And then there were three ...
The finalists for the first Ngaio Marsh Award, for best crime novel by a New Zealand citizen or resident published in New Zealand in 2009, are:- Cut & Run by Alix Bosco (Penguin);
- Burial by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster); and
- Containment by Vanda Symon (Penguin)
Craig Sisterson, the driving force behind the awards and the man who kindly invited me to be one of the judges, sends along this note from Dame Ngaio's nephew:I am delighted to hear of the progress of the Dame Ngaio Marsh Award, and congratulate the finalists for what sounds to be a very high standard of detective story writing. I know that Dame Ngaio would be so proud of all the entrants, and to know that her name is associated with the award. I hope you will extend my own congratulations to the writers, but also to those who have taken what will have been an enormous amount work, research and thought to create the awards very sincerely
John Dacres-Mannings
The winner will be announced Sept. 10 at The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival, and congratulations are in order for all the nominees and to Craig for his hard work in putting the awards together. Perhaps this enterprising promoter of New Zealand crime writing will have an award or a convention named for him one day. Hey, they did it for Anthony Boucher.***
Here's a bit about Dame Ngaio, a pioneer in theater and an author whose novels and stories featuring Inspector Roderick Alleyn made her one of the pillars of crime fiction's Golden Age. Here's a personal reminiscence from author Roy Vaughan.© Peter Rozovsky 2010
Labels: Alix Bosco, awards, Craig Sisterson, Neil Cross, New Zealand, Ngaio Marsh, Ngaio Marsh award, Vanda Symon
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 5:51 PM
10 Comments:
Now I really think I should order "Containment" from the Book Depository or Amazon.com This is exciting.
What do others think of these three books? Other than the impartial judge.
That's right; I can't comment on the books. But you might want to visit Craig Sisterson's site, to which I link in my post, not to mention Vanda Symon's own blog.
I have seen Vanda Symon's blog but will check others, including Craig's.
I read Kerrie's review at Mysteries in Paradise, another Oz blog.
After the awards are finished, will you write up a review of all of the books raised for the awards?
I was thinking of offering some comments after the award is presented, yes.
I've only read one Neil Cross Always the Sun. In a word: phenomenal
Burial was my first Neil Cross novel. I'll want to read more.
I had reviewed CUT & RUN and BURIAL for various publications last year, prior to the awards coming to fruition, so I guess readers will be able to surmise some of my thoughts on the books from those reviews - although not of course which of the three I think is best. All three are very good books, quite different in style. We might have something growing here in NZ, hopefully.
And all I can say re: the Anthony Boucher comment Peter, is [blush]...
Hey, Anthony Boucher was a young scuffler once, too. Well, maybe not. He did write for the New York Times, after all.
So, were the awards even a twinkle in your eye when you wrote about those novels?
I read and wrote about Burial back in April/May 2009, and Cut & Run in August 2009. I thought at the time NZ needed to have a crime fiction award, but the idea didn't really solidify or become a serious 'right, someone really needs to do this' until later that year and early this year.
So a twinkle perhaps, but not much more than that...
I was just interviewed by the NZ Listener (quite a prestigious mag down this way) yesterday about the awards - very weird being on the other side of the interviewer-interviewee pairing.
Get used to it. You're a pioneer.
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