Bookman Beattie shares his thoughts on Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch novel

 My fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge Graham "Bookman" Beattie, deservedly one of the most well-respected figures on the New Zealand books scene, regularly reviews crime novels for Radio New Zealand.

This morning, as part of Kathryn Ryan's popular 'Nine to Noon' show, Beattie reviewed THE DROP, the latest Harry Bosch thriller from Michael Connelly, who both Beattie and I think is one of the very best in the business when it comes to global contemporary crime fiction.

"In my view it's Connelly at his best, and really there aren't many better," says Beattie of THE DROP. He also praised Connelly's touch for underlying themes and ambiquities, as well as noting that he likes the character of Bosch enormously. "I read the book late into the night over the weekend, it is a must read for crime fiction fans." You can listen to Beattie's full 5mins review here, or read a near-transcript of his review at his always-informative blog, Beattie's Book Blog, here.

Are you a Michael Connelly and/or Harry Bosch fan? Have you read THE DROP? Thoughts welcome.

Hopes for Whitcoulls renaissance fade as new owners put book industry off-side

Back when I was a youngster growing up in Nelson, 15 to 20 years ago, the Whitcoulls on Trafalgar Street was my favourite bookstore. I used to look forward to heading in there on a weekend or holiday to browse the shelves, and pick up a few new books. The staff seemed friendly, there was lots of choice, the prices were reasonable. So it was with great sadness that as I've moved into adulthood, and reconnected with my lifelong love of reading in recent years, that I've come to realise that Whitcoulls, once a beloved retailer, had fallen so far.

As I discovered during my 'bookstore review' series when I first began Crime Watch more than two years ago, the selection of New Zealand crime novels (and often, New Zealand novels in general, or crime novels in general) was pretty poor at many Whitcoulls - a real shame for what had been the leading bookstore in New Zealand for so many decades. I heard the stories of Whitcoulls around the country not stocking books from authors who even lived in that city - perhaps not the fault of frontline staff as much as corporate decisions made by faceless, unknowing people at head office.

Having worked for a nationwide retailer myself while at high school and University, I'm certainly sympathetic to some of the ill-informed decisions that can be foisted upon local stores by 'head office'. Just because things might work one way for a 'model store' in one location, doesn't mean that's the best, most efficient, or most profitable one for a similarly branded store in a different location, and with different customers.

As I became more aware of the goings-on in the local books industry, and talked to more authors, publicists, booksellers, reviewers, and others, I came to realise that Whitcoulls had fallen far off the wagon. There were many, many problems - which was quite a scary situation given Whitcoulls' market share (even though that was diminishing) and influence. I won't list all the specifics here, but I will say that many of the issues seemed to boil down to what seemed like a complete lack of passion and knowledge about what they were selling. They just wanted to sell as much as possible.

The funny thing is, most truly successful people, organisations, and businesses are so because they are passionate about what they're involved in, think about it regularly, and do all the little things that can make a difference, small or large, over time. Because they love what they are doing, and are willing to invest the time, and willing to back themselves and try things. You can be 'okay' when you plunk down a generic one- size-fits-all plan and try to follow it, regardless of the unique nature of what you're doing - but you'll never be great. Any success will eventually wither on the vine, strangled by a lack of passion.

In terms of Whitcoulls (and to be fair, it's not just them - it can be a problem with many large and unwieldy organisations), where were the knowledgeable staff to guide browsing book buyers, or hand-sell lesser-known authors on the rise who weren't household names yet (a path that many of our modern day big names, such as McDermid, Connelly, Rankin etc had to forge)? Where was the support for the coming generation of local and international authors, rather than just the generic retailing 'stack them high and watching them fly' approach. There is so much passion amongst so many in the books industry, but a big market player was seemingly sucking the life out of the local books world - not through malice, but neglect. It was a real shame.

I was recently in a Whitcoulls in Auckland, and during my 15 minutes in-store I probably sold more books than all their staff combined (in terms of actually encouranging someone to buy something, rather than just waiting at a checkout), just by chatting to people in the crime fiction section, and giving them some recommendations when they told me which authors they were looking for, or which authors they liked.

Not picking on the staff - because I'm sure their hands were tied by many decisions and policies, but it often seemed like many are just 'checkout operators', not booksellers. Even the ones wandering the store don't seem to engage customers, or know much when asked anything. As I say, not their fault - it's more to do with the way they're chosen, trained, and encouraged to act by superiors. And that's where the failings lie.

Given all the issues bubbling away in the background, it didn't surprise many here when the Whitcoulls chain got into serious financial trouble - although it seems that was more to do with the mis-management of its Australian parent company than the many issues with its local stores. Unfortunately this exacerbated the issues for publishers and authors for many months.

A ray of hope arrived with the news that many of the stores had been purchased by the Norman family, who owned several other successful retailers (the Pascoe Group).

Books-loving people in New Zealand crossed their fingers, daring to hope that this would be a renaissance for a once iconic brand, and that Whitcoulls would reconnect with its former passion for and focus on books, rather than just a generic retail model and approach that seemed to have little regard for the unique nature of what it was selling. Hopefully the new owners would let the company, led by returning boss Ian Draper, interact with the industry, support the industry, and help promote all the great things about books.

Surely that would be great for everyone - booksellers, publishers, authors, customers - rather than just solely striving to get a bigger slice of a shrinking pie, grow the pie people!

But no. I am very saddened to say that it seems Whitcoulls isn't bouncing back from its trouble in a positive way for the books industry. Instead it is putting up the barricades and trying to go it alone - a route that may give it some initial success, but I can't imagine will work for them, or anyone else, long-term. It is putting ill-founded concerns about commercial sensitivity ahead of reality. Once again, it is falling into the trap of trying to treat its books business just like any other retail industry, not realising that books are quite different.

Yesterday, leading New Zealand book industry commentator Graham Beattie reported that the new owners of Whitcoulls had decided to withdraw from the New Zealand Neilsen Bookscan Panel, thereby undercutting the information available to the entire industry. Valuable information that can help everyone move forward. This would also render the weekly bestseller lists in New Zealand far less meaningful, with a bookstore chain that represents about 25-35% of the market (down from 50% in its better-run heydey) no longer letting Nielsen know which books have sold well. Pretty gutting for authors and publishers, I would imagine. Making a bestseller list can be an important milestone for an author, a great kudos, and having the list undercut in such a way by a retailer whose owners had made all the right noises earlier - well, it's a shame.

Beattie has called the decision "hugely irresponsible", and has sworn never to buy a book at Whitcoulls again. I would hasten to add that Beattie is not some Internet hothead who gets easily wound up and mouths off about issues. He's an icon in the New Zealand books industry, is insightful and passionate about books , and is always measured and well-thought-out in his comments (even when I may disagree with him, now and then).

In all honesty, I can't remember when I've 'seen' him this fired up.

Many others in the industry are incredibly disappointed by what clearly seems a short-sighted decision - like those ones made by faceless bureacrats and businesspeople that make sense in theory or 'on paper', but have no real understanding of the flow-on effects in reality. I'm sure all of us have seen many examples of such moronic decisions, across the board in many industries (and other things like politics etc). Although the people involved always defend them, and always have reasons which 'sound good'.

As it turns out, the Norman family have come out today, talking to the Dominion Post newspaper, offering their reasoning for the decision. As predicted, it 'sounds good', and I'm sure they honestly believe it themselves, even though many others outside their cadre will realise it will backfire in the long-run, and could diminish both their business, and the wider industry. For some reason a saying from childhood is knocking about in my head - "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

You can read the Norman's defence here. Basically, they see sales data as sensitive to their business, and don't want to share. It's a decision made across their numerous companies, and Draper, who at least has been involved in the books industry before, hasn't really had much say, in terms of the Whitcoulls business.

As I said, you can kind of understand the reasoning, on the surface. Until you start thinking about it more broadly. Then it starts to seem a little silly. Basically it's the equivalent of a movie theatre chain refusing to tell Hollywood movie studios how many tickets they sold to a movie, thereby rendering the box office numbers somewhat meaningless. It's the equivalent of those who sell music not letting the public know what is selling well, and who has the number 1 single, album, etc. The Normans are basically comparing book sales to how many fridges or electronics they sell at Farmers, or how many necklaces they sell at Pascoes, rather than realising books are unique - and that in almost all other countries around the world such data is shared. Just as it is when it comes to other artistic media, such as film, music, etc. That's the bit that really disappoints, and concerns, me - as annoying as the decision is, it's the underlying lack of understanding or regard for the unique nature of the books industry that worries me more. Because that could lead to even more bad decisions, which would not be a good thing for the world of books here at all. How can you participate, or even lead the way, in a rapidly changing industry, if you don't actually respect it, or realise it's not the same as selling widgets?

As I said, the Normans briefly brought hope to a fallen icon of New Zealand retail. Unfortunately, this week they seem to have taken a path that aligns them more with the failed owners of recent years (who similarly tried to operate with a generic retail mindset), more than the booklovers that made the business so successful in days gone by. It's a shame, a real shame.

Tickets now on sale for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award presentation

Tickets are now on sale for "Setting the Stage for Murder", a great event in Christchurch on 21 August that incorporates the presentation of the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

The event is being held at 11am at the TelstraClear Club in Hagley Park, in association with the Christchurch Writers Festival Trust, and as part of the 2011 Christchurch Arts Festival (which runs from 12 August to 2 October).

It's terrific to have both organisations (the Arts Festival and the Writers' Festival) behind the Ngaio Marsh Award. Here's the spiel for the event from the Arts Festival website:

SETIING THE STAGE FOR MURDER

The International Stage

Two of America’s top crime writers join forces in a gripping session. Best-selling author Tess Gerritsen and award-winner John Hart, author of three New York Times bestsellers, will discuss their latest novels — The Silent Girl and The Iron House respectively. Chaired by crime afcionado and reviewer Graham Beattie, this riveting event will have you on the edge of your seat.

The New Zealand Stage
Christchurch s again proud to host the prestigious Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. A panel of local and international judges has been considering the best locally written crime and thriller fction published in New Zealand in 2010. The three fnalists will discuss their books with Craig Sisterson, one of the country’s most knowledgeable crime readers, before the winner is announced.
Presented by Christchurch Writers Festival.

It should be a terrific way to spend a late winter Sunday. Hopefully we will see some of you there. You can purchase tickets through the Arts Festival website here.

Reminder: some great Writers Lounge events coming up in Auckland

As I said last week, the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors is running free weekly Writers Lounge events during June and July, with an interesting array of authors and people involved in the books industry 'in conversation' each Monday lunchtime at the Auckland Art Gallery in the central city (near the Auckland central library).

It would be great to see some Auckland-based crime fiction fans at the next two Monday events, as there are some crime fiction links and focus with those events. Next Monday, 20 June, myself and fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge and book blogger Graham Beattie will be in conversation with Metro magazine editor Simon Wilson about 'The Blogosphere'. And then the following week, on Monday 27 June, the topic is 'Crime Central', featuring Auckland-based crime writers Andrea Jutson (THE DARKNESS LOOKING BACK) and Ben Sanders (#1 bestseller THE FALLEN) in conversation with John Reynolds.


The events are held from 12-1pm in the Art Lounge at the Auckland Art Gallery, on the corner of Lorne and Wellesley Streets, and entry is free! So I hope plenty of crime fiction readers in Auckland will head along to both these events. Click here for the full line-up, and more information.

A touch of crime during winter Writers Lounges in Auckland

The Auckland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors is running free weekly Writers Lounge events during June and July, with an interesting array of authors and people involved in the books industry 'in conversation' each Monday lunchtime at the Auckland Art Gallery toi o Tamakaki, in the central city (near the Auckland central library).

I'm very pleased to say that there is some crime-fiction content coming up this month as well; on Monday 20 June myself and fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge and book blogger Graham Beattie will be in conversation with Metro magazine editor Simon Wilson about 'The Blogosphere'. And then the following week, on Monday 27 June, the topic is 'Crime Central', featuring Auckland-based crime writers Andrea Jutson (THE DARKNESS LOOKING BACK) and Ben Sanders (#1 bestseller THE FALLEN) in conversation with John Reynolds. Terrific.

It's great to see events such as these being run, and that local crime fiction is getting some further exposure to local readers. The events are held from 12-1pm in the Art Lounge at the Auckland Art Gallery, on the corner of Lorne and Wellesley Streets, and entry is free! So I hope plenty of crime fiction readers in Auckland will head along to both these events, and that readers of all preferences will give several of the fantastic free sessions on offer a go over the winter months. I'll certainly be heading along to more than just my session. Here's the full line-up:

Monday 13 June – Fantastic Worlds
Linda McNab and Russell Kirkpatrick in conversation with Tina Shaw

Monday 20 June – The Blogoshpere
Graham Beattie and Craig Sisterson in conversation with Simon Wilson

Monday 27 June – Crime Central
Andrea Jutson and Ben Sanders in conversation with John Reynolds

Monday 4 July – Food For Thought
Alexa Johnston and Ray McVinnie in conversation with Nicola Legat

Monday 11 July – Travel The Globe
Graeme Lay and Graham Reid in conversation with Yvonne van Dongen

Monday 18 July – Actors Read Their Favourite Authors
Elizabeth McRae and Jennifer Ward-Lealand in conversation with Rae McGregor

Monday 25 July – Publishing Here and Now
Dan Myers and Mary Egan in conversation with Carole Beu

Bouquets to the Auckland branch of the NZSA for organising the events, and for the Auckland Art Gallery and Creative New Zealand for their support. Should be fun! Hope to see some of you there on the day.

Herald on Sunday: Top Fiction Reads of 2010 (includes plenty of crime fiction)

What were the year’s top fiction titles? Some of the country’s most voracious readers make their choice.

Nicky Pellegrino is a best-selling author and the Herald on Sunday’s book editor (pictured)
I’ve read loads of great books over the course of this year but for me there are three stand outs:

The Long Song by Andrea Levy is a novel about the trials and tribulations of a woman on a Jamaican slave plantation. It doesn’t sound like an instant winner but this was my most loved book of the year. It’s a story that’s both powerful and playful. Narrated by the salty, sassy Miss July, a house girl serving a vain and idle mistress, it’s spirited, shocking and entertaining. Levy has brought to life a period in time barely recorded by historians and written about it in a vivid and original style.

Private Life by Jane Smiley is an excruciating portrayal of marriage, spanning the late 1800s to the Second World War. This is the story of an unexceptional woman whose family consider it a great piece of luck when she finds a husband rather late in life. When he turns out to be a crackpot and a loser she finds herself, not only stuck with him, but cast in the role of his chief supporter. Brilliant writing, under-stated and disturbing. Another book that ought to be relentlessly dark but is instead utterly seductive.

Trespass by Rose Tremain is set in the harsh landscape of the Cevennes in the South Of France and is a story about people crippled by their pasts. Audrun Lunel lives in an ugly bungalow on the fringes of her brother’s crumbling, family property. Anthony Verey decides to escape there and begin a new life far from his failures. When the new world collides with the old, tragedy is inevitable. Tremain’s writing is an exercise in restraint, taut and poised.

Vanda Symon is a Dunedin crime writer and regular reviewer on Jim Mora’s Afternoons on Radio New Zealand.
The three books I’ve chosen as my best reads of 2010 are all crime fiction, and more specifically, New Zealand crime fiction. Before you say, oh, but you only read crime fiction, not true – I read all sorts of fiction, but these three stood out for me for different reasons.

Hunting Blind by Paddy Richardson, is what I’d describe as a psychological literary thriller. It starts with every family’s worst nightmare – a little girl going missing during a picnic at Lake Wanaka. Seventeen years later the whole thing is reopened for Stephanie, the little girl’s sister, when one of her patients tells of a similar story. She has no choice but to pursue her past.

The Crime of Huey Dunstan by James McNeish is a completely different kind of novel and offers a unique protagonist, as Ches is nearing 70, and is blind. He is reminiscing about a court case he appeared in as an expert witness nearly twenty years earlier. The case of Huey Dunstan got under his skin, consumed him. Dunstan was accused of brutally murdering a man in cold blood, bludgeoning him to death. Yet when psychologist Ches met Huey he found it hard to equate the polite, honest young man with this murder. There is no doubt that he did it, but why? Ches looks into the young man's past, and two areas of difficult territory, buried memory and provocation. It’s a thought-provoking read.

Surrender by Donna Malane is a ripper yarn – a fast-paced and compelling story and a lead character who I sometimes loved, sometimes hated, but either way was entranced with. Diane Rowe is a missing persons expert and a hard woman. A year or two earlier her young sister was murdered and when the man she thought, but couldn’t prove, killed Nikki turns up dead, Diane has to get to the bottom of it. Diane is abrasive and stroppy and provides lots of short pithy one-liners. She’s also good at getting into serious trouble, and this book pulls no punches.

Craig Sisterson is a blogger who writes about thrillers on goldenglobenominees.blogspot.com/

I’ve read several very good crime and thriller novels this year, but here are three that stand out, raise the bar, and I think deserve much more attention.

The Glass Rainbow is the latest Louisiana-set masterpiece from the sublime James Lee Burke. Septuagenarian detective Dave Robicheaux, a series of brutal killings, his daughter entangled with a degenerate old-money family, longtime pal Clete under suspicion for murder, hired mercenaries, hovering evil, looming mortality, and more. Layered and lush: intricate plotting, compelling characters, philosophical insights, and lyrical prose. Superlative.

Kiwi writer Paul Cleave’s fantastic Blood Men further underlines his world-class talent for scary thrillers that mix depth and darkness. It’s told from the skewed viewpoint of Edward, an accountant losing the plot and worried that he hears the same monstrous ‘voice’ as his serial killer father. Cleave’s writing crackles with energy. The pages whir, but there’s also plenty of sly humour and thought-provoking themes beneath the blood.

Blue Heaven won Wyoming writer CJ Box the prestigious Edgar Award in 2009, but he wasn’t published here until this year. An absorbing tale of frightened children on the run after witnessing four corrupt policemen gun down a man in rural North Idaho. Something of a crime fiction and classic Western love-child, this is a gripping, intelligent thriller with complex characters, a beautifully-evoked setting, and a ferocious conclusion.

Graham Beattie writes about books on the popular beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com and regularly reviews for Radio New Zealand.

The Confession by John Grisham. I include this title because I literally couldn’t put it down once I started reading. It’s something of a departure for Grisham in that it tells the story of two men one of whom was wrongfully convicted nine years before for murder and the other the worthless guy who actually committed the crime. There are four days to go before the execution, the guilty low-life guy has learned he has a brain tumour and facing his imminent death has decided to make a clean breast of the murder. But is it too late? Vintage Grisham whom I suspect may be in the anti-death penalty lobby, the book says much about the risk of wrongful convictions. I was hooked.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. This is a big book, almost 600 pages, with a myriad of characters. It is probably fair to call it an epic. It’s Franzen’s first novel since the much-acclaimed The Corrections nine years ago and has been keenly awaited by many, including me. I was not disappointed. It’s a generational family saga featuring the rather likeable Patty and Walter Berglund a baby boomer, financially secure, left leaning couple who live in the Midwest with successful children and whose marriage is running out of steam. It covers from the 1970’s through to the present day with an emphasis on 2004. A book in which you can get lost and that in the end I found most satisfying.

Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones. Another author with a serious act to follow after the huge international success of his Man Booker shortlisted Mister Pip. I found this quite spellbinding. A North African woman becomes pregnant while working in a Tunisian hotel and shortly after the birth the baby boy is stolen and taken to Germany by the father.

The book is about the woman’s journey to find him. It leads her across the Mediterranean and through various countries to Berlin, and is told first by the myriad of characters she meets along the way -some generous, others exploitative - and then by herself.

This is a haunting, sometimes heartbreaking, story of a mother’s love. It will be a long time before I forget Jones’ wonderfully crafted character.

Dame Fiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet.
I’ve read many wonderful books this year but as I’m one of three international judges for the Commonwealth Fiction Prize, I have to reserve comment for the moment as to my favourite New Zealand titles.

One New Zealand publication that didn’t qualify for inclusion, is Parisian writer Pierre Furlan’s The Collector’s Dream, translated from French by Jean Anderson. It’s an absorbing and quirky father and son story based on Invercargill born genius and inventor, Franklin Bodmin. Bodmin became an American entrepreneur, and Will, who follows him, is equally driven in his own way. Bodmin Senior invented, among other things, crinkled hairpins and the first modern carburetor. Furlan got the idea of writing the book when he was a Randell Cottage Writers’ Fellow in Wellington.

One of my great reading discoveries of the year was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. The 13 linked stories, about an aged, often graceless, but warm-hearted school teacher read like a novel and reveal not just one small new England town and its people, but what makes the human heart tick. This complex, emotional read won the Pulitzer Prize.

The title of Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel The Hand That First Held Mine didn’t appeal, but once started it was a straight-through read. A young London couple have their first baby and things don’t go well from the start, as Elina suffers post natal depression. But as it clears, her partner Ted falls prey to a much greater malaise, triggered by the baby’s birth. There is a mystery about Ted’s identity, which reads like a thriller.

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This article was first published in the Books section of the 26 December 2010 issue of the Herald on Sunday, and is reprinted here on Crime Watch with the kind permission of Herald on Sunday Books Editor Nicky Pellegrino.

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Great to see some crime and thriller fiction get a mention, especially the New Zealand books - and not just from me, but other reviewers and authors as well. Have you read any of the titles (crime fiction or otherwise) mentioned? What do you think of the recommendations? What were your favourite books of 2010?

Who the hell is Alix Bosco?

This morning on his always-excellent Beattie's Book Blog, my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge Graham "Bookman" Beattie has asked a question that has been puzzling many in the New Zealand books world for over a year now; just who the hell is 'Alix Bosco'?

Beattie has his suspicions, based on the little we know about Bosco, who is of course the author of the critically-acclaimed CUT & RUN, one of the three finalists for the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, and this year's follow-up SLAUGHTER FALLS.

He lays out some possible reasons for someone "to decide to use a pseudonym and go to some lengths to prevent people finding out her/his real identity," before revealing his "hottest suspect at the moment" (see here) - someone who hasn't featured much in the various debates that have flared up in the comments section here on Crime Watch in the past few months.

So, the list of 'suspects' lengthens. Beattie, like me, does lean towards it being a female writer - this is a 'gut feel' on my part based more on the writing style, perspective and content, and particularly the way of dealing with violence and the issues covered etc, in the two Anna Markunas books thusfar, rather than just because the pseudonym and main character are female - although one of the most strident commenters on Crime Watch has repeatedly assured us that playwright Greg McGee is in fact Alix Bosco (and there is certainly some circumstantial support for this, as there is with other suspects). I've also heard the McGee rumour elsewhere too, not just on the Internet.

Other than McGee, potential 'suspects' here on Crime Watch, from commenters, include established novelist and former social worker Rosie Scott, television writer Maxine Fleming, and former Prime Minister Helen Clark (Bernadette with the scoop there).

Rather than a journalist (Beattie's "hottest suspect"), although that's certainly a very strong possibility, my gut tells me it's someone closely involved, or who runs in the same circles, with New Zealand television, especially those involved with the TV show Outrageous Fortune. The speed at which CUT & RUN was picked up for a TV adaptation, with Robyn Malcolm tabbed as Markunas (which does seem ideal casting by the way), and the fact that Malcolm gave the quote for the first book - meaning she'd read the manuscript or a very advance version (prior to the covers being printed - my advance copy already had her quote on it)...

Fleming would fit that profile (apparently she has been involved as a writer with Outrageous Fortune), as would others like series creators/lead writers James Griffin (if it's not a female) and Rachel Lang. But this is of course all supposition.

So, who do you think Alix Bosco is? You can read my 9mm interview with Bosco (done via email via a third party, to protect his/her identity) here - one of the few interviews s/he has given.

Please share your thoughts with Beattie on his blog too.

On the case: Ngaio Marsh Award and Kiwi crime fiction highlighted by major New Zealand newspapers

Back on 22 August, I noted that New Zealand crime writing had been getting some (overdue) and very welcome attention in major newspapers, including a three-page feature by Philip Matthews in the glossy 'Your Weekend' lifestyle magazine supplement, which was included in the weekend editions of the Dominion Post and The Press (and, I understand, possibly the Waikato Times as well) that weekend. That is, the major newspaper in the South Island and the major newspapers of two of the three biggest centres in the North Island (the Weekend Dominion Post was also available in Auckland, the biggest centre, as well).

At the time I said that I would try and find a way to get the article online, for those of you overseas and outside the newspapers' coverage area. Unfortunately the articles in 'Your Weekend' aren't typically placed online, however thanks to the generosity of Philip Matthews and Fairfax Magazines, I am now able to share the article with you here. I apologise for the delay - Philip gave his permission the day just before the Canterbury Earthquake, so things have been a little frantic and it's taken me a few days to sort everything out to re-publish the article in full here on Crime Watch.

So without further ado, here is Matthews' excellent large feature on New Zealand crime writing, in full, for you all to enjoy. Of course the announcement of the winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which he refers to in the article, has been put on hold temporarily, as the Christchurch Writers' Festival was of course cancelled in the wake of earthquake.

On the case
There’s a spree of crime writing going on in New Zealand, culminating in the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel at the Christchurch Writers Festival next month. Philip Matthews tracks down the culprits

The short history of New Zealand crime writing goes like this. Once upon a time there was Ngaio Marsh, Christchurch-born author of more than 30 mysteries. Most of the books were set in England with a few exceptions, one of which might never be surpassed as a brilliant title for a New Zealand murder story: Died in the Wool. Marsh is routinely identified as one of the four "Queens of Crime'' from the golden age of crime writing; the others were Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers.

Then nothing much happened for decades until Paul Thomas wrote his 90s trilogy, Old School Tie, Inside Dope and Guerrilla Season. Set in an all-too-plausible Auckland underworld of gangs and drug dealers, these books have just been reissued as The Ihaka Trilogy, named after the central character, Maori cop Tito Ihaka.

Those books gave you satire along with the sex and suspense. Lately, Thomas has been inactive as a thriller writer but enough authors have followed in his footsteps to suggest that we might be on the verge of a Kiwi crime boom.

Actually, boom is overselling it a little. "I would say there's a pleasant growth," says Craig Sisterson, on the phone from Auckland. By day, Sisterson writes for a legal industry magazine. By night, he maintains a prolific crime fiction website, Crime Watch, and has been the driving force behind a new award for New Zealand crime writing. The inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will be handed out at the Christchurch Writers Festival next month, and it would be nice to pretend that the only reason Christchurch is the location for this celebration of murder is that it happens to have been Marsh's hometown.

Sisterson describes Marsh as "a truly world-class writer who is a little overlooked here in New Zealand". This is a common, and not entirely unwarranted, complaint of crime fans: that we tend to celebrate our highbrow, literary fiction and under-value crime and other popular genres.

“It's like the film critic thing where they think only art-house films are good,” Sisterson says. “Crime is actually really broad now. It's not just the Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh-style detective stories. You've got crime that's verging on horror. You've got crime that's very literary. You've got stuff that's caperesque, stuff that's psychological, stuff that's quite low level. They can be social or sociological novels that can really tell you about a time and place.”

The American journalist turned crime writer Michael Connelly went further, in an interview with Your Weekend two years ago: “If you want to say something significant about my country at this point, it would be hard to do that if there's wasn't some aspect of crime in your novel.”

“You can say quite a lot in crime fiction as a vehicle,” adds Dunedin-based crime novelist Vanda Symon. “Ian Rankin says writing crime fiction gives you an all-areas-pass into the contemporary scene.”

IN JUNE, an Australian crime novel jumped the fence to win Australian's leading literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award. Not the crime prize but the one serious books get. The book was Truth by Ballarat author Peter Temple.

For some, this was an upset as traumatic and unlikely as a murder mystery winning the Man Booker Prize or this week's New Zealand Post Book Award. Even Temple himself was “shocked” and said it would have been unthinkable to the late Patrick White that a crime scribbler could win such a prestigious award. For others, this was just belated recognition of a growing acceptance of crime writing by the literati.

“Literature used to be regarded as the source of all other -- by definition, lesser -- genres,” says London-based New Zealand writer Chad Taylor. “Now it's regarded as one genre among many.”

Auckland book blogger and publishing industry veteran Graham Beattie noticed a sea change when he saw high-end British publications like the Spectator and the Literary Review covering crime books. Locally, the books pages of serious publications also feature crime novels more than they used to.

Sisterson consulted Beattie, who reviews crime books on National Radio, when he began to think that New Zealand needed its own crime prize. Australia has the Ned Kellys. The Crime Writers' Association has the Daggers. In the US there are the Agathas and Edgars, named for Christie and Poe. So why not the Ngaios?

Beattie asked the obvious question. Do we have enough books?

“We've still got a fair way to go,” Beattie says. “There is a lot more fiction published here that isn't crime fiction than is, whereas overseas it is probably the largest single genre written and also the biggest selling genre worldwide. It's probably amongst the biggest selling here too.”

Sisterson found 14 New Zealand titles published last year that qualify. To get to that number, he had to cast his net a little wider than what is strictly called crime: Maurice Gee's Access Road was in his longlist as was another literary novel, Butterscotch by Lyn Loates, as it had the Parker-Hulme murder in it. This month he boiled his longlist down to a shortlist of three -- Cut and Run by Alix Bosco, Burial by Wellington-based British writer Neil Cross and Containment by Vanda Symon -- with a single winner to be picked by a mix of overseas and local judges.

Sisterson reckons there will be even more contenders next year. There is 20-year-old Auckland writer Ben Sanders who just published his first novel, The Fallen. Wellington TV writer Donna Malane won a publishing prize with a crime novel that will appear soon. Christchurch writer Grant Shanks publishes books in Asia under the penname Andrew Grant -- Singapore Sling Shot is a recent title. Wellington writer Bob Marriott was shortlisted for this year's Debut Dagger in the UK -- Sisterson wonders why that news went under the local media radar.

A prize and the ensuing attention should encourage others. We could even get a boom. Places like Scotland, Austria and Sweden have seen huge crime writing scenes grow out of relatively small populations, Sisterson notes. He apologises for sounding like a geek but he has all the facts at his fingertips: do you know that Sweden, with just nine million people, produced 84 crime novels in 2006? Not all of them were written by Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.

A peaceful country with a booming murder industry. Maybe that could be us.

THERE WAS Scottish crime writing before Ian Rankin. There was Swedish crime writing before Larsson and Mankell. But the success of one writer can focus attention on a whole country and Sisterson suspects that the one to do it for us might be Paul Cleave.

The Christchurch crime writer is famous for books so gory they made Australian author Jack Heath throw up. Call that an endorsement. The Germans can't get enough of this: 50,000 copies of Cleave's Cemetery Lake sold in one month in Germany last year; 250,000 copies of The Cleaner, the story of a Christchurch serial killer, were sold in Germany in 2007. This year, he signed a multibook deal with US giant Simon and Schuster, which started with his fourth novel, Blood Men.

The titles alone give you a sense of how vicious things get in Cleave's dark version of the garden city but Vanda Symon notes that they are also strongly plotted books. She even credits Cleave with opening the door for her. When Symon sent her first novel, Overkill, to Penguin Books, she got a contract for that book and three more. Penguin were after a series and she suspects Cleave's success has encouraged local publishers to look for others.

All of the Symon books feature Sam Shepard, a female cop. Inventing a compelling lead character is the key to a long-running series, Beattie says.

“You have a character who will end up being in 14 or 15 novels and you grow old with them. Ian Rankin did something dramatic last year. He retired his detective inspector Rebus, a much-loved character. That's unusual. Most people develop a cop and keep them going.”

Auckland writer Alix Bosco has come up with Anna Markunas, a legal researcher who appeared in last year's Cut and Run and this year's Slaughter Falls. Robyn Malcolm will play Markunas in a TV drama next year but the more intriguing character might be the mysterious Bosco herself -- not even Sisterson and Beattie know who the well-known writer is behind that pen name.

Bosco's invention of Anna Markunas and Symon's invention of Sam Shepard suggest a local game played by imported rules. Chad Taylor came at crime fiction in a more tangential way in hyper-cool books like Shirker and Electric -- he likes that they were dubbed ``noir'' -- and from London he has heard about the new breed of New Zealand crime writers.

“I'm aware there is a new crop of crime writers -- `crime' with an embossed red C -- and I wish them well but I hope they don't stick by the rules,” Taylor says. “That would be boring. New Zealand writers can do anything they want now and should.”

The first crime authors Taylor read were Arthur Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler but he was less interested in the mysteries than “the icy characterisation of Sherlock Holmes and Chandler's atmospheric descriptions of the city”. This is the argument that crime writing at its best is really a vehicle for other things.

“I think if someone enjoys reading crime, what they're really after is a story,” Taylor says. “You wouldn't accept Henning Mankell's world view if it was labelled as literature. In that instance the crime label becomes subversive: a trick to take the reader places they wouldn't go normally. In many other cases, the crime label is merely an excuse for bad writing.”

Thinking more about that issue of importing overseas conventions, Graham Beattie brings up the case of the 20-year-old Ben Sanders. “Apparently he's been reading crime fiction since he was about 11 and it shows because his character is a real smart-arse cop who doesn't mind bending the law to get results. That is so typical of American and British crime fiction.”

While he thinks Sanders is very promising, Beattie finds the book a little derivative. But there is something uncanny and thrilling about unfamiliar stories set in urban landscapes you know well: the very different Aucklands of Alix Bosco, Chad Taylor and Ben Sanders; the Dunedin of Sam Shepard, with its cafes and unruly students. When Beattie read the Sanders book he had the odd sensation of knowing every street, every building and every beach. “It made it very different to reading one set in New York or Detroit or Birmingham.”


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The best and bloodiest: crime writers and readers pick their favourites

Graham Beattie, book blogger and crime reviewer.
"Vanda Symon impresses me most of the New Zealand writers. Ian Rankin is probably the best crime fiction writer in the world for my money."

Chad Taylor, novelist.
Locally: "Paul Thomas, although I know he has mixed feelings about the genre. Sadly his paying work and positive attitude to life is holding him back from writing more books."
Internationally: "James Ellroy, Pete Dexter, Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko books. I think everyone else I like is dead ..."

Vanda Symon, novelist.
Locally: "Paul Cleave and Neil Cross have gripping stories. I like Paddy Richardson's writing because she has a psychological element."

Internationally: "I really enjoy some of the Australian crime writers. Peter Temple is fabulous. I've been reading Michael Robotham. I enjoy the Scandinavians: Stieg Larsson and a chap called Johan Theorin whose The Darkest Room just won the International Dagger Award. Those are dark and serious crime books. I also like the fun ones, like Janet Evanovich."

Craig Sisterson, blogger and crime enthusiast.
"There's a lot of good local writers. The three on the shortlist (Alix Bosco, Neil Cross, Vanda Symon). Paul Cleave is fantastic and under-appreciated. Andrew Grant is one to watch.''

Internationally: "There's like a million! James Lee Burke is a doyen. PD James. Michael Connelly. Michael Robotham. Simon Kernick. Mark Billingham. Val McDermid...''

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This feature article was first published in the Your Weekend magazine of several Fairfax newspapers, including The Press and The Dominion Post, on Saturday 21 August 2010, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Philip Matthews and Fairfax Magazines.

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So what do you think of this feature article? Is New Zealand crime writing starting to grow in stature? Have you read any of the New Zealand crime writers mentioned, or others? Who are your favourites? Can crime writing, here and overseas, be about more than just a mystery story? Thoughts and comments welcome.