifer Lane has previously won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel for ALL OUR SECRETS, while Bay of Plenty writer Susan Brocker, Auckland author Diane Robinson, and Hawke’s Bay author Aaron Topp are all first-time Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists.

Maori filmmaker and author Michael Bennett, pictured here with
his daughter Matariki, won the 2023 Ngaio for Best First Novel
for BETTER THE BLOOD, an indigenous thriller that's won and
been shortlisted for literary and crime prizes on four continents. 

This year’s finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, a prize that in recent years has gone to authors including Jacqueline Bublitz and Michael Bennett, are:

• DICE by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)
• EL FLAMINGO by Nick Davies (YBK Publishers)
• DEVIL’S BREATH by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)
• A BETTER CLASS OF CRIMINAL by Cristian Kelly
• MAMI SUZUKI: PRIVATE EYE by Simon Rowe (Penguin SEA)

From madcap Latin American capers to an unexpected Japanese sleuth, a neurodivergent expert on toxic botanicals to an ex-detective and a legal researcher each harnessing real-life expertise in captivating tales, the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award finalists for Best First Novel introduce some exciting fresh voices to the #yeahnoir whanau (Kiwi crime, mystery, and thriller writing family). 

Given that several people in the New Zealand literary community/books world questioned - understandably perhaps - how sustainable annual prizes for local crime, mystery, and thriller writing would be, back when we began in 2010, it's been very heartening to see some amazing new voices come through each year, from a variety of larger and smaller publishers, and self-published authors. 

Past Ngaios Best First Novel finalist Nathan Blackwell (second from left)
onstage at Newcastle Noir with Kiwi crime queen Vanda Symon, Australian 
authors Rachel Amphlett and Helen Fitzgerald, and myself in 2019

In much the same way that Scottish crime fiction is much more than heavyweight international bestsellers and living legends like Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Denise Mina, with several dozen entrants each year and more than 100 first-time crime writers joining the ranks in recent years, 'Yeahnoir', or Kiwi crime and thriller writing, continues to grow and diversify. I'm really thankful we no longer rely on a strong but small group of outstanding storytellers to fly the flag, so to speak. 

Lastly, the finalists for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel are:

• DICE by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)
• THE CARETAKER by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins)
• RITUAL OF FIRE by DV Bishop (Macmillan)
• PET by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• DEVIL’S BREATH by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)
• GOING ZERO by Anthony McCarten (Macmillan)
• EXPECTANT by Vanda Symon (Orenda Books)

While not all of the names and books will be familiar to overseas readers, it's an exceptionally strong group of finalists to emerge from a dazzlingly varied field. To put it in some context: one of the longlistees to miss out on being a 2024 finalist was a highly regarded climate change thriller from a Booker Prize winning author. Between them, this septet of authors have already won and been nominated/shortlisted for a wide range of storytelling prizes including the Women's Prize, CWA Daggers, BAFTAs and Oscars for screenwriting, Barry Awards, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Dublin Literary Award, featured on BBC's Between the Covers, and more. So known or not, there's a heck of a lot of writing talent in this crew. Another really tough decision for the judges, too. 

Literary dames: Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh
hanging out at a London function together

As I noted in the official press release last week, crime writing is a broad church nowadays, including but going beyond traditional murder mysteries and whodunnits in the style of Dames Ngaio and Agatha Christie, to deliver insights about society and humanity alongside rollicking reads. And as the likes of Val McDermid have said, if you want to better understand a place, read its crime fiction. Many of our finalists hold up a mirror to society, taking readers into varied lives through their stories, alongside page-turning entertainment.

The 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists will be celebrated and this year’s winners announced at a special event held at the WORD Christchurch Festival next week on Wednesday, 28 August, a few kilometres down the road from Dame Ngaio's house in the Cashmere Hills. 

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

“Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua.”

(I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past)

Dame Ngaio 'watches over' then two-time Ngaios winner
Paul Cleave at WORD Christchurch Festival in 2015

Dark Deeds and Fresh Blood

This year's longlistees are a diverse array of crime & thriller tales

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

Hope all of you reading have had a great solstice in the past week - Summer Solstice in the north (and Midsommar in Sweden - we celebrated on Saturday with some Swedish friends at our allotment garden) and Winter Solstice for my friends and family in Aotearoa New Zealand and other countries in the south. 

Last week was also notable in New Zealand (well, in the crime writing world, at least) for the reveal of the longlist for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. The 'Ngaios' as they are colloquially known, have been running since 2010 and celebrate the best crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing from New Zealand authors. 

As someone who's been involved with the Ngaios since the very beginning, it's been wonderful to see the growth in entries over the years, and even moreso the breadth, quality, and diversity of the stories being written. 

After studying law in Duendin, wannabe playwright Fergus Hume wrote THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB as a calling card for Melbourne theatre producers

New Zealand has a long history in crime writing - in fact the bestselling detective novel of the nineteenth century was written by a Kiwi - THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB (1886) by Fergus Hume, which outsold the likes of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel A STUDY IN SCARLET at the time. And of course there's Dame Ngaio, who our local crime award honour - one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (alongside Christie, Sayers, and Allingham). But it certainly seems to be going through a 'boom' in the past decade or more. 

This year's longlist for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel is a showcase of that, with three past Ngaios winners joined by several past finalists and longlistees and five first-time entrants - four of whom are debut novelists. 

I thought I'd take this chance to introduce you to the longlisted authors and books - some of whom you may be familiar with, there's some international bestsellers and award-winners among them, while others will be new. 

Angelique Kasmara is an Auckland author who was born in Indonesia. Her debut novel ISOBAR PRECINCT is an audacious tale set in a vivid, grimy inner-city Auckland where a tattoo artist gets entangled with a teen runaway, a married cop, a murder in a downtown Auckland cemetery, and a covert clinical trial targeting rough sleepers. 

Ben Sanders is an Auckland author whose first crime was published when he was 21 and studying engineering at university. He is a multiple-time finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Awards. His seventh novel THE DEVILS YOU KNOW features Vincent, a middle-aged former military operative trying to eschew guns and death for a life of surfing and high-end security for a supermarket boss in California. But his new boss has some secrets ... 

DV Bishop is an experienced Kiwi storyteller living in Scotland whose resume ranges across comic book writing and editing (Judge Dredd, 2000 AD), screenplays, BBC radio dramas, and Dr Who novels. His first historical mystery, CITY OF VENGEANCE, introduces Cesare Aldo, an officer of Renaissance Florence's most feared criminal court who must investigate the killing of a Jewish moneylender and prevent a coup while keeping his own dangerous secrets. 

Jacqueline Bublitz is an author who shares her time between Melbourne and her hometown of New Plymouth. Her debut novel BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME was rejected by 49 agents and has recently won the ABIA General Fiction Award in Australia and been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. It flips the script on 'jogger discovers a dead body in a park' with her story following the jogger and the victim rather than the cops investigating the crime. 

JP Pomare is a Māori storyteller (Ngā Puhi) who grew up in Rotorua and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. He won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel in 2019 for CALL ME EVIE, and is a three-time Ngaios finalist. THE LAST GUESTS is a psychological thriller about a young couple who decide to rent out their inherited lake house, only for strange things to start happening, deadly things. But the couple have been keeping their own secrets too. 

Kirsten McDougall is an award-winning Wellington storyteller whose previous work has been longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and a finalist for the Ngaios. SHE'S A KILLER is a near-future climate thriller about thirtysomething Alice, a brilliant yet stubborn slacker who is drawn into radical action as the world is in crisis and New Zealand has become divided and reshaped by an influx of privileged immigrant 'wealthugees'. 

Lizzie Harwood is an Auckland author who grew up on Great Barrier Island and lived overseas (primarily Paris) for two decades. Her debut novel POLAROID NIGHTS is set against the nightlife of 1990s Auckland, and as an unpublished manuscript won the inaugural NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize for 'new writing with a unique and original vision'. When Betty's ex is murdered and left in her bed, she hits the bar world to uncover who did it. 

Mark Wightman is an Edinburgh-born New Zealand citizen who grew up in Hong Kong and Singapore. His debut novel WAKING THE TIGER is a murder mystery set in 1939 Singapore where Inspector Maximo Betancourt investigates the murder of a young Japanese woman found dead on the dockside. Mark's debut was also shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. 

Nalini Singh is a Fiji-born West Auckland author. Over the past 20 years she's become globally renowned as a Queen of Paranormal Romance, writing many New York Times bestsellers. QUIET IN HER BONES is Nalini's second crime novel. When the body of socialite Nina Rai is found ten years after her disappearance, her son Aarav launches his own investigation. But gaps in his memory and suspicious neighbours mean he can't trust anyone, even himself. 

Nikki Crutchley is a Cambridge author and two-time past Ngaios finalist. Her fourth novel TO THE SEA is a psychological thriller about a family living on Iluka, an idyllic coastal plantation that seems like paradise but has a violent past. Iluka is the only home that teenager Ana has ever known, but when a stranger arrives she must make a life-changing choice between protecting all she loves or uncovering the truth. 

Paul Cleave is a Christchurch author and three-time Ngaio Marsh Award winner. Paul's thrillers have been shortlisted for the Edgar and Barry Awards in the United States, and won the Saint-Maur book festival's crime novel of the year award in France. In THE QUIET PEOPLE, husband-and-wife crime writers Cameron and Lisa Murdoch's lives are upturned when their son goes missing and the media, public, and police view them as suspects not victims. 

RWR McDonald is a Melbourne based author who grew up on a sheep and deer farm in Otago. His debut THE NANCYS won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel in 2020. This sequel sees unlikely investigative trio of Tippy Chan, a 12-year old girl grieving her father's death, and her Uncle Pike from Sydney and his fashionista boyfriend Devon - 'the Nancys' - attempt to uncover the truth behind a deadly explosion in small-town Riverstone. 

Phew, so there you go. Plenty of enticing reads there. Kiwi crime writing, or 'yeahnoir' as it's called (a play on the famed Kiwi saying 'yeah, nah') is going from strength to strength. The finalists for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards - in both the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories - will be announced in early August, with the finalists celebrated and the winners named at a special event in September in Christchurch, the hometown of Dame Ngaio. 

Until next time. Ka kite anō. 

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei

(Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain)

A view across to Aoraki/Mt Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand