HBRW 2024 - Into the Dark

Claire Baylis's debut bestseller Dice is a "harrowing and unforgettable" account of a sexual assault trial. Home Truths, the latest from 2023 Ngaio Marsh award-winner Charity Norman, grippingly portrays a family torn apart by lies. Lou Ward asks both authors why they're drawn to write about the dark side of human nature.

Charity Norman:

Charity Norman was born in Uganda and brought up in successive draughty vicarages in Yorkshire and Birmingham. After several years' travel she became a barrister, specialising in crime and family law in the northeast of England. Also a mediator and telephone crisis line listener, she's passionate about the power of communication to slice through the knots. In 2002, realising that her three children had barely met her, she took a break from the law and moved with her family to Aotearoa New Zealand. Her first novel, Freeing Grace, was published in 2010. Second Chances (After the Fall) was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice and World Book Night title. See You in September (2017) was shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Crime Fiction. The Secrets of Strangers is her sixth book and has been shortlisted for Best International Crime Fiction at the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards and shortlisted for Best Novel at the 2021 Ngaio Awards. In 2023, her seventh novel Remember Me was awarded the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

Claire Baylis:

Claire Baylis is the author of Dice (Allen & Unwin, Australia & New Zealand 2023), a novel about the trial of four teenage boys who have made up a sex game and are charged with multiple sex offences, but this courtroom drama is told from the perspective of the jurors. Dice was chosen by Spin-Off and The Listener as one of the best novels of 2023 and received excellent reviews and write ups on RNZ Nine to Noon, Newsroom, The Spin-Off and in national and regional papers here and in Australia. It was written as part of a PhD from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka – VUW. Claire has co-authored academic law papers on how jurors make decisions in real sexual assault cases, was a researcher on the Trans-Tasman Jury Study and a law academic for 12 years. Her fiction has appeared in Landfall, Sport, Takahē, Turbine/Kapohau, Horizons and has been read on RNZ.

Chair: Lou Ward

Born in Nottingham in the U.K. Louise has been a police officer, bar tender, violin tutor and Primary and Intermediate school teacher and is now co-owner of Wardini Books in Havelock North and Napier, finally putting that ancient English Literature degree to relevant use.
Louise writes book reviews for the Napier Courier and talks books on Radio Hawke’s Bay weekly and Radio New Zealand occasionally.
When not reading, Louise likes to run, generally after her dog Stevie Wonder, play fiddle with local legends Ish, and then get back to reading as soon as possible.
Louise has lived in Havelock North for ages, and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.