Ngaio Marsh Awards 2023 Best Novel Entries

The Ngaio Marsh Awards recognise excellence in crime fiction, mystery, and thriller writing in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the full list of 2023 entries for Best Novel has just been released!

Just look at all these fresh Kiwi crime titles in the running for the 2023 Ngaios:

Ngaio Marsh Awards 2023 Best Novel entrants. Grid of 57 book covers.

2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel longlist announcement date

They’ve also given us a time and date for the longlist announcement: 8am, Friday 30 June 2023. Looks like they’ll only be keeping us in suspense for a few more days!

Kia ora to all our #2023Ngaios entrants.
What a wonderfully diverse array of stories. Gritty police procedurals to cosy mysteries, thrillers to noir to genre-blending tales, you've given our judges lots to chew over. Thank you.
Longlist announced 8am, Friday 30 June. #yeahnoir pic.twitter.com/yxvJwcvztD
— Ngaio Marsh Awards (@ngaiomarshaward) June 26, 2023

2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel entrant details

For a little more about each of the books and their authors, check out this thread on Twitter (click through and scroll down to see each of the 57 entries listed in alphabetical order):

Next week the longlist for #2023Ngaios Best Novel will be revealed; one of whom will later join our Ngaios winners roll of honour (along with the 2023 Best First Novel and Best Non-Fiction winners).
Our entrants have made it tough for our judges
Here's a wee celebration #yeahnoir pic.twitter.com/7pdZQf2dkJ
— Ngaio Marsh Awards (@ngaiomarshaward) June 23, 2023

Murder on Milverton Square in consideration for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards

In that big list of Best Novel entries, amongst all those top names in Kiwi crime writing, you might have spotted my very own little cosy murder mystery?

I am so pleased for my first novel to even be considered at this very early stage for these awards. And no matter the outcome of the awards, I know I’ll have plenty of books to add to my reading list.

Here’s a bit more about my novel that is up for consideration, Murder on Milverton Square:

Ngaio Marsh Awards 2023 Best Novel entrant.

Murder on Milverton Square by G B Ralph.

Addison Harper is abruptly summoned to Milverton at the behest of an abrasive lawyer. He plans to be in and out, back to the city lickety-split. Instead, he finds himself charmed by the small town with its delightful and eccentric residents, not to mention the rather easy-on-the-eye Sergeant Jake Murphy.

Despite the rocky start, Addison admits he’s had a pleasant day out. That is, until returning to find the prickly old lawyer on the floor, and very much dead. Worse, it looks like murder, and Addison’s fingerprints are all over the crime scene.

And here is my listing in the Twitter thread of entrants:

🧵GB Ralph is a Manawatu author who began writing on train commutes in London.
MURDER IN MILVERTON is first in his Addison Harper & Sgt Jake Murphy cosy mystery series, set in an enchanting Kiwi small town: https://t.co/rFHyVmjRMx #yeahnoir #2023Ngaios #PrideMonth (38/57)🗡️📚🇳🇿🌈 pic.twitter.com/tG4UsY9KJY
— Ngaio Marsh Awards (@ngaiomarshaward) June 26, 2023