Two authors with strong Rotorua links have been named the country's best crime writers at the 10th Ngaio Marsh Awards held in Christchurch at the weekend.
They are Dame Fiona Kidman for her latest work This Mortal Boy which took the award's top prize for best novel and JP (Josh) Pomare. He was named the winner of the Best First Novel category with his Call Me Evie, launched in Rotorua in January.
![Author Josh Pomare. Photo / Supplied](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/S6U5JHESNSGPGWHF4HYQYWWMAU.jpg?auth=37afb10c2d8454b4fe5d3fe44643b37df0cda8cd317adb73260b8b6b8621d37d&width=16&height=24&quality=70&smart=true)
The Ngaio Marsh win is the fourth major award this year for Kidman who was awarded the Ockham prize for fiction at the national book awards in May for This Mortal Boy. It has also won her the 2019 NZ Booklovers Award and New Zealand Publishers' Association Heritage Book Award.
Kidman began her writing career while a librarian at the Rotorua Library, continuing from her Lynmore home, before moving to Wellington in the early 1970s.