2020 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlists

The Australian Crime Writing Association announced the shortlists for the 2020 Ned Kelly Awards on August 25.

The Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes for crime fiction and true crime writing, established in 1995.

This year, for the first time, the Ned Kelly Awards include a category for Best International Crime Fiction published in Australia.

2020 NED KELLY AWARDS SHORTLISTS

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • Death of a Typographer by Nick Gadd (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
  • The Strangers We Know by Pip Drysdale (Simon & Schuster Australia)
  • The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan (Harlequin Enterprises Australia)
  • The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (Affirm Press)
  • Rivers of Salt by Dave Warner (Fremantle Press)
  • True West by David Whish-Wilson (Fremantle Press)

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Present Tense by Natalie Conyer (Clan Destine Press)
  • Eight Lives by Susan Hurley (Affirm Press)
  • Where the Truth Lies by Karina Kilmore (Simon & Schuster Australia)
  • The Nancys by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)
  • Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern (Allen & Unwin)
  • Lapse by Sarah Thornton (Text Publishing)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Bowraville by Dan Box (Penguin Random House Australia)
  • Dead Man Walking: The murky world of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich by Kate McClymont (Penguin Random House Australia)
  • Shark Arm by Phillip Rooper and Kevin Meagher (Allen & Unwin)
  • Snakes and Ladders by Angela Williams (Affirm Press)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • Cruel Acts by Jane Casey (Harper Collins Australia)
  • The Night Fire by Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin)
  • The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Hachette Australia)
  • The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter (Harper Collins Australia

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the story.]