The Ngaio Marsh Awards, in association with the New Zealand Book Council and Nelson Libraries, invites Top of the South booklovers to a thrilling free event featuring three talented New Zealand crime writers – two of them local.

As crime writing has evolved from puzzle-like mysteries to novels delving deeply into people and places, it has continued to be the world’s most popular form of storytelling. But just what makes the genre so fascinating?

Come along to the Elma Turner Library in Nelson on Thursday 1 June at 6 pm for a 6.15 pm panel discussion led by local author and historian Karen Stade. Auckland writer Fiona Sussman and Ruby Bay author David Briggs, whose latest novels are in the running for the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards, will be joined by Havelock-based crime writer Alan Carter to discuss how they craft great stories and blend page-turning crime plots with fascinating characters and real-life themes.

David Briggs is a published poet who immigrated from the UK in 2009. He lives in Ruby Bay with his wife and three dogs. His novel The Direction of Our Fear centres on the lives of four everyday people in Wellington while a potential terrorist threat looms.

Alan Carter won a Ned Kelly Award for his debut crime novel Prime Cut, starring an Asian-Australian detective in Perth. His newest novel, Marlborough Man, is a mystery set in the Top of the South, where he now lives.

Fiona Sussman’s The Last Time We Spoke delves into the aftermath of a brutal home invasion, and ‘shows the freshness and daring of Alan Duff’s Once Were Warriors’ (Takahe magazine) while being ‘a gripping story of grief and redemption’ (Sunday Mirror).