Kiwi Noir

We’ve had Scandi Noir and Aussie Noir, but there’s a fine tradition of Kiwi crime fiction starting with Ngaio Marsh. One of the “Queens of Crime” alongside the likes of Agatha Christie, Marsh was an actor, interior designer and crime writer, publishing the first of thirty-three detective novels in 1934. The Ngaio Marsh Awards for excellence in crime, mystery and thriller writing are now awarded each year as part of Christchurch’s WORD literary festival. Fitting as Christchurch was Marsh’s home town.

Paul Cleave, also a Christchurch resident, has won the award three times and has been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Barry and the Ned Kelly awards. The Quiet People is the second of his novels that I’ve read and it plays with the question of whether a crime writer can get away with murder. (Although apparently crime writers tend to be a genuinely lovely bunch of people despite the bloody goings-on of their imaginations.) Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are a crime-writing couple whose son goes missing. It’s not long before suspicion falls on them, especially after their unguarded comments at writing festivals about getting away with murder. They seem to have a motive as their book sales have been falling and the publicity might give them just the boost they need. As their friends, neighbours and even their family are caught up in the public’s belief in their guilt, it seems that they have very few people left on their side. This is a rip-roaring tale that races to a dramatic finish with a few blind alleys thrown in along the way. You’re not entirely sure who the guilty party is right up until the very end and that’s what had me turning the pages well into the wee small hours.

There’s something unnerving about reading about horrible things happening in places that you know well and a place I know a little better than Christchurch is Matakana, just north of Auckland. Home to the famous Matakana Village Farmers Market and a particularly good bookshop (Matakana Village Books), it is also the setting for Blood on Vines, the first in a new crime fiction series by Madeleine Eskedahl. Matakana has a number of boutique wineries and in this novel, Avery and Lexi run Matakana Valley Wines. They lead busy lives and the grape harvest is coming up, so one day when the water in the house stops running, Avery heads under the house to check the pump. Led by smell and a swarm of flies, he finds a severed hand and soon their home becomes a crime scene. As the book unfolds, Avery’s friends from the wine industry are picked off one by one in gruesome killings and it becomes a race against time to save Avery and his family from the same fate. One of my favourite things about this book was the sense of community in Matakana. Everyone from the pharmacy owner to the pub landlord and the local cops had a role to play and there was a sense of rivalry established between the local constabulary and the murder squad sent in from Auckland. I’m interested to where the characters go next in the second book Rings on Water and I’ll certainly be waiting for the next instalment!

With thanks to Upstart Press and Madeleine herself (who upholds my earlier comments about crime writers) for my review copies.