Ngaio Marsh Awards 2025 finalists announced

15 September 2025

Supporting, highlighting and celebrating excellence in crime, mystery and thriller storytelling from New Zealand writers, the Ngaio Marsh Awards is now in its fifteenth year. We are proud to see a number of titles available from Ulverscroft on the shortlist. Further information on the shortlisted titles are below.

17 Years Later by J.P. Pomare
Available in Large Print, CD, MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook.
The violent slaughter of the Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation. Their young live-in chef, Bill Kareama, was swiftly charged with murder and brought to justice. But the brutal crime scarred the idyllic town of Cambridge forever.
Seventeen years later, true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott tracks down prison psychologist TK Phillips. Once a fierce campaigner for an appeal, TK now lives a quiet life with Bill's case firmly in his past. As Sloane lures a reluctant TK back into the fight, evidence emerges that casts new light on the Primroses - and who might have wanted them dead.
While the list of suspects grows, Bill's innocence is still far from assured. What will it cost Sloane and TK to uncover the truth?

The Call by Gavin Strawhan
Available in CD and MP3 CD audiobook.
After surviving a brutal attack, Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers has returned to her hometown to care for her mother. The remote coastal settlement of He Kino holds complicated memories for Honey, not least the tragic suicide of her younger sister, Scarlett. And Honey's relationship with her formidable mother is fraught to say the least.
Honey is hardest on herself regarding the attack that nearly killed her. She let herself get too close to a Reapers gang informant. She got sloppy. And she's pretty sure the informant, mother-of-three Kloe Kovich, paid the price. But when a couple of gang heavies turn up in He Kino, Honey realises they are hoping she will lead them to Kloe.
This means that Kloe is alive and on the run after all. When Honey catches up with her oldest friend, Marshall, her feelings are complicated. As teenagers they were inseparable, but Marshall was the last person to see Scarlett alive, and there are rumours they were sleeping together, that he broke her heart. Marshall was said to have joined the army, to have gone to Western Australia, to have been married or sent to prison - or all of the above. Marshall has worked hard to reinvent himself and he and Honey grow close.
But Honey can't help digging into the past, and the more she discovers, the more she fears Marshall is not who she wants him to be. Eventually she learns the awful truth about the events that led her sister to take her own life. Then Kloe arrives in He Kino and reveals to Honey that she has proof tying the gang to a wealthy businessman with political connections. Honey and Marshall must work together to try and keep the hapless Kloe out of the hands of those who want her silenced. The scene is set for a final confrontation with a shocking outcome.

Home Truths by Charity Norman
Available in CD and MP3 CD audiobook.
Livia Denby is on trial for attempted murder. The jury have reached a verdict.
Two years earlier, Livia was a probation officer in Yorkshire, her husband Scott a teacher. Their children, Heidi and Noah, round out a happy family until the day Scott's brother dies.
Grief and guilt leave Scott seeking answers, a search which takes him into the world of conspiracy theories. As his grip on reality slides, he makes a decision which will put the family on a collision course with tragedy.
Livia's family has been torn apart, and now her son's life is hanging in the balance. Just how far will she go to save the ones she loves?

Prey by Vanda Symon
Available in Large Print, CD, MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook.
On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation - the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican priest in Dunedin.

The case has been a thorn in the side of the police hierarchy, and for her boss it's personal. With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder?

But when Sam starts digging deeper, it becomes apparent someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to find the killer before anyone else falls prey. But is it already too late...?

Return To Blood by Michael Bennett
Available in Large Print, CD and MP3 CD audiobook.
Hana Westerman has left Auckland and her career as a detective behind her. Settled in a quiet coastal town, all she wants is a fresh start.
The discovery of a skeleton in the dunes near her house changes everything. The remains are those of a young M?ori woman who went missing four years before, and Hana has a connection to the case. Twenty-one years ago, a schoolmate of hers was found buried in the exact same spot. Her killer died in prison, but did the police get the wrong man? And if he was innocent, then why did he confess?
No longer part of the CIB, Hana turns to her ex-husband Jaye, a high-flying Detective Inspector, for help. But when she is cut out of the investigation, she realises that she will have to find the answers she needs on her own.

Best Non-Fiction
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour
Available in CD and MP3 CD audiobook.
In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents would return. None before have told their story in their own words.

This is the astounding true story of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour, the last surviving SOE agent. Born in 1921, Pippa's was an unusual childhood, followed by an even more extraordinary early adult life as she was parachuted into France aged 23. Incredibly brave, she travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once she came frighteningly close to being discovered.

For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her story can be told in full.

Best First Novel
The Call by Gavin Strawhan
Available in CD and MP3 CD audiobook.
After surviving a brutal attack, Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers has returned to her hometown to care for her mother. The remote coastal settlement of He Kino holds complicated memories for Honey, not least the tragic suicide of her younger sister, Scarlett. And Honey's relationship with her formidable mother is fraught to say the least.
Honey is hardest on herself regarding the attack that nearly killed her. She let herself get too close to a Reapers gang informant. She got sloppy. And she's pretty sure the informant, mother-of-three Kloe Kovich, paid the price. But when a couple of gang heavies turn up in He Kino, Honey realises they are hoping she will lead them to Kloe.
This means that Kloe is alive and on the run after all. When Honey catches up with her oldest friend, Marshall, her feelings are complicated. As teenagers they were inseparable, but Marshall was the last person to see Scarlett alive, and there are rumours they were sleeping together, that he broke her heart. Marshall was said to have joined the army, to have gone to Western Australia, to have been married or sent to prison - or all of the above. Marshall has worked hard to reinvent himself and he and Honey grow close.
But Honey can't help digging into the past, and the more she discovers, the more she fears Marshall is not who she wants him to be. Eventually she learns the awful truth about the events that led her sister to take her own life. Then Kloe arrives in He Kino and reveals to Honey that she has proof tying the gang to a wealthy businessman with political connections. Honey and Marshall must work together to try and keep the hapless Kloe out of the hands of those who want her silenced. The scene is set for a final confrontation with a shocking outcome.