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The Ngaio Marsh Awards, in association with Rotorua Library Te Aka Mauri, invites booklovers to a thrilling evening of criminally good conversation with four talented North Island storytellers. Crime writing has come a long way since Dame Ngaio Marsh set one of her popular Inspector Alleyn tales among the bubbling mud and hot pools of our country in 1943, shifting from puzzling entertainments to modern tales delving deeply into people, places, and psychology.
Rotorua-based book editor and former bookseller Jemma Moreira will chair a fascinating panel discussion with 2024 Ngaios Best First Novel winner Claire Baylis, fellow Rotorua author Zoë Rankin, past Ngaios finalist Nikki Crutchley and 2023 Ngaios Best Novel winner Charity Norman
WHEN: Wednesday 9 April 2025
WHERE: Rotorua Library, 1127 Haupapa Street, Rotorua
WHEN: 5.30pm doors open for a 6pm panel discussion
Entry by koha. RSVP to [email protected]
Refreshments provided
Charity Norman is a Hawke's Bay writer who was born in Uganda and worked as a lawyer in northern England before immigrating to Aotearoa in 2002. Her novel AFTER THE FALL was a World Book Night title. Her seventh book, REMEMBER ME, won the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. Her latest, HOME TRUTHS, is a thriller about the impact of online conspiracy theories.
Claire Baylis is a Rotorua author and legal researcher who won the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel for DICE, a courtroom drama written as part of her PhD in creative writing from the Institute of Modern Letters. Claire studied then lectured in law for 12 years before moving to Rotorua, where she's been a researcher for the Trans-Tasman Jury Study and set up a water safety programme focused on low-decile schools.
Nikki Crutchley is a Cambridge novelist, flash fiction writer and former librarian who was a finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Awards for her debut mystery NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE, set in a small Coromandel town. Nikki has written five novels, twice been regional winner of National Flash Fiction Day, and had her short stories published in various journals, magazines, and ANZ crime and thriller anthology DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER. Her latest novel is rural Gothic mystery IN HER BLOOD.
Zoë Rankin is a Rotorua writer, adventurer, and former teacher who grew up in a small village in Scotland and immigrated to Aotearoa more than a decade ago, after spending six months biking in the Himalayas. She studied international relations and Arabic at the University of St Andrews, and later won the Rotorua Noir Short Story competition in 2019. Her novel THE VANISHING PLACE will be published by Moa Press in August 2025.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Rotorua Library, 1129 Haupapa St, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand,Rotorua, New Zealand
