Crime wave to strike Hamilton in February!

The programme for the 2012 Waikato Times Hamilton Garden Arts Festival has just been announced, and I'm very pleased to share that the organisers have picked up on the quality and growth of New Zealand crime writing, and have included what should be a terrific crime writing event.

The Waikato Times Hamilton Garden Arts Festival runs for the last couple of weeks of February, and consists of many terrific events, ranging from visual arts to music, comedy, film, theatre, dance, food and wine, and books. Held during what is often the best time of the New Zealand summer, it should be great.

There are four literary/books events at next year's festival, including a crime writing one. I say crime writing because it's a bit of a double header event, covering both true crime writing and crime fiction, with five fantastic New Zealand writers in attendance. At only $10 to attend, it's a complete steal. Here's the line-up of writers for the event:

Crime Writers
"Delve into the mind of crime"

Scott Bainbridge
New Zealand law means that all unsolved murder files are inaccessible for a period of 70 years. Even after this period, restricted access is rarely given. Bainbridge has been given unprecedented access to the police files for ten of New Zealand¹s most baffling unsolved murders.

Joan Rosier-Jones
In Joan's latest book, market gardener Chow Yat, lives on the outskirts of Whanganui in post-WWI New Zealand, a time of particularly rampant xenophobia. In 1922 this humble, hardworking Chinese man was brutally shot and the murder remained unsolved. Through sound enquiry Rosier-Jones single-handedly all but solves the case.

Ben Sanders
At 20 years of age, Ben Sanders fascination with crime fiction has paid off having just signed a two-book contract with HarperCollins Publishers. Ben's sophisticated and edgy writing style signals the emergence of a major new talent.

Vanda Symon
Vanda is the author of the Sam Shephard detective fiction series. Her latest novel Bound, went straight to number one in the New Zealand bestsellers lists.

Paul Cleave
At 24 Paul wrote The Killing Hour. A year later he wrote The Cleaner. In 2006, six years after it was written, The Cleaner was published. It became one of the biggest selling books ever to come out of New Zealand, picking up several international contracts within it's first year and introducing Joe, the 'loveable' serial killer who works at the Christchurch Police Department.

The Crime Writers event will be held at 5pm on Sunday 19 February 2012 at the Garden Terrace restaurant. Penny's Bookstore will be selling a range of the writers' books at the event.

Hope to see some of the North Island-based Crime Watch readers and crime fiction fans there on the night. Should be a great evening! Thanks to the organisers of the 2012 Waikato Times Hamilton Garden Arts Festival for embracing local crime writing in such a great way.

A nationwide crime spree: my tiki tour of New Zealand crime fiction for New Zealand Author magazine (full online version)

a nationwide crime spree

there’s been a noticeable growth in locally-written crime fiction in recent years. Craig Sisterson surveys the landscape from north to south, looking at the emerging hotspots

When the four finalists for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel gathered in Christchurch recently for the well-attended “Setting the Stage for Murder” event, not only did they represent some of the best examples of contemporary Kiwi-written crime fiction, but also its geographic spread across the country: Alix Bosco (revealed as playwright and screenwriter Greg McGee) from Auckland, Neil Cross from Wellington, winner Paul Cleave of Christchurch, and Paddy Richardson from Dunedin.

From Northland to Southland and everywhere in between, it’s becoming clear that more and more we have a number of local storytellers who are capable of weaving top quality tales of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Writers who have something interesting to offer readers, here and abroad, who enjoy this most thrilling (and globally popular) of genres.

As can be seen, there’s a diverse array of storytelling, setting, and styles on offer – something for everyone, reading-wise – as we take a little ‘tiki tour’ around the country.

An archaeological dig amongst the beauty of the Kaipara Harbour was the setting for Waiheke Island resident Dorothy Fowler’s intriguing debut mystery What Remains Behind (Black Swan, 2009). Switching narratives between the sabotage-affected modern-day dig and diary entries detailing events prior to a 120-year-old tragedy, Fowler also evokes a good sense of rural small town Northland, then and now. Just down the road in Mangawhai, travel specialist and former journalist Roy Vaughan has also recently debuted on New Zealand bookshelves with The Mereleigh Record Club Tour of New Zealand (Eloquent Books, 2009), which centres on a group of 60-somethings who unwittingly get caught up with an international drug ring, and a police and customs sting, as they tour New Zealand trying to recapture the rock’n’roll days of their youth.

Gulf Harbour resident Michael Green is partway through penning a page-turning thriller trilogy focused on a small group of survivors of a global pandemic. The second instalment, Blood Bond (Arrow, 2009), is set locally, and in England and on the high seas and countries in between, and Green is currently working on the third book in the series.

Overseas, many the career of a bestselling crime writer has had as its spine the creation and crafting of an intriguing hero (or two) capable can carrying an ongoing series. Readers will follow a beloved character as much (if not more) than an author. As such, it’s been terrific to see two fascinating local protagonists emerge over the past couple of years in nascent but promising series set in our biggest and most cosmopolitan city. First, we were introduced to middle-aged legal researcher Anna Markunas in Cut & Run (Penguin, 2009), a terrific thriller kickstarted by the tabloid fodder murder of a famed rugby player while in the arms of a high-profile socialite. Markunas is a terrific creation; a troubled but likeable heroine, filled with inner conflict, contradictions, doubts and authentic emotions. Combined with Bosco/McGee’s vivid and pacy storytelling, and great touch for the Auckland setting (the glitz-gilded grittiness of the CBD to the ‘mean streets’ of the southern suburbs), it’s easy to see why Cut & Run was praised by Scottish crime fiction star Val McDermid at an event last year, and went on to win the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award in November 2010. Markunas continued to develop as a fascinating and complex heroine in Slaughter Falls (Penguin, 2010), a finalist for the 2011 award, and readers will be hopeful the series continues in coming years.

Last year also saw the introduction of Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux, the main character in local wunderkind Ben Sanders’ The Fallen (HarperCollins, 2010), which sat atop the bestseller list for several weeks and was one of the biggest-selling New Zealand books of 2010, and By Any Means (HarperCollins, 2011). Devereux is an enigmatic, intriguing hero, and his narration is peppered with pithy comments, asides, and observations. The talented Sanders, a 21 year old uni student, has a punchy, crisp prose style, and a good touch for both pace and ‘telling details’ that give you a great sense of character and place. Like Bosco/McGee, he evokes Auckland well as a gritty backdrop to his thrillers, providing international quality crime fiction in a decidedly local setting, with bodies found in Albert Park, motorway car chases, and drive-by shootings in the CBD.

The regions between our biggest city and our capital city currently provide slimmer pickings when it comes to contemporary crime fiction, despite what would seem like a plethora of intriguing landscapes, geographic and demographic, and issues that could provide great fodder and colour for a well-told thriller story. Back in the day, Dame Ngaio Marsh even brought her English gentleman detective Inspector Alleyn to the volcanic plateau in Colour Scheme (1943), a murder mystery tinged with war intrigue.

Nowadays, one pleasing exception to the central North Island crime fiction drought is Palmerston North teacher Ken Benn, who has begun a young adult thriller series with Lethal Deliveries (Penguin, 2010), an exciting tale of sports-loving teenagers who get caught up in the world of gangs and drug dealing. Shortlisted for the LIANZA Young Adult Fiction Award this year, Benn’s debut bluntly addresses the tough circumstances and troubling issues some Kiwi kids face, leaving readers on tenterhooks for book two.

The capital’s king of contemporary crime fiction is undoubtedly acclaimed screenwriter and novelist Neil Cross, who from his home in the Wellington suburbs has penned a number of terrific psychological thrillers, as well as creating the award-winning BBC TV crime drama Luther, starring Idris Elba (The Wire) in the titular role. While Cross sets his crime stories, books and TV, in his native Britain rather than his adopted home, he is a key part of the local crime fiction landscape: a twice finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Award (for Burial (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and Captured (Simon and Schuster, 2010)); a popular speaker at various arts and books festivals here and abroad; and serving as an example that New Zealand-based writers can succeed on the world stage.

Cross is a master of brooding, slightly off-kilter tales in bleak yet menacing settings populated with characters neither starkly good nor evil, but smudged shades of grey. Although his novel Always the Sun, a frightening tale of the steps a gentle man takes after learning his child is being bullied, was longlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, Cross has said that he is continually irritated and baffled by the idea that books labelled ‘literary’ are often considered superior or “more important” than books labelled ‘popular’ or ‘genre’ fiction, regardless of quality. “All that’s important is that I tell an interesting and engrossing story,” he says. Books can delve into a variety of deep themes, and should be informed by a writer’s views and how they see the world, but such complexity and insights “should come through the telling of the story” – something done very well by the best crime fiction writers here and overseas– rather than being “stapled onto the book”.

Last year, TV writer-producer Donna Malane joined Cross in the Wellington crime writers’ fraternity when her debut novel Surrender (NZSA, 2010) was published to good reviews after winning the NZSA-Pindar Publishing Prize. Powered by a vivid and captivating narrative voice (first person, through the eyes of heroine Dianne Rowe), Surrender has an absorbing mystery storyline as Rowe delves into the seedy underbelly of Wellington; a drug-fuelled world of strip clubs, sex workers, and hidden dangers.

Earlier this year, Upper Hutt author Cat Connor added to her series starring FBI Agent Ellie Conway, available in e-book form from the likes of Amazon and iTunes, with an exciting third instalment, Exacerbyte, which brings Conway and her colleagues to New Zealand, on the trail of an elusive child trafficker. Wellington is also home to maritime expert Joan Druett, who has marvelously combined mystery and history in four novels and several short stories starring her part-Maori seaman Wiki Coffin.

Heading across the Cook Strait to the sun-drenched Top of the South brings us to horse-loving poet, playwright, and children’s author Lindy Kelly’s debut adult thriller Bold Blood (HarperCollins, 2009). The Nelsonian’s tale of assaults, arsons, horse theft and murder set in the high stakes world of horse breeding proved popular with readers, and hit #1 on the local bestseller list. Nelson is also home to iconic New Zealand author Maurice Gee, who over the decades has penned dozens of beloved tales, ranging from children’s to adult, fantasy to realism, and the occasional dip or two into psychological crime and thriller with the likes of In My Father’s Den and Crime Story. His latest (and perhaps last) adult novel, Access Road (Viking, 2009) scratches at the surface of a fictionalised West Auckland, revealing the menace beneath the mundane as an elderly everywoman searches for the historic reasons behind her bedridden brother’s silence.

Down the (west) coast we find ourselves amongst some of New Zealand’s most spectacular scenery for former national park worker Trish McCormack’s debut mystery, Assigned to Murder (Poutini Press, 2009), which is being taken to the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. Glacier guide Philippa investigates the murder of her old flatmate in an intriguing mystery packed with complex human relationships and stunning landscapes.

Several modern-day New Zealand crime and thriller writers call Canterbury home, the most prominent of which is Paul Cleave, winner of the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for his fourth dark Christchurch-set thriller Blood Men (Random House, 2010). Cleave’s acclaimed locally-set and written crime novels have been translated into many languages, and appeared on bestseller lists in several countries, including Germany, France, and Turkey, selling several hundred thousand copies abroad. Like Dame Ngaio herself, Cleave is succeeding abroad as a crime writer while being somewhat overlooked or underappreciated by the wider books community here at home. And, like Cross, he is showing that New Zealand crime writers can excel on the world stage, and that we should not feel any ‘cultural cringe’ about our own writing. Recently, his fifth novel, Collecting Cooper (Atria, 2011), perhaps his best novel yet, became his second book published in the United States. It sees the return of former cop and private eye Theo Tate, who after being released from prison finds himself reluctantly on the trail of a dangerous killer, and a missing student. It’s easy to see why Cleave’s writing has attracted international attention: his vivid prose crackles with energy, his characters are compelling and complex, and he delves deeply into psychology and other issues while never taking his foot off the storytelling accelerator.

Joining Cleave in calling Canterbury home are contemporary thriller writers Steve Malley – Poison Door (Createspace, 2011), a gritty Christchurch-set thriller featuring a tough cop, a troubled teen, and a vicious drug kingpin, is now available on Kindle and Smashwords.com – and Grant Shanks. The latter writes thrillers under the name Andrew Grant, including the Ngaio Marsh Award longlisted spy tale Death in the Kingdom (Monsoon Books, 2007), and its sequel Singapore Sling Shot (Monsoon Books, 2009), both of which have recently become more readily available here in New Zealand.

Heading further south we find ourselves in another hotbed of contemporary Kiwi crime fiction, as several talented authors call Dunedin home; Vanda Symon, Paddy Richardson, Liam McIlvanney, and Andrew Porteous. Earlier this year Symon, a previous Ngaio Marsh Award finalist, released Bound (Penguin, 2011), the fourth and possibly best instalment yet in her acclaimed series starring Sam Shepard, who has risen through the police ranks from sole-charge Mataura cop in Overkill (Penguin, 2007) to put-upon junior detective for the Dunedin CID. Symon hasn’t yet been published as broadly as Cleave or Cross internationally, but her storytelling skills, snappy dialogue, vivid characters and settings, and flashes of humour have impressed readers and reviewers here and abroad.

Symon was joined in the Dunedin crime family by Paddy Richardson in 2008 (creepy psychological thriller A Year to Learn a Woman), recent Scottish immigrant Liam McIlvanney in 2009 (superlative thriller All the Colours of the Town, set amongst the sectarian violence of Glasgow and Belfast) and Andrew Porteous in 2010 (A Political Affair, which was published after winning a UK-based unpublished manuscript award, and introduced part Maori Dunedin detective Lachlan Doyle).

Clearly there’s something in the water down south. Richardson has also penned Hunting Blind – a superb tale melding family drama and psychological suspense as a woman tries to uncover what happened to her kid sister, many years go – and will soon have another book hitting shelves. Traces of Red, a psychological thriller centred on a failed TV journalist who believes a convicted triple murderer is innocent, is released in November. McIlvanney is also reportedly working on another thriller starring journalist Gerry Conway, and like himself, may even emigrate his hero to New Zealand in future.

Without a doubt, New Zealand crime fiction has experienced pleasing growth in recent times, numbers and quality-wise, thanks to the books and authors mentioned here, and a few more. The snowball has started rolling down the hill, and it will be fascinating to see just how big it can get, here and abroad, if local readers who enjoy a bit of mystery and thrills in their reading become more willing to discover the talents we have right here.

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Craig Sisterson writes for a variety of publications in several countries. He is the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, and the creator of Crime Watch, a website focused on New Zealand crime and thriller writing: http://www.goldenglobenominees.blogspot.com//.

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This article was first published in the October/November issue of New Zealand Author magazine, the official publication of the New Zealand Society of Authors. It is reprinted in full here with the kind permission of Editor Adrian Blackburn.

Reviews: THE AFFAIR, THE RETRIBUTION, and BY ANY MEANS

This year I've been asked to provide a monthly crime fiction round-up for the Herald on Sunday, one of New Zealand's most well-known newspapers. I'm very pleased to be able to contribute in my small way to getting crime fiction into the books sections of some local media.


My latest column was published a couple of weekends ago, but I didn't realise - missing that issue of the newspaper - so I hadn't yet shared the reviews online. Here they are:

Crime Watch

The Affair
By Lee Child (Bantam Press, $39.99)
A return to form for Child after the underwhelming Worth Dying For, this latest Jack Reacher tale goes back to before the beginning, to 1997 when he was still a Major in the military police. Sent undercover to Mississippi after a woman has her throat cut behind a bar just down the road from a large Army base, Reacher finds himself entangled with the attractive female sheriff, and questioning everything, unsure just who he can trust. A page-turner, The Affair sheds new light on the enigmatic wandering hero, and should please new and old fans alike.

The Retribution
By Val McDermid (Little, Brown, $34.99)
The doyenne of Tartan Noir, McDermid not only brings back her popular pairing of dysfunctional profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan (of Wire in the Blood fame) in her latest novel, but also celebrity broadcaster turned serial killer Jacko Vance. Just when Hill and Jordan are about to take themselves to another place, professionally and perhaps personally, their nemesis escapes after years behind bars, throwing them, their colleagues, and their wider lives, into disarray. McDermid creates a pulse-pounding plot, but her writing shines brightest in the emotional turmoil of her characters’ relationships.

By Any Means
By Ben Sanders (HarperCollins, $24.99)
This sophomore effort from 21-year-old Aucklander Sanders has plenty of the crisp prose, vivid imagery, and page-turning plotlines that powered his #1 bestselling debut, The Fallen, last year. Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux juggles murder investigations: a Friday rush-hour drive-by shooting, and a suspicious double-killing in an affluent suburb. Meanwhile Devereaux’s ex-cop buddy John Hale finds himself chasing kidnappers, and being chased by the Police. While there are flaws (a tendency to get ‘listy’ with musical references or travel details), overall Sanders has crafted another very enjoyable thriller, set right here in our biggest city.

Craig Sisterson helped establish the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. He writes about crime and thriller fiction for several publications here and overseas, and blogs at http://goldenglobenominees.blogspot.com//.

Happy Birthday Ben Sanders

Today, wunderkind Auckland crime writer Ben Sanders turns the ripe old age of 22, so Happy Birthday Ben! With two quality crime novels already under his belt, and a third on the way in his Sean Devereaux and John Hale series, Sanders (pictured right, with Michael Connelly in Auckland earlier this year)looks to have a very promising crime writing career ahead of him.

To mark Sanders' birthday, I thought I would republish my reviews of each of his first two novels, #1 bestseller THE FALLEN, and sequel BY ANY MEANS. I enjoyed both these books, although of course they're not without flaws, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how Sanders develops as a crime writer over the coming years; he could be part of a new wave of Kiwi crime writers that may put New Zealand squarely on the international map again. You can also read my recent interview with Sanders for the New Zealand Herald here, and his 9mm interview with Crime Watch here. But for now, here are my reviews:

The Fallen by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins, 2010)
A man dazedly regains consciousness, only to find himself handcuffed, feeling like "he's been bathed in something corrosive", and with his head adhered to the carpet by his own clotted blood.

So starts this debut crime thriller from North Shore engineering student and nascent author, Ben Sanders, an adroit barely-20-something being touted as "a major new talent" with a "sophisticated and edgy" writing style.

The Fallen then quickly switches to the first-person narration of street-savvy Auckland police detective Sean Devereaux, a hero who quickly displays some classic crime fiction traits. Devereaux has a tendency to trust his own morals, instincts and judgment more than "the rules" of his superiors; his narration is peppered with pithy comments and observations about the case and the wider world that are tinged with both smart-aleck humour and the occasionally jaded eye of someone who's already seen plenty - "criminal investigation is inherently recession-proof"; but at the core he's someone who cares, even if at times he may not want to.

Devereaux returns early from leave to investigate the brutal slaying of a 16-year-old "Epsom princess", whose bashed body is discovered on the edge of a flowerbed in Albert Park. "I wondered what she could have done to deserve such a fate," reflects Devereaux, "but as always when I asked myself that question, my subconscious churned up the same answer: nothing".

Off the clock Devereaux is busying himself playing white knight for his attractive neighbour - finding out why she's being watched by a mysterious man. As he juggles his official and unofficial duties, the latter with the help of "strong but silent" security specialist John Hale (formerly an investigator with both the army and the New Zealand Police), Devereaux opens the proverbial Pandora's Box. His after-hours activities peel the scab from a scam run by senior colleagues and he and Hale are dropped right into an escalating cycle of kidnapping, murder, and violence.

Sanders writes in a punchy, crisp style, employing short sentences and terse but telling descriptions - rather than languid or overwrought prose - to evoke a strong sense of the various Auckland settings, and his characters' thoughts, actions, and motivations. There is a sleekness to his storytelling that would be impressive for any crime writer, let alone one so young.

He sprinkles musical references throughout; Devereaux, like the author, has a passion for rock, from REM to Neil Young. Sanders has reportedly been enamoured with crime fiction since he was an adolescent, and fellow fans of the genre will be able to spot the influence of varying big-name international bestsellers in aspects of The Fallen. Hale has echoes of Robert Crais' Joe Pike, while Sanders' ability to evoke an essence of Auckland as Devereaux travels the city's streets is almost Connelly-esque.

But just like a new band that has echoes of those that have gone before, the real question isn't whether a newcomer is completely unlike anything else, but whether he or she provides something enjoyable and a little different. More importantly, whether they're any good. With The Fallen, Sanders comes up trumps on that front: Devereaux's first outing is an absorbing debut that also entices with future promise.

The young man from the North Shore has added to the mounting evidence that New Zealand can produce native, compelling crime fiction to match the international offerings readers buy and enjoy in droves.

This review was first published in the 31 July 2010 issue of the New Zealand Herald.

By Any Means by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins, 2011)

Young Aucklander Ben Sanders, who juggles novel writing with his university civil engineering studies, burst onto the local books scene last year with The Fallen, a gritty crime thriller that introduced Detective Sean Devereaux and ex-cop John Hale, and was packed with murder, kidnapping, and police corruption. All set amongst the seamy streets and suburbs of our largest city. Now, 21-year-old Sanders returns, as do Devereaux and Hale, with By Any Means, the follow up to his #1 bestselling debut.

In the first sentence, a bus driver is killed, shot by an unknown gunman on Auckland’s bustling Albert Street during Friday rush hour. Detective Sean Devereaux picks up the case, only to discover wildly conflicting witness accounts then a sense the victim wasn’t the true target. But then, who was? At the same time Devereaux is dealing with a double killing in the affluent suburbs: the wife and daughter of a prominent finance company director. Murder-suicide or double homicide? The police turn their attention to the husband, but Devereaux has doubts. Meanwhile, John Hale is largely unavailable to assist, as he’s witnessed a kidnapping, and finds himself the target of a dogged senior police officer as he tries to do his own private investigations.

Sanders writes in a crisp and punchy style, powering a storyline that can hook you early and keep the pages whirring. He often has a very nice way with words when it comes to pithy descriptions of people and places, using some vivid imagery, although at times some of the travel around Auckland, and the use of musical references, can get a touch too ‘listy’, which could bother some readers. Overall, By Any Means is a solid sophomore effort, and shows that Sanders is no one-hit wonder. I’m certainly looking forward to the next Sean Devereaux and John Hale tale.

This review was first published in the Friday, 26 August 2011 issue of NZLawyer magazine.

Happy Birthday Mr Sanders! I hope to be reviewing many more of your crime novels in the coming years.

Reminder: Meet Kiwi crime writer Ben Sanders in Takapuna tomorrow night

Just a quick reminder that local crime writer Ben Sanders (THE FALLEN, BY ANY MEANS) will be appearing at the Takapuna Library on Auckland's North Shore, tomorrow night. It's great to see support for New Zealand crime writers (as well as visiting international authors) having their own events too, and hopefully a good crowd will come along to support local crime writing.

Sanders (pictured right, with Michael Connelly) is a 21-year-old Aucklander, currently studying engineering at university (college, for American readers), while writing his crime novels at night. Although seemingly young, Sanders has had a passion for crime and thriller novels since he was an adolescent, and started writing his first crime novels while still at high school. He was signed up for publication as a 19-year-old (with his third manuscript, which became a #1 New Zealand Adult Fiction Bestseller, THE FALLEN), and is now working on his third crime novel. You can read more about Sanders and his writing here:

• "From reader to writer", Weekend Herald article, August 2011;
• "Young gun", Sunday Star-Times article, August 2010;
• "9mm: an interview with Ben Sanders", Crime Watch, June 2011;

Now readers have a chance to meet Sanders for themselves, as I will be interviewing him, on stage, at an event at the Takapuna Library tomorrow night. Here's the official spiel:

By Any Means - interview with Ben Sanders

Come along to an exciting interview with Ben Sanders.

Wednesday 7 September 2011 6.30pm
Takapuna Library
6pm: light refreshements served, 6.30pm event starts
Admission: $5 ($2 Friends of the Library)

Come along to an exciting interview as crime fiction expert, Craig Sisterson, grills 21-year-old Ben Sanders about his latest release, By Any Means, and his fascination with crime fiction.

Following the discussion will be a book signing courtesy of Paper Plus, Takapuna.

RSVP: Email Helen Woodhouse (Helen.Woodhouse@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz) or phone (09) 486 8469.

For my own part, I'd just say that if any Crime Watch readers are in the area, it would be great to see you there - the Takapuna Library always hosts great events, and it would be good to get a good crowd for a local crime writer, especially as this would of course encourage this and other venues to do more crime fiction events, including with Kiwi crime writers, in future.

Meet up-and-coming Kiwi crime writer Ben Sanders in Takapuna next week

Earlier this month, 21-year-old Auckland engineering student Ben Sanders (pictured right, between myself and Michael Connelly) released his second crime novel, BY ANY MEANS, which continued his gritty Auckland-set crime series starring Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux and ex-cop turned private consultant John Hale - a 'brains and brawn' style team (although Devereaux has some brawn too, and Hale plenty of brains to go with his action-first persona).

You can read my recent review of BY ANY MEANS here, and my feature article on Sanders for the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest-circulation newspaper), here.

Now readers have a chance to meet Sanders for themselves, as I will be interviewing him, on stage, at an event at the Takapuna Library next Wednesday, 7 September 2011. The Takapuna Library has built up a strong tradition of hosting great crime fiction events, with visiting international stars John Hart, Michael Robotham, Peter James, Simon Kernick, Tom Rob Smith, Gregg Hurwitz and Linwood Barclay all appearing over the past two years. It's great to see the library now hosting an event featuring one of our rising Kiwi crime fiction stars. Sanders' debut, THE FALLEN, spent several weeks atop the NZ Adult Fiction bestseller list on release last year, and was longlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

Here's the official spiel about next week's event:

By Any Means - interview with Ben Sanders

Come along to an exciting interview with Ben Sanders.

Wednesday 7 September 2011 6.30pm
Takapuna Library
6pm: light refreshements served, 6.30pm event starts
Admission: $5 ($2 Friends of the Library)

Come along to an exciting interview as crime fiction expert, Craig Sisterson, grills 21-year-old Ben Sanders about his latest release, By Any Means, and his fascination with crime fiction.

Following the discussion will be a book signing courtesy of Paper Plus, Takapuna.

RSVP: Email Helen Woodhouse (Helen.Woodhouse@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz) or phone (09) 486 8469.

If you're in the area, it would be great to see you there - the Takapuna Library always hosts great events, and it would be good to get a good crowd for a local crime writer.

Vanda Symon reports on "Setting the Stage for Murder"

Last Sunday, the second-ever Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel was presented in Christchurch, to Paul Cleave for his dark thriller set in a near-dystopian version of that very city, BLOOD MEN. The Award was part of "Setting the Stage for Murder", a fantastic event put on by the Christchurch Writers Festival, as part of the 2011 Christchurch Arts Festival. It was great to have so many crime writers, and readers, in one place - a rarity for New Zealand. The event had six authors on stage (internationals John Hart and Tess Gerritsen, followed by the four Ngaio Marsh Award finalists: Paul Cleave, Paddy Richardson, Neil Cross, and Alix Bosco/Greg McGee), and several others at the event, in the audience, and at the post-match lunch.

2010 finalist Vanda Symon came up from Dunedin for the day to support her fellow crime writers, 2011 longlistee Ben Sanders came down from Auckland (fellow longlistee Andrew Grant was also in the audience), and others from the books and writing world were also in the audience. It's great to see such support for locally-written crime fiction - hopefully things will get even bigger and better in future years.

Symon has today shared her own report of the big day. You can read it in full at her blog, Overkill, here.

The photo above was taken at the post-event lunch at Kate Sheppard house - quite possibly the most crime writers all in one place, ever, in New Zealand. Unfortunately Andrew Grant/grant Shanks, Alix Bosco/Greg McGee, and Ben Sanders had already left by the time this photo was taken, but it's still a fairly murderous line-up! Left to right: a bashful Neil Cross, Paul Cleave, Craig Sisterson (myself), Vanda Symon, Tess Gerritsen, Paddy Richardson, and John Hart. I must be the only one there that's not a serial killer (in a literary sense, I mean, of course). It was a terrific day, and hopefully is just the start of things to come.

Comments welcome.

Review: BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders

By Any Means by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins, 2011)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Young Aucklander Ben Sanders, who juggles novel writing with his university civil engineering studies, burst onto the local books scene last year with The Fallen, a gritty crime thriller that introduced Detective Sean Devereaux and ex-cop John Hale, and was packed with murder, kidnapping, and police corruption. All set amongst the seamy streets and suburbs of our largest city. Now, 21-year-old Sanders returns, as do Devereaux and Hale, with By Any Means, the follow up to his #1 bestselling debut.

In the first sentence, a bus driver is killed, shot by an unknown gunman on Auckland’s bustling Albert Street during Friday rush hour. Detective Sean Devereaux picks up the case, only to discover wildly conflicting witness accounts then a sense the victim wasn’t the true target. But then, who was? At the same time Devereaux is dealing with a double killing in the affluent suburbs: the wife and daughter of a prominent finance company director. Murder-suicide or double homicide? The police turn their attention to the husband, but Devereaux has doubts. Meanwhile, John Hale is largely unavailable to assist, as he’s witnessed a kidnapping, and finds himself the target of a dogged senior police officer as he tries to do his own private investigations.

Sanders writes in a crisp and punchy style, powering a storyline that can hook you early and keep the pages whirring. He often has a very nice way with words when it comes to pithy descriptions of people and places, using some vivid imagery, although at times some of the travel around Auckland, and the use of musical references, can get a touch too ‘listy’, which could bother some readers. Overall, By Any Means is a solid sophomore effort, and shows that Sanders is no one-hit wonder. I’m certainly looking forward to the next Sean Devereaux and John Hale tale.

Ben Sanders will be discussing By Any Means and his writing at the Takapuna Library in Auckland on Wednesday 7 September 2011 at 6.30pm (refreshments from 6pm). RSVP to Helen.Woodhouse@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or call (09) 486 8469.

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This review was first published in the Friday, 26 August 2011 issue of NZLawyer magazine, and is reprinted here online with permission.

From reader to writer: my feature article on Ben Sanders from the latest Weekend Herald

On Saturday, my latest crime writing-focused feature for the Weekend Herald, New Zealand's biggest-circulation newspaper, was published: an article on 21-year-old Auckland crime writer Ben Sanders, whose debut novel THE FALLEN sat atop the local bestseller charts for several weeks last year. THE FALLEN was also long-listed for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, so it's been a fairly good start to Sanders' crime writing career (to put it mildly).

This week, Sanders' second crime novel, BY ANY MEANS, was released - a tale that sees Detective Sean Devereaux juggling multiple homicide investigations, including a bus driver gunned down at rush on a busy city street, and the wife and daughter of a prominent businessman, found dead in their suburban home. Meanwhile Devereaux's unconventional buddy, ex-cop John Hale, tries to track down the men who kidnapped a girl from outside a nightclub, right in front of him.

I really enjoyed both THE FALLEN and BY ANY MEANS, and I'm looking forward to seeing Devereaux and Hale, and Sanders' writing, develop further over the coming years. He's started young, and very well, so the sky could be the limit for this engineering student and part-time crime writer.

In our interview we discussed his transition from reading crime to writing crime, choosing to see crime fiction in New Zealand, evoking Auckland, creating his characters, and how he got started so young, amongst other things. You can read now read the full article online at the Herald website, HERE.

Have you read THE FALLEN? Will you read BY ANY MEANS? What do you think of Sanders' crime writing? Is Auckland a good place to set crime fiction? Comments welcome.

A sneak peak at Ben Sanders' upcoming crime novel

Upcoming Kiwi crime fiction: BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders

As I said earlier this month, the Kiwi crime fiction tap in 2011 continues to pleasantly flow; along with the books that have already hit shelves (and e-readers) so far, there are also several welcome new releases on the near horizon from local authors whose previous work has been both popular and highly praised.

One book that I am really looking forward to (and curious to see how the New Zealand media and public will respond to) is BY ANY MEANS by young Auckland university student and crime writer Ben Sanders. I enjoyed THE FALLEN, Sanders's debut last year, and I wasn't alone. The book got some good reviews, and quickly jumped to, then maintained, the #1 spot on the NZ Adult Fiction bestseller list (a spot it held for several weeks - which is unheard of for a New Zealand crime novel in recent memory).

BY ANY MEANS sees the return of DS Sean Devereaux and his ex-cop sidekick John Hale. The book comes out in early August, but for now I can share the cover (above right) and the following blurb with you:

"Friday rush hour, Auckland city. A lone shooter fires across a packed street and kills a man. Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux is assigned the case. He's not complaining - his Friday nights are seldom better spent. But the inquiry is not straightforward. Witness accounts are conflicting. The dead man appears to be an unintended victim, with the true target unknown.

That’s the least of Devereaux’s worries, though. His current case load includes an investigation into the deaths of the wife and daughter of a wealthy finance company director. His examination has revealed the situation is far more complex than anticipated, casting real doubt upon the division of innocence and guilt. Devereaux's former colleague, John Hale, is in no position to help. Hale is occupied with his own pursuit of darkness, made all the more sinister by a dogged senior police officer determined to engineer his ruin.

Together the two men hunt for the truth from those who pursue self-gain by any means."

It sounds interesting, and I am looking forward to see how Sanders' writing has developed since his debut novel, which was very good in of itself. Just as a heads-up for those who like good crime fiction, some of the other locally authored books I'm really looking forward to over the coming months include Paddy Richardson's TRACES OF RED (her third thriller and first since last year's #1 bestseller HUNTING BLIND), Neil Cross's LUTHER: THE CALLING (a novel featuring the divisive TV detective), the long-awaited return of Paul Thomas (Ned Kelly Award-winning author of THE IHAKA TRILOGY), and COLLECTING COOPER, the fifth dark thriller from the current king of Kiwi crime, in an internationally bestselling sense, Paul Cleave.

From the list above (plus several other novels I understand are on the way), it certainly looks like the pleasant growth in quality New Zealand crime fiction lately is set to continue in the near future.

Have you read THE FALLEN? Are you looking forward to BY ANY MEANS? Any of the other upcoming Kiwi crime novels? Who is your favourite New Zealand crime writer?

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.

9mm: An interview with Ben Sanders

Last week Crime Watch's popular 9mm interview series returned after a short hiatus for its 51st instalment; an interview with forensic anthropologist and bestselling mystery writer Kathy Reichs.

Now that we're back in the swing of things (several 9mm interviews are scheduled for the coming weeks), I thought I should return to my original premise of featuring both high-profile bestsellers and lesser-known authors, and a nice mix of Kiwi and international crime writers.

So today I am pleased to share with you my recent 9mm interview with up-and-coming local crime writer Ben Sanders, a young university student in Auckland who burst onto the antipodean crime writing scene late last year with his debut thriller THE FALLEN, which got some very good reviews and scooped the #1 spot for several weeks on the NZ Adult Fiction bestseller charts last year.

On a local scale, it was a dream start for Sanders, who featured by several of New Zealand's biggest media players (eg the Weekend Herald, the Sunday Star-Times, TVNZ), and mentioned in several others as well. You can watch a short 5mins long clip of Sanders being interviewed by Paul Henry and Pippa Wetzell on Breakfast, the popular TVNZ morning show here. And just this week I had an email from a US reader, who won a copy of THE FALLEN last year on Crime Watch. She said: "THE FALLEN which you very kindly sent to me a few months ago, was a book I couldn't put down. I lent it to a very well-read friend who had the same reaction. She is an English professor in NYC."

In August Sanders' second crime novel, once again featuring Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux and his former police colleague John Hale, will be released; BY ANY MEANS. I will share more information about that upcoming book with you soon. It will be interesting to see how media, readers, and reviewers, respond to Sanders' sophmore effort - it would be good to see some more Kiwi recurring crime fiction heroes, so hopefully BY ANY MEANS will be as good a read (or even better) than THE FALLEN, which was a very strong debut. But for now Ben Sanders faces down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN SANDERS

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux. I love his imperfection: he has his battles with alcohol, he has a history of violence, but despite these tarnishes he’s a moral and relentless guy, and ultimately very intriguing. He’s a great mix of contradictory qualities; he’s a compassionate Catholic, but at the same time has this immense capacity for sudden violence. The books quite often involve some element of his past, so that you have a detailed depiction of the man in the here-and-now, but you also gradually develop a sense of the experiences that got him to where he is.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
I was into Enid Blyton when I was a kid, so the Famous Five and Secret Seven series would have been the first novels I read, but I can’t recall the titles. I can remember reading the first Harry Potter book, not long after it had been published [for all you Harry Potter fans who claim you read the books before they were world famous, I reckon I probably beat you], and loving it. It had all the right ingredients for a great story: good writing, characters you could engage with, and an interesting setting. They’re the sorts of qualities that make for a good read, irrespective of genre.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I’ve written two unpublished novels. I wrote my first while I was at high school in the sixth-form (16 years old), but I never submitted it for publication. It was a P.I. novel set in L.A. It was swamped with trivial, descriptive detail. It was a good learning curve in that it helped to calibrate my style, pointing out that a lot of what I wrote wasn’t needed. So that effort was a nice self-teaching exercise, but other than that it was a waste of tree. It lives in a shoebox under my bed.

I wrote a second novel the following year; another crime story, this time about an Auckland cop called Sean Devereaux. I submitted it to a publisher but it was rejected. I wrote another novel called THE FALLEN the following year, and retained Devereaux as the lead character. I submitted the novel to a different publisher (HarperCollins NZ), and fortunately it was accepted.

4. Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
try and have a game of tennis once a week. I can sometimes be persuaded to go for a surf, as long as the sun is shining and the wind is off-shore, and the swell is clean and right-breaking [strict, I know]. I love listening to music and walking my dog. The bulk of my plot development is schemed while dog-walking. At one stage while writing BY ANY MEANS (my new novel due out in August), I hit a story snag that I didn’t know how to fix, and the poor dog was getting four walks a day.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Wait for a nice day, and drive up to Long Bay Regional Park and go for a wander up the cliff-top walkway at the southern end. There’s a seat up there which faces north across the park and Long Bay beach, and it’s an ideal place to sit and read a Ben Sanders novel.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Cate Blanchett did a great Bob Dylan, maybe she could do a great Ben Sanders? Otherwise, keeping with the Harry Potter theme, maybe Daniel Radcliffe. He’d have to dye is hair blond.

7. Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
My second published novel, BY ANY MEANS, comes out early August, and I think it’s definitely my best work so far. There’s more character development, and I think the plot is pacier and more engaging. I’m very proud of THE FALLEN, but I think BY ANY MEANS is a definite step up; it’s tighter, more refined, and I’m excited about the release.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was sort of eased into the idea of publication. The first hint I got that my work was any good was a phone call from the Publishing Manager at HarperCollins telling me she’d really enjoyed THE FALLEN. I got an email a week later informing me it had been accepted for publication, and that a contract was coming my way. It was an amazing feeling. It was relief mostly: I’d been writing for four or five years at that point, and if THE FALLEN was rejected, I didn’t know whether I’d have the energy to write a fourth novel. So to have my work accepted for publication, and be told by someone that they actually enjoyed reading it was fantastic. The celebrations were low-key: I had a cup of coffee, listened to Nick Cave’s ‘Let the Bells Ring,’ and then I rang my mum.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I aven’t been in the writing business long enough to have done any of those things yet. But I suppose the most unusual book-related event was actually at a signing for Michael Connelly when he was in Auckland recently. I started reading Connelly’s work when I was thirteen, and was totally hooked. From the ages of thirteen to fifteen, I slowly devoured his complete back-catalogue. His work has been a major influence on my writing, and it was an unusual feeling (and a privilege) to meet the guy who’d helped inspire me to be a writer.
 
 
Thank you Ben Sanders. We appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.
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Have you read THE FALLEN? If so, what did you think? Do you enjoy New Zealand-set crime fiction? Do you think Auckland could be a good crime fiction city, like LA, London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, New York, Sydney, and many others? Does the fact that we have an author now remembering Harry Potter as his favourite childhood book make you feel old (it sure does for me!)? Comments welcome.

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.

Local and international crime featured in the New Zealand Listener's 100 Best Books of 2010

Last year, you might recall, I was a little disappointed at the relative lack of crime, mystery or thriller fiction titles, New Zealand or international, in the annual 100 Best Books list put out by the New Zealand Listener magazine. Especially as there were several very good crime novels that came out, and despite its literary leanings, the Listener had listed crime novels, including New Zealand crime novels, in the past, such as those of Paul Cleave and Vanda Symon.

As I said last year, the New Zealand Listener has long been considered one of our premier magazines. It is a weekly current affairs and entertainment magazine, renowned for having one of the best books sections around. Near the end of each year the Listener has a “100 Best Books of the Year” issue, where its reviewers compile their list of best novels, short stories, poetry, biography, memoir, and other non-fiction (eg history, science, journalism and essays, art, and food and drink) books of the year.

Well, this week the 2010 100 Best Books List has been published (in the issue pictured), and I am very pleased to say that there are several crime fiction titles amongst the 'best books' of the year, according to the reviewing team of the Listener. The crime fiction titles on the list are:

• BLACKLANDS by Belinda Bauer
• BLOOD MEN by Paul Cleave
• THE FALLEN by Ben Sanders
• HUNTING BLIND by Paddy Richardson
• THE REVERSAL by Michael Connelly
• SURRENDER by Donna Malane

Some cracking books there, and hopefully more Kiwi readers might give some of them a go, after reading about them in this week's issue of the Listener. Congratulations to the Kiwi crime writers who made the list.

Have you read any of the crime novels mentioned? If so, what did you think? If not, which ones catch your eye? Thoughts and comments welcome.

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.

Ngaio Marsh Award: watch this space!

Just a heads-up that I will soon be revealing some further exciting news about the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, in terms of the prize that the winner, to be announced next Friday night at the 2010 The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival, will receive.

Things have been happening in the background, and there should be an official announcement very soon, hopefully tomorrow.

It's exciting times down here in New Zealand for crime and thriller writing. I understand that debutant Ben Sanders (THE FALLEN) may have held his spot at #1 on the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list for the fourth week running, and that his novel may be heading for a reprint already, which is quite rare down here in New Zealand.

Paul Thomas's THE IHAKA TRILOGY (a collection of his three acclaimed crime novels from the late 1990s) has also remained in the top 5 bestsellers. So that's great, that Kiwi readers are giving some locally-written crime a go. Hopefully it bodes very well for our growing canon of good and great crime writers overall....

Also on the horizon, as well as the presentation of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel (for books published in 2009), is the release of another Kiwi crime debutant - Donna Malane's NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize-winning novel, SURRENDER. I'm very much looking forward to reading that, soon.

So, things are very much on the up and up, crime writing wise. Long may it continue!

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Dream debut continues for #1 bestseller Ben Sanders

What a month it's been for young North Shore crime writer Ben Sanders.

Over the past few weeks he and his debut novel, THE FALLEN, have been featured by several of New Zealand's biggest media players (eg the Weekend Herald, the Sunday Star-Times, TVNZ), and mentioned in several others as well, and now for the third week in a row THE FALLEN sits atop the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list!

You can watch a short 5mins long clip of Ben Sanders being interviewed by Paul Henry and Pippa Wetzell on Breakfast, the popular TVNZ morning show here. For those of you outside of Australia and New Zealand, I understand a Kindle edition of THE FALLEN is due to be released on Amazon.com in September.

Paul Thomas's IHAKA TRILOGY (Old School Tie, Inside Dope and Guerilla Season) also holds its place at #3 in its third week on the charts. With Alix Bosco's SLAUGHTER FALLS also out now, Donna Malane's SURRENDER coming out in September, and the publicity being generated about New Zealand crime fiction in the lead-up to the presentation of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, at The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival, in just two weeks' time, hopefully Kiwi readers will continue to give our locally-written crime novels a go.

Have you read THE FALLEN? Are you intending to? Do you think it's a contender for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award? What other great Kiwi crime have you read this year? What are your thoughts on the increasing publicity and prominence (relatively speaking) of Kiwi crime fiction lately? Long overdue? A cause for optimism? A false dawn? Thoughts and comments welcome.

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

In the lead-up to the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, the growth and quality of New Zealand crime and thriller fiction is pleasantly getting itself in the mainstream news a little more. Following on from last weekend's excellent "Fiction: It's a Crime Wave" overview by Mark Broatch in the Sunday Star-Times (read here), this weekend there is a three-page feature by Philip Matthews in the glossy 'Your Weekend' lifestyle magazine supplement, which is included in the weekend editions of the Dominion Post and The Press (and, I understand, possibly the Waikato Times as well).

In an article entitled "On the case", Matthews notes "There's a spree of crimewriting going on in New Zealand, culminating in the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel at the Christchurch Writers Festival next month" before getting comments from the likes of Graham Beattie, Chad Taylor, Vanda Symon, and yours truly (talk about your donkey running with thoroughbreds) about the state of the Kiwi crime novel, and the gradual move towards a greater appreciation for the mystery, crime and thriller genre in this country.

It's an interesting read. So if you're anywhere we you can get your hands on the weekend editions of the Dominion Post, The Press, or the Waikato Times, grab a copy and turn to page 12 of 'Your Weekend'., and then let me know what you think. For everyone overseas, if the article isn't placed online on the Fairfax website in the coming days (http://www.stuff.co.nz/), I will see whether I can get permission to republish it online, here on Crime Watch.

Who are your favourite Kiwi crime writers? Which authors have you heard of and would like to try? Who should win the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award? Thoughts and comments welcome.