Crime partnership at Dunedin City Library

Dunedin (13 March 2017) – Crime led a PhD student to Dunedin City Library and you can soon see the results for yourself.

Authors in Crime: A journey through New Zealand crime fiction, the latest Reed Gallery exhibition, opens this month.

The exhibition was curated by Dunedin City Library Heritage Collections Librarian Lorraine Johnston and guest Margie Michael who is close to completing her PhD on New Zealand crime fiction at Victoria University.

The pair met at a symposium last year, where Margie presented a paper on New Zealand crime fiction. This later led to them curating the exhibition together, with Margie’s work largely done remotely.

The exhibition showcases a vivid and lurid range of works including old-fashioned “penny dreadfuls”, sophisticated whodunnits and modern psychological thrillers.

From as far back as Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab first published in 1886 and Gilbert Rock’s 1888 thriller By Passion Driven, New Zealand has had a long history of crime writing. This exhibition draws on that tradition, taking a journey through time and around the world in the company of some of our finest and lesser known crime writers.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab was written and set in Melbourne, but author Fergus Hume grew up in Dunedin. He went on to become one of the most prolific crime writers of his time. A section of the exhibition is devoted exclusively to Hume, Gilbert Rock and other Dunedin writers, or those with a strong Dunedin association.

Another section features Antipodean Queen of Crime, Dame Ngaio Marsh, alongside other internationally acclaimed writers. Marsh fans will recognise the inspiration for the exhibition title.

The collection is open to the public from March 17.

Authors in Crime: A journey through New Zealand crime fiction
Reed Gallery, Dunedin City Library
17 March to 11 June 2017

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