NGAIO MARSH AWARD LONGLIST FOR BEST NOVEL 2026

The 2026 Ngaio Marsh Award Longlist for Best Novel.  The Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing. Congratulations to all:

LUCKY THING by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing)

CARVED IN BLOOD by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)

SOFTLY CALL THE DEVIL by Chris Blake (Bonnier Echo)

THE BIRDS BEGAN TO SING by Jeffrey Buchanan (Text Publishing)

BLACK SILK & BURIED SECRETS by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins)

THE DEADLY DISPUTE by Amanda Hampson (Penguin)

BELLA DONNA by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)

THE GOOD FATHER by Liam McIlvanney (Bonnier)

WHEN THE DEEP DARK BUSH SWALLOWS YOU WHOLE by Geoff Parkes (Penguin)

THE VANISHING PLACE by Zoe Rankin (Moa Press)

HOOKED UP by Fiona Sussman (Bateman Books)

A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen & Unwin)

Finalists for all the 2026 categories - Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Kids/YA - will be announced later in Spring (Fall in the Northern Hemisphere).  

STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARDS WINNERS

Quarterly crime-fiction and mystery magazine The Strand announced the winners of the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, The Strand Critics Awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges were chosen from The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press. Congratulations to all!
 

STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARD BEST NOVEL WINNER: 

Secret Identity Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)

Nominees:

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Little Brown)
Her Last Affair by John Searles (Mariner Books)
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
 
STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARD  BEST DEBUT WINNER:

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)

Nominees:

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho)
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho)
 
 
Strand Lifetime Achievement Awards: James Lee Burke and Lee Child 

NGAIO MARSH BEST NOVEL AWARD LONGLIST

Now in their fourteenth season, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate excellence in New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing. They are named for Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, who penned bestselling mysteries that entertained millions of global readers from her home in the Cashmere Hills. “I’d like to think Dame Ngaio would be proud of how our modern Kiwi storytellers are continuing her literary legacy, bringing fresh perspectives and a cool mix of fascinating tales to one of the world’s most popular storytelling forms,” says awards founder Craig Sisterson. “In recent years we seem to be going through our own golden age, with our local writers offering a treasure trove of terrific stories for readers at home and all over the world.” 

The longlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel includes a mix of past winners and finalists, several first-time entrants and new voices, and the long-awaited return of one of the leading lights of the early 2000s New Zealand literary scene. “In crime and thriller writing it’s natural for authors to make it really tough on their characters,” says Sisterson, “but our entrants made it tough on our judges too. This year’s longlist is a wonderful showcase of Kiwi creativity, with a great range of stories that explore some deep and very important issues in among the page-turning intrigue and thrills.”

 

The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. 

Longlist for Best Novel: 

• TOO FAR FROM ANTIBES by Bede Scott (Penguin SEA)
• EXIT .45 by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
• REMEMBER ME by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
• BLUE HOTEL by Chad Taylor (Brio Books)
• POOR PEOPLE WITH MONEY by Dominic Hoey (Penguin)
• THE DARKEST SIN by DV Bishop (Macmillan)
• THE DOCTOR’S WIFE by Fiona Sussman (Bateman Books)
• MIRACLE by Jennifer Lane
• BETTER THE BLOOD by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
• IN HER BLOOD by Nikki Crutchley (HarperCollins)
• THE PAIN TOURIST by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
• BLOOD MATTERS by Renée (The Cuba Press)
• THE SLOW ROLL by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
• PAPER CAGE by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing)

The longlist is currently being considered by an international judging panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Finalists for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Non-Fiction will be announced in August, with the finalists celebrated and the winners announced as part of a special event held in association with WORD Christchurch later in the year.

The 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award Finalists for Best Novel and Best First Novel

The 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award Finalists for for Best Novel and Best First Novel  

The shortlists were determined by an international judging panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.  

Best Novel Finalists

Best First Novel Finalists

The winners will be announced at a special event. More info to come.

 

For more information on the Ngaio Marsh Awards, please contact founder and judging convenor Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com  

 

Macavity Award Nominees

The Macavity Award Nominations! Books/stories were published for the first time in the U.S. in 2011. This award is nominated by and voted on by members and supporters of Mystery Readers International, as well as subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in October, in Cleveland, OH this year. The Award will be presented at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How cool is that? The Macavity Award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats).

Congratulations to all!

Best Mystery Novel
 
1222 by Anne Holt, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Scribner)
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland Books)
The Ridge by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown)
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
Hell & Gone by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books)

Best First Mystery Novel
 
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown)
Nazareth Child by Darrell James (Midnight Ink)
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante (Atlantic Monthly)
All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen (Permanent Press)
The Informationist by Taylor Stevens (Crown)
Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson (Harper)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction

Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A.B. Emrys (McFarland)
The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English (William Morrow)
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
 
Best Mystery Short Story

"Disarming" by Dana Cameron (EQMM, June 2011)
"Facts Exhibiting Wantonness" by Trina Corey (EQMM, Nov. 2011)
"Palace by the Lake" by Daryl Wood Gerber (Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology, Wildside Press)
"Truth and Consequences" by Barb Goffman (Mystery Times Ten, Buddhapuss Ink)
"Heat of Passion" by Kathleen Ryan (A Twist of Noir, Feb. 14, 2011)
"The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train" by Peter Turnbull (EQMM, March/April 2011)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award
 
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
Narrows Gate by Jim Fusilli (AmazonEncore)
Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson (Thomas Dunne/Minotaur)
Mercury’s Rise by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen)
Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)