All rise
The US has the Edgar Awards, the UK has the Daggers, and Canada has the Arthur Ellis Awards. The Nordic countries have the Glass Key, Australia the Ned Kellys and the German-speaking world the Friedrich Glauserpreis.
Now New Zealand has its own crime award, and your humble blog keeper is one of the judges. The award, named for Dame Ngaio Marsh and the brainchild of the enterprising Craig Sisterson of the Crime Watch blog, will go to one of the following novels:
Burial by Neil CrossCut and Run by Alix Bosco
Access Road by Maurice Gee
Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly
Containment by Vanda Symon
No details on my choices here. Suffice it to say that the shortlist contained some very pleasant surprises. More to come.© Peter Rozovsky 2010
Labels: Alix Bosco, awards, Craig Sisterson, Lindy Kelly, Maurice Gee, Neil Cross, New Zealand, Ngaio Marsh award, Vanda Symon
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 5:25 PM
24 Comments:
Thanks for being a part of this inaugural award Peter. It's great to have you on board as one of the four international judges on the 7-judge panel. I hope you enjoyed reading the Kiwi-penned crime novels.
Congratulations on the judgeship; know that it will be objective and based on writing quality.
Would love to get books by Vanda Symon but that seems hard here without paying the equivalent of an arm or a leg.
Congratulations on your selection as judge.
How come all the TV dramas have prosecutors or defense attorneys as protagonists and the judges are all relegated to supporting roles?
Equal time, I say!
Now you just have to persuade Brennan and maybe I'll have that pleasant well it was nice to be nominated feeling before losing out to Bateman, McGilloway, Hunt, Garv and Nev.
Much obliged, Craig, but if I'm a justice, you're a Founding Father. All the big, established awards had to start somewhere, and you are where this one started. I think that's pretty exciting.
Thanks, Kathy. Have you tried the Book Depository for Vanda Symon's books? I don't know who sells books online in New Zealand or Australia, but you could search for retailers and see what they charge for shipping.
Or maybe if Kiwicraig (Craig Sisterson) checks back, he could offer suggestions on shopping for NZ crime novels abroad.
Thanks, Linkmeister, and that's a fine question. Judges ought to be better represented on television than by Judge Judy. I know of no judge protagonists on TV, though somehow it would not shock me if one cropped now that you have introduced the idea into the zeitgeist.
I know of no judge protagonists in crime fiction either outside of Lisa Scottoline's "Dirty Blonde," which I haven't read. Oh, and I guess Elmore Leonard's "Maximum Bob," too. Any others?
Adrian, you could bribe or threaten judges.
"Judging Amy" was on CBS for several years, with Amy Brenneman starring as a judge.
A judge has a pivotal role in Michael Connelly's "The Brass Verdict," and in one of Steve Martini's Paul Madriani books.
Thanks on the Book Depository. I think I checked already on Vanda Symon but will look again.
Unfortunately NZ crime novels are a little hard to find overseas (although it is improving, slowly).
You can get Vanda Symon's CONTAINMENT on Amazon for about $12-16 USD - not sure how that compares to normal trade paperback prices - it's been added there by Penguin Global. It's 13.30 pounds on Book Depository, so Amazon might be a better deal.
Paul Cleave's BLOOD MEN is also released this month on Amazon (currently on special for $10.80, so that doesn't seem too bad). It is being published in the US (rather than importing the NZ/Aust or UK versions), so hopefully that may be reasonably available in some stores too.
Unfortunately NZ crime isn't yet widely available on the big international online sellers. There are some NZ-based online sellers, but because books are quite expensive down this way, and you'd have to pay a fair bit for postage internationally, they may not be much of an option. You can try Fishpond.co.nz, for instance.
Thanks for the tips, Craig. I'll make sure to leave some space in my luggage for books if I ever travel down that way.
Maybe publicity surrounding these awards will encourage publishers, retailers and distributors to make NZ crime fiction more widely available.
And thanks on the judges. Italian or French crime novels occasionally have investigating magistrates as supporting characters. But I can think of hone who are protagonists, and, in any case, they're more like prosecutors or investigators than judges, I think.
Yes, just checked. One of Steve Martini's legal mysteries was entitled "The Judge."
And remembered I used to inhale his books as fast as they were published, having been raised on Perry Mason tv programs and books (my first mysteries).
Thanks for the NZ book ordering suggestions.
Will check on those.
And thanks on Steve Martini. I think Linkmeister's question about why more judges have not been crime-fiction protagonists is of great interest. Perhaps this is because, especially in the U.S., they are expected to be aloof and impartial.
I mentioned French and Italian investigating magistrates. And then there is Judge Dee, a real Tang Dynasty figure who becamse the hero of drama and fiction in later centuries and eventually of a series of stories by the Dutch author Robert Van Gulik. His judging figures very strongly in those stories, as do his investigating and other official duties. But even as a judge, he takes on the role of examiner and prosecutor much more than U.S. judges do. And that offers more opportunity for conflict and action.
Suggested article title:
Clarence Thomas: The New Judge Roy Bean?
Nah, but Antonin Scalia might make a good evil genius.
There was a British crime drama series called Judge John Deed, with the hero (played by Martin Shaw, who also played PD James' Cdr Adam Dalgliesh in a couple of BBC adaptations) being a British High Court Judge who also investigated cases outside of his judge role. I caught a couple of episodes in NZ, and they were pretty good. I think the series was quite popular in the UK, running for about six seasons.
I’ve just checked online - apparently it ran for six seasons, and this made it Britain’s longest-ever running legal drama (not a patch on the 20 years of Law & Order in the US of course)... not based on any books though, Judge John Deed was original for TV I understand.
Deed -- none too subtle a name for an active judge. I like the idea of a judge stepping outside his judge's role.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302128/
Link to the IMDB page for Judge John Deed
Thanks. I like that quotation on the site from the Judge Deed character.
Just found that Vanda Symon's "Containment" is on sale at the Book Depository and Amazon--where it's about $5 cheaper if one uses the $25 free shipping deal or, as we know, Book Depository doesn't charge shipping costs (don't know how they do that).
An obscure question: Does anyone know of an author who wrote a mystery that takes place in Papua, New Guinea? Saw this on a blog and didn't write it down.
Was the Papua New Guinea book Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay?
That sounds plausible. Will check.
Whether or not that is the book you were thinking off, I/m glad you asked the question. I've occasionally occasionally thought of looking for Chqrlotte Jay's work, as she has been recommended to me, and this could get me to do so. And I found out that this Beat Not the Bones won the first Edgar Award for best novel from the Mystery Writers of America. Finally, here's a site that might help if you want to look for mysteries around the world.
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