Well, festival goers, I can't possibly recount every detail of Wednesday night's WORD event, The Bookshop Detectives, followed by the Ngaio Marsh Interrogations. I mean Awards.
The Bookshop Detectives, aka Gareth and Louise Ward, joined bookseller Bel Moneypenny and a spellbound audience at WORD Christchurch Festival to share the romance of bookselling in a close community and their modus operandi on how to prevent a writing collaboration kill your marriage.
It was a fun-thrilled and colourful double-barrelled event, with the Wards announcing the winners of the Ngaio Marsh Awards for New Zealand Crime and Mystery writing at the end.
Bookshop Detectives #1, Dead Girl Gone is an unputdownable, funny, cosy crime set in Havelock North - the home of the authors' bookshop, Wardinis and its twin in Napier. The characters Garth, Eloise and their timid dog Stevie are caught up in two cases that could be linked: one from their former lives in the U.K. and one from the deep dark past of Havvers.
A parcel is left on the doorstep of Sherlock Tomes Bookshop. Is it a bomb? No, it's a book (a Charity Norman story!) - with highlighted pages urging our heroes to solve a cold case - the disappearance of a young woman of potential. This method blares a certain criminal's name - a perp who should be safely locked away in old Blighty.
Bel Moneypenny put the Wards under the microscope.
Were there artistic differences?
It wasn't pistols at dawn, says Louise. Gareth would write his chapter and email it to me, says Louise. Then I could get my own back. Bitching about each other in their chapters was cathartic. (I can't remember who said that.)
For Garth, it was like reading a book while writing it. Neither have big egos, and they both wanted the book to be the best it could be.
Was there an identity crisis?
Dead Girl Gone features the proprietors of Sherlock Tomes, Garth and Eloise, ex-police officers who have swapped the force and the U.K. for 'the quiet life' in Havelock North, in Hawkes Bay. They bear more than a passing resemblance to the authors of this story.
The characters, Garth and Eloise, bear a strong resemblance to their creators - the authors really are ex-police from the U.K. And Stevie is real! Dead Girl Gone's characters were based on customers, book clubbers and book sellers. There was even a military-type gent who has since embraced the role of the Admiral.
"Our characters are way cooler and smarter than us", says Louise, "we super-hero-ed them up a bit."
#ReadNZ
Gareth Ward, who penned the Traitor and the Thief and The Rise of the Remarkables series, remembers there used to be a time when book shoppers would put a book down like a hot potato when they found out it was a New Zealand author. Not so these days. The nominees this year are testament to the success of Kiwi writers both here and overseas.
In a message from the awards' founder, Craig Sisterson (the godfather of Kiwi Crime Writing) said Kiwis expect world class in sports but it's taken a while for us to appreciate world class writers.
What's next?
What's next for this crime writing duo? I'd have liked to have Eloise's backstory revealed more. Will there been another book? Good news on that front - another book is in the works and will be out this time next year. In the meantime, you could read some of the Ngaio Marsh Award nominees, or hire the Great Wardini for your own event.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards
Louise and Gareth called out the nominees for each award and gave them a sound interrogating before announcing the winners in each category.
And the nominees are:
Claire Baylis' Novel Dice is a case study of consent and a sex game that caused harm to a group of young women. Baylis has studied law herself and writes from the privileged point of view of twelve very different jurors. Her insight into the law pertaining to rape cases makes Dice confronting with a lot of depth.
Gabriel Bergmoser sets a thriller in a deserted summer ski resort, about a woman in hiding from both the law and her drug dealing husbands thugs. Bergmoser, a screenwriter, writes a book that reads like a film and moves between what brought Charlotte here, and what to do now.
The third installment of the fabulous Cesare Aldo series, with a historic setting - sixteenth century Florence. Cesare is a man with two faces - one, a gifted and clever law enforcer for the city of Florence, and the other, a gay man. In a time when this could be punishable by death. Book four, A Divine Fury, is out now.
The harrowing story of a teacher who inveigled her way into a community in 1980s New Zealand, told by a confused girl prone to seizures, Justine, who was under her spell. What happened with Mrs Price? Who pushed best friend Amy off the cliff? Do you remember Lorraine Downes? the Tip Top Ad? A full on thriller.
A frabjulous tale of intrigue, poisoned plants, voyeurism, missing persons and murder. Prof Eustacia Rose, in her father's old tweeds, invokes a female Sherlock Tomes. I mean Holmes. Most entertaining, and the first of a series of four! says author Jill Johnson: Hell's Bells, the second book, is out this month.
What's not to love about the Detective Sam Shephard series? Book five sees Sam heavily pregnant and up to her armpits in barstools. Not to mention the most abhorrent case of her life - a woman given a caesarian in a dark Dunedin alleyway - and the baby taken. I'd like to see these books adapted for TV. Book six, Prey, is out now.
Best Novel winner was D.V. Bishop's Ritual of Fire - great to see him recognised at home, Claire Bayliss took home Best First Novel for her terrific legal expose Dice, and Best Book for Children/Young Adults, was Jennifer Lane's Miracle. I loved that D.V. Bishop dedicated his book to librarians and booksellers. <3
Case closed for another year.
- Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel
- Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel
- Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel for Younger Readers
Looking for a cracking good read? Ask our team for a Reading Recommendation or try our Mystery Fiction Reading Guide.
More WORD Christchurch
- Our WORD Christchurch 2024 page - event reports and books by Festival writers
- WORD Christchurch website
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