The rant that led to a new award

[Craig]

Published online today, after it was archived off the Book Council website. An opinion piece I wrote about New Zealand crime fiction in early 2010, that provoked (along with some other things), the creation of the Ngaio Marsh Award. I'd be interested in my fellow Kiwi booklovers thoughts about all this, if you'd care to share: http://kiwicrime.blogspot.co.uk/2015/...

[Craig]

Thanks Kathleen. I agree with you about Laurie Mantell. I have all of her books, and have read two. They do show their age/time period in the writing style etc, but I definitely enjoyed the second one a lot (perhaps I'd adjusted). I actually had a very strange response in the comments section of a post I wrote about her a few years ago, when some family members stumbled across it and started commenting (apparently she had died days before that post, so they had been Googling her etc). Check it out (I won't spoil the surprise): http://kiwicrime.blogspot.co.uk/2010/...

[Craig]

Yes, it felt like an episode of "Missing Pieces" had broken out on my blog. Quite extraordinary really. And my original post about her, after stumbling over some internet references to this NZ crime writer I'd until then-recently never heard about, just happened to be the very day she died, in her 90s. Just so extraordinarily coincidental in so many ways... makes for a good story anyway...

[P.D.R.]

That was gobsmacking amazing! Poor lass. I hope it's all sorted now to her satisfaction.

[Lesley]

What an amazing coincidence to have posted on the day of the author's death! And what insight into the times and her life from that.

I read the Laurie Mantell books in the 1980/90s and really enjoyed them since they're all set around Wellington, particularly the Hutt Valley - my backyard! I could form very clear mental images of the settings. I am tempted to read them again since I can get them from the library.

[P.D.R.]

I'd like to read them. Will hunt up abe.com and see if I can find a few cheaply!