Ngaio Marsh Award 2017 winners announced

Fiona Sussman’s The Last Time We Spoke (Allison & Busby) has won the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

Sussman is the first female author to win the award, which was established in 2010. Her novel about the intertwined fates of a home invasion victim and the perpetrator was chosen from a shortlist of five, with judges calling it a ‘harrowing, touching story that stays with you’.

Finn Bell’s self-published novel Dead Lemons won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, making Bell the first self-published author to win a Ngaio Marsh award. His second self-published novel Pancake Money was also nominated in the Best Crime Novel category. Bell was described by judges as ‘a wonderful new voice in crime writing’.

The inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Nonfiction went to Michael Bennett’s In Dark Places (Paul Little Books), an investigation into the wrongful conviction of 17-year-old Teina Pora for murder in 1994.

The winners were announced at a ceremony in Christchurch on 28 October.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards are presented annually for the best crime, mystery or thriller writing by New Zealand citizens and residents. The awards are named after Christchurch crime writer Ngaio Marsh.

Category: Awards Local news