EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Faber, 2023) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson In Hollywood, nobody talks. But everybody whispers... Welcome to Mae Pruett’s LA. A ‘black-bag’ publicist at one of Hollywood’s most powerful crisis PR firms, Mae’s job isn’t to get good news out, it’s to keep the bad news in and contain the scandals. But just as she starts to question her job and life choices, her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and everything changes. Investigating with the help of an ex-boyfriend, Mae dives headlong into a neon joyride through the jungle of contempo ..read more

THE LAST WORD by Elly Griffiths (Quercus, Jan 2024) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson Natalka and Edwin are running a detective agency in Shoreham, Sussex. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated, longing for a big juicy investigation to come the agency’s way. Then a murder case turns up. Local writer, Melody Chambers, is found dead and her family are convinced it is murder. Edwin, a big fan of the obit pages, thinks there’s a link to the writer of Melody’s obituary who pre-deceased his subject. The trail leads them to a slightly sinister writers’ retreat. When anothe ..read more

EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT by Benjamin Stevenson (Michael Joseph, Feb 2024) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out. The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller wr ..read more

2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel winner Charity Norman (right) with New Zealand's modern 'queen of crime' Vanda Symon A trio of superb New Zealand writers were honoured at a special WORD Christchurch event on Friday night as they scooped the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards for books delivering rich character studies alongside exquisite crime storytelling.  In the fourteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, Hawke’s Bay author Charity Norman won Best Novel for Remember Me (Allen & Unwin), while renown ..read more

  This morning the finalists for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize have been announced, with the following four books emerging from a very strong longlist of contenders for Scotland's prestigious annual crime writing award, named in memory of the 'Godfather of Tartan Noir', the great William McIlvanney:  SQUEAKY CLEAN by Callum McSorley (Pushkin): the judges said: "A wonderfully rich and funny new voice in Scottish crime. McSorley has created characters you invest in and plot that keeps you hooked right from the start."   THE SECOND MURDERER by Denise Mina (Vintage): the judges said ..read more

PROM MOM by Laura Lippman (Faber, 2023) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back to the city of her youth and the prom date who destroyed everything she was reaching for. After establishing herself as terrific, award-winning voice in modern crime writing with her excellent, long-running series starring Baltimore reporter turned private eye Tess Monaghan, in recent years New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman has continually challenged herself and del ..read more

  History and humanity: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists plunge readers into page-turning tales about who we are From heart-wrenching tales of families torn apart by disappearance or deportation to examinations of historic crimes, swindles, and injustices to page-whirring novels about former cops and former convicts, the finalists for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards offer a diverse array of storytelling excellence “When we first launched New Zealand’s own annual prizes for crime, mystery, and thriller writing in 2010, we modelled our Ngaio Marsh Awards on the Hammett Prize in North America ..read more

Poker, poverty, and the power of storytelling: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award longlist revealed A poker-playing sleuth, a poet’s gritty take on life on Aotearoa’s poverty line, a rural mystery entwined with heart-wrenching exploration of dementia, and the long-awaited return of a master of neo-noir are among the diverse tales named today on the longlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. Now in their fourteenth season, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate excellence in New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing. They are named for Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the Queens of Crime of the Gold ..read more

LIFE AND DEATH IN BIRKENHEAD (Mary Egan Publishing, 2022) Reviewed by TJ Ramsay Within the small suburb of Birkenhead lurks a monster, one the local residents entrust with their recently departed loved ones. He has been inflicting his depraved atrocities unnoticed. But what happens when he turns his attentions to the living?  Maisie Manson lives a typical kiwi life: she works hard at school, enjoys the outdoors, and finally takes off for her big OE. She is having the best time, until a tragic event back home shatters her world and sets off a chain reaction of decisions which lead her ..read more

POOR PEOPLE WITH MONEY by Dominic Hoey (Penguin, 2022) Reviewed by Alyson Baker Monday Woolridge is a fighter with a face covered in scars and life full of debt. Her Avondale flat has no furniture, her father’s dead, her catatonic mother’s in an expensive nursing home and her kickboxing gym is going to Thailand. Monday's shitty bartending job pays fifty cents over minimum wage, and she desperately needs another way to generate income. Dealing drugs off the dark web with her flatmate JJ looks like it's working – until it really doesn’t, and the pair have to flee Tamaki Makaurau to ..read more