New Zealand Crime & Mystery Fiction

Yeah Noir is New Zealand crime and mystery fiction — writers and books.

New Zealand boasts a wide range of talented authors, past and present, who write in the genre of crime and mystery. Whodunits, hard-boiled, cosy, thrillers, police procedurals, psychological, forensic, detectives, private eyes, good guys and bad guys. Heroes and villains. Noir.

You’ve read the crime fiction of Nordic Noir (Scandinavia), Tartan Noir (Scotland), and Emerald Noir (Ireland), well, here in New Zealand, our crime writers fall under the heading of Yeah Noir.

Yeah Noir | #YEAHNOIR | Yeah, Noir. | Yeah! Noir!

“Yeah noir” is a play on words of the often-confusing habit New Zealanders have of saying “yeah, nah,” (i.e., yes, no). This positive + negative is uttered when the listener doesn’t entirely agree with a suggestion or proposal.

Origin of Species: Yeah Noir (and its associated hashtag #yeahnoir) was coined by the New Zealand Book Council’s Stephanie Soper (circa. 2016).