A New Dawn, by Emeli Sione (Mila’s Books) The Devil You Know, by Dr. Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne (Faber) Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay, by Paul Diamond (Massey University Press) The Fix, by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman) Missing Persons, by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
One Heart One Spade, by Alistair Luke (Your Books) Too Far from Antibes, by Bede Scott (Penguin SEA) Better the Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster) Surveillance, by Riley Chance (CopyPress) The Slow Roll, by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press) Paper Cage, by Tom Baragwanath (Text)
BEST NOVEL
Exit .45, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin) Blue Hotel, by Chad Taylor (Brio) Remember Me, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin) The Doctor’s Wife, by Fiona Sussman (Bateman) Better the Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster) Blood Matters, by Renée (The Cuba Press) The Slow Roll, by Simon Lendrum (Upstart Press)
The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.
Jussi Adler-Olsen — The Shadow Murders. Translated by William Frost (Denmark, Quercus)
Lina Areklew — Death in Summer. Translated by Tara F Chace (Sweden, Canelo Crime)
Kjell Ola Dahl — Little Drummer. Translated by Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)
Pascal Engman – Femicide. Translated by Michael Gallagher (Sweden, Legend Press)
Anne Mette Hancock — The Corpse Flower. Translated by Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)
The winner of the 2023 Award is Nicole Prewitt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her winning submission, “Harts Divided”, follows Neema Hart, a black, bisexual thief-turned-P.I., who owns a detective agency and therapy office with her estranged wife, Genie Hart. When what should be a bread-and-butter infidelity case results in unsuspecting women getting burned, in more ways than one. The Harts are pushed to prove their commitment to their clients, their community, and each other.
The winner receives a $2,000 grant intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The grant may be used for activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work.
Prewitt’s story was selected from over 60 submissions by 2023 judges Shizuka Otake — winner of the award in 2022 — plus novelists R. Franklin James and Andrea J. Johnson.
Sisters in Crime also awarded five runners-up a year-long membership to the organization:
The winner of the 2022 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing was named by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch) on June 24. The award is given to a book, originally published in the English language in the United States or Canada, “that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”
Jacqueline Bublitz swept the field when the winners of the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards for best novel were announced on September 15.
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The results were revealed at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival.
BEST NOVEL
•Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
•Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
The Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction is a literary prize which recognizes outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction. The 2022 winner has been announced.
The Children of Gaia by Jacqueline Auld
The winning entry is awarded a prize of £2500 to support the completion of their work and funding towards a year’s membership of both the Society of Authors (SoA) and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The winners will be announced as part of a special event at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 31-September 4.
BEST NOVEL
•The Devils You Know, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin) •Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin) •She’s a Killer, by Kirsten McDougall (Te Herenga Waka University Press) •Quiet in Her Bones, by Nalini Singh (Hachette) •The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press) •Nancy Business, by R.W.R. McDonald (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
•Isobar Precinct, by Angelique Kasmara (Cuba Press) •Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin) •Waking the Tiger, by Mark Wightman (Hobeck) •Small Mouth Demon, by Matt Zwartz (Poetry in Motion) •Shadow Over Edmund Street, by Suzanne Frankham (Journeys to Words)
CAPITAL CRIME FINGERPRINT AWARDS
Capital Crime, a crime fiction con in London, has announced the finalists for The Fingerprint Awards 2022. The public can vote for the winners at the link. The winners will be announced September 29.
The winner of the 2021 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing was named by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch) on June 17. The award is given to a book, originally published in the English language in the United States or Canada, “that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby, Flatiron Books
The award judges were Mae Woods (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Meta Carstarphen (Editor at Communication Booknotes Quarterly), and Jennifer Fremlin (writer and professor, Huntingdon College, Alabama).
The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010. The finalists for both the Best Novel category and Best First Novel will be announced in early August. The winners will be announced as part of a special event at this year’s WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 31-September 4.
The longlist for this year’s Best Novel prize is:
City of Vengeance by DV Bishop (Macmillan)
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
The Quiet People by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
To The Sea by Nikki Crutchley (HarperCollins)
Polaroid Nights by Lizzie Harwood (The Cuba Press)
Isobar Precinct by Angelique Kasmara (The Cuba Press)
Nancy Business by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)
She’s A Killer by Kirsten McDougall (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
The Last Guests by JP Pomare
The Devils You Know by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)
•The Stone Weta, by Octavia Cade (Paper Road Press) •The Girl in the Middle, by Rose Carlyle (Allen & Unwin) •The Snow Thief, by C.J. Carver (Right Nuisance) •Shakti, by Rajorshi Chakraborti (Penguin) •Dance Prone, by David Coventry (Pan Macmillan) •The Murder Club, by Nikki Crutchley (Oak House Press) •Sprigs, by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson) •Caught Between, by Jeannie McLean (Self-published) •The Tally Stick, by Carl Nixon (Random House) •The Secrets of Strangers, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin) •Tell Me Lies, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette) •Soldiers, by Tom Remiger (Text)
INAUGURAL PRIZE FOR NOVEL FOR YOUNGER READERS. Also, for the first time, a commendation will be presented to a novel written specifically for younger readers. The finalists are:
•Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg, by Brian Falkner (Scholastic New Zealand) •Red Edge, by Des Hunt (Scholastic New Zealand) •A Trio of Sophies, by Eileen Merriman (Penguin) •Deadhead, by Glenn Wood (OneTree House)
The Ngaio Marsh finalists for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Non-fiction will be announced on August 28. The winners will be unveiled in October.
The winners of the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for the New Zealand crime fiction were announced at the WORD Christchurch Spring Festival on October 30.
BEST NOVEL
AUE by Becky Manawatu. [Note: WordPress does not support the proper E with a macron.]
BEST FIRST NOVEL
The Nancys by RWR McDonald
Both were debut books.
The judges called The Nancys —
“Hilarious and inventive, the dynamic between the young protagonist and the adult characters is unusual and special. A clever hat-tip to one of the most indelible female characters in the genre, and a story that blends crime and humour in unexpected ways. A book with standout, oddball characters.”
The judges said about AUE:
“A breathtaking expose of lives lived on the margins, and the fight for redemption and absolution … takes technical chances without being overbearing, and it’s affecting without being schmaltzy … Utterly devastating and some of the finest prose I have come across in the genre or in any recent Kiwi literature … Manawatu doesn’t use crime as a plot device but shows it woven into the fabric of her characters’ lives, defining them, sometimes destroying them, and serving as a perverse unifier.”