Fremantle Press crime writer makes the grade with Ngaio Marsh Awards

Alan Carter is one of six authors shortlisted for the prestigious Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel with his latest book Marlborough Man.

Now in its ninth year, the Awards celebrate the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller and suspense writing. Hot on the heels of his nomination for this year’s Ned Kelly Award, Carter says he’s delighted to have been picked as a finalist.

‘I’m stoked to find myself on the Ngaios shortlist in the company of some amazing writers and out of a highly competitive batch of entries. That, along with the Ned Kelly listing, is a dream come true. Keeping my trans-Tasman fingers crossed,’ said Carter.

Awards founder Craig Sisterson said, ‘It’s been a year of record-breaking numbers of entries, and our judges were faced with tough decisions among a really diverse array of tales … Kiwi readers devour tales of crime, thrills and mystery. They’ve got lots of great choices here to encourage them to give our own storytellers more of a try.’

Marlborough Man was described by the judges as ‘a full-throated crime thriller that puts the freshest of spins on the cop-with-a-past trope’ and as a ‘proper crime book, hard to put down’. They also praised Carter as ‘a world-class wordsmith.’

The other books on the shortlist for Best Crime Novel are: See You in September by Charity Norman, Tess by Kirsten McDougall, The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackwell, A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave and The Hidden Room by Stella Duffy.

The award will be announced on Saturday 1 September as part of the 2018 WORD Christchurch Festival. Marlborough Man is available online at www.fremantlepress.com.au and at all good bookstores.