Winter Is Here: 2023 Crime Fiction Awards Update

IRISH INDEPENDENT CRIME FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

The An Post Irish Book Award winners were revealed on November 22. The winner in the Crime Fiction category is Liz Nugent.

Winner

  • Strange Sally Diamond – Liz Nugent (Sandycove)

Other Shortlisted Novels

  • The Lock-Up – John Banville (Faber and Faber)
  • The Close – Jane Casey (Harper Fiction)
  • Kill for Me, Kill for You – Steve Cavanagh (Headline)
  • No One Saw a Thing – Andrea Mara (Bantam, Transworld)
  • The Trap – Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam, Transworld)

NED KELLY AWARDS

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards winners.

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

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Betrayed by Sandi Logan

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

(Published in Australia)

  • The Lemon Man by Keith Bruton

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Wake by Shelley Burr

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • Exiles by Jane Harper

Sizzling Summer Crime Fiction Awards News

The Ned Kelly and Ngaio Marsh award shortlists, and the Petrona Award longlist have been announced in recent weeks.

NED KELLY AWARDS

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has unveiled the shortlist for the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards.

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

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! by Officer A
  • Death Row at Truro by Geoff Plunkett
  • Rattled by Ellis Gunn
  • Betrayed by Sandi Logan
  • Out of the Ashes by Megan Norris

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

(Published in Australia)

  • The Lemon Man by Keith Bruton
  • Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath
  • The Favour by Nicci French
  • The Hitchhiker by Gerwin van der Werf

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Wake by Shelley Burr
  • No Country for Girls by Emma Styles
  • Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor
  • Black River by Matthew Spencer
  • How to Kill a Client by Joanna Jenkins
  • The House of Now and Then by Jo Dixon
  • Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne
  • Denizen by James McKenzie Watson

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • Soulmate by Sally Hepworth 
  • When The Carnival is Over by Greg Woodland
  • Exiles by Jane Harper
  • When We Fall by Aoife Clifford
  • The Tilt by Chris Hammer
  • Those Who Perish by Emma Viskic
  • Seven Sisters by Katherine Kovacic
  • Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham

NGAIO MARSH AWARD

The shortlist for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the New Zealand crime fiction award, was announced on August 5.

BEST NON-FICTION (a biennial prize)

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 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have made the longlist for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

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)
  • Susanne Jansson — Winter Water. Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Håkan Nesser — The Axe Woman. Translated by Sarah Death (Sweden, Mantle)
  • Petra Rautiainen — Land of Snow and Ashes. Translated by David Hackston (Finland, Pushkin Press)
  • Joachim B Schmidt – Kalmann. Translated by Jamie Lee Searle (Switzerland, Bitter Lemon Press)
  • Lilja Sigurðardóttir — Red as Blood. Translated by Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)
  • Gustaf Skördeman — Codename Faust. Translated by Ian Giles (Sweden, Zaffre)
  • Gunnar Staalesen — Bitter Flowers. Translated by Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

2022 Ned Kelly Awards

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners of the  2022 Ned Kelly Awards.

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

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Banjawarn by Josh Kemp (UWA Publishing)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Banquet: The untold story of Adelaide’s family murders by Debi Marshall (Vintage)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • The Maid by Nita Prose (HarperCollins)

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • The Chase by Candice Fox (Bantam)

Crime Fiction Awards News of July 2022

NED KELLY AWARDS SHORTLIST

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards.

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

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown(A&U)
  • Shadow Over Edmund Street by Suzanne Frankham(Journey to Words Publishing)
  • Cutters End by Margaret Hickey(Penguin)
  • Banjawarn by Josh Kemp(UWA Publishing)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar(Macmillan)
  • Larrimah by Caroline Graham & Kylie Stevenson(A&U)
  • Banquet: The untold story of Adelaide’s family murders by Debi Marshall(Vintage)
  • A Witness of Fact by Drew Rooke(Scribe)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet(Text)
  • The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves(Macmillan)
  • The Maid by Nita Prose(HarperCollins)
  • Cry Wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt(HarperCollins)

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe(S&S)
  • The Others by Mark Brandi(Hachette)
  • You Had it Coming by B M Carroll(Profile Books)
  • The Chase by Candice Fox(Bantam)
  • Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath(A&U)
  • The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald(A&U)
  • The Deep by Kyle Perry(Michael Joseph).

BLOODY SCOTLAND SCOTTISH CRIME DEBUT OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST

The finalists for the 2022 Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year have been revealed.

Eligible writers must either be born in Scotland or living there, and setting their books there.

The winner is awarded a cheque of £500 and a trophy sponsored by The Glencairn Glass.

The shortlisted books are:

  • Tariq Ashkanani, Welcome to Cooper (Thomas & Mercer, Amazon)
  • Frankie Boyle, Meantime (John Murray)
  • Amanda Mitchison, The Wolf Hunters (Fledgling Press)
  • George Paterson, The Girl, The Crow, The Writer and The Fighter (Into Books)
  • Sarah Smith, Hear No Evil (Two Roads)

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the links.]

2021 Ned Kelly Awards

The Australian Crime Writing Association announced the shortlists for the 2021 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.

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • Consolation by Garry Disher (Text)

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • The Second Son by Loraine Peck (Text)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Stalking Claremont: Inside the hunt for a serial killer by Bret Christian (Harper Collins)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker (Allen and Unwin)

 [Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the story.]

Crime Fiction Award News

2021 CRIME COLOGNE AWARD SHORTLIST

The shortlist for the 2021 Crime Cologne Award, a German crime fiction award tied to a festival which isn’t being held this year, has been announced. “Crime Cologne Award 2021: Die Shortlist steht fest”.

Here is the list with English translations of the titles, courtesy of Cora Buhlert:

Orkun Ertener – Was bisher geschah (What happened before)
Marcel Huwyler – Frau Morgenstern und der Verrat (Frau Morgenstern and the Betrayal)
Merle Kröger – Die Experten (The Experts)
Ben Riffko – Grünes Öl (Green Oil)
Joachim B. Schmidt – Kalmann (Kalmann)
Matthias Wittekindt – Vor Gericht (In Court)

2021 NED KELLY AWARDS SHORTLISTS

The Australian Crime Writing Association announced the shortlists for the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards on July 28.

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

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • Consolation by Garry Disher (Text)
  • Gathering Dark by Candice Fox (Penguin Random House)
  • A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill (Pantera Press)
  • The Survivors by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan)
  • The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan (Harper Collins)
  • Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare (Hachette)
  • When She Was Good by Michael Robotham (Hachette)
  • White Throat by Sarah Thornton (Text)

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • The Good Mother by Rae Cairns (Bandrui Publishing)
  • The Second Son by Loraine Peck (Text)
  • The Bluffs by Kyle Perry (Penguin Random House)
  • The Night Whistler by Greg Woodland (Text)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • The Husband Poisoner by Tanya Bretherton (Hachette)
  • Stalking Claremont: Inside the hunt for a serial killer by Bret Christian (Harper Collins)
  • Public Enemies by Mark Dapin (Allen and Unwin)
  • Hazelwood by Tom Doig (Penguin Random House)
  • Witness by Louise Milligan (Hachette)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • The Guest List by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins)
  • The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman (Allen and Unwin)
  • Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar (Text)
  • We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker (Allen and Unwin)
  • Broken by Don Winslow (Harper Collins)

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the story.]

2020 Ned Kelly Awards

The 2020 Ned Kelly Award winners were revealed October 14 in a virtual ceremony on Facebook.

Given by The Australian Crime Writing Association since 1995, the awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes for crime fiction and true crime writing. Each winner receives $1000.

2020 NED KELLY AWARDS

BEST CRIME FICTION

  • The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (Affirm Press)

BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION

  • Present Tense by Natalie Conyer (Clan Destine Press)

BEST TRUE CRIME

  • Bowraville by Dan Box (Penguin Random House Australia)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

  • The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Hachette Australia)

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.]

2019 Crime Fiction Awards News

MCILVANNEY PRIZES. Two award winners were announced at the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival  in Stirling, Scotland on September 20.

Scottish noir is celebrated by the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.  

And the winner of the 2019 McIlvanney Debut Prize is —

NED KELLY AWARDS. The 2019 Ned Kelly Awards, given by the Australian Crime Writing Association, were presented on September 6.

Best True Crime

  • Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

Best First Fiction

  • The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan

Best Fiction

  • The Lost Man by Jane Harper

DAVITT AWARDS. The winners of the 2019 Davitt Awards, handed out by Sisters in Crime Australia, were named on August 31. (List obtained with an assist from crime fiction news site Shots.)

Best Adult Crime Novel

  • The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Australia)

Best Young Adult Crime Novel

  • Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein (Walker Books)

Best Children’s Crime Novel

  • Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell (ABC Books)

Best Non-fiction Crime Book

  • The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper (Penguin Random House)

Best Debut Novel

  • Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)

Readers’ Choice

  • The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan Australia)

PINCKLEY PRIZES. The 2019 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, awarded by the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, honor two women writers. Both winners will receive both a financial award of $2,500 and a trip to New Orleans to accept their prize at a ceremony on October 10.

The Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work 

  • Megan Abbott

The Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel

  • Sarah St. Vincent

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the story.]

More 2019 Mystery Awards

Some of the awards we’ve been tracking have reached the stage of picking the winners, while others are just now unfurling longlists and shortlists.

2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

The winner of the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal, has been announced:

  • The Boat People by Sharon Bala

The prize, established in 2011, is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that “best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.”

2018 Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing

The winner of the 2018 Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing has been announced by North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers. The trophy goes to “the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.”

  • WINNING NOVEL Lou Berney, November Road (William Morrow) 

The award will be presented November 1 at Bouchercon.

CWA Dagger Awards Shortlist

British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) announced the 2019 CWA Dagger Awards Shortlist. The winners will be announced in London, England, on October 24.

Congratulations to Lavie Tidhar’s whose “Bag Man”, in The Outcast Hours anthology, edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, has made the shortlist in the CWA Short Story Dagger Award category.

CWA Gold Dagger:

  • All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • The Puppet Show, by M.W. Craven: (Constable)
  • What We Did, by Christobel Kent (Sphere)
  • Unto Us a Son Is Given, by Donna Leon (Heinemann)
  • American by Day, by Derek B Miller (Doubleday)
  • A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, by Benjamin Wood (Scribner)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood):

  • All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • The Boy at the Door, by Alex Dahl (Head of Zeus)
  • Scrublands, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)
  • Turn a Blind Eye, by Vicky Newham (HQ)
  • Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)
  • Overkill, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:

  • All That Remains: A Life in Death, by Sue Black (Doubleday)
  • An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere, by Mikita Brottman (Canongate)
  • Murder by the Book: A Sensational Chapter in Victorian Crime, by Claire Harman (Viking)
  • The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Hutchinson)
  • The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre (Viking)
  • The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:

  • Give Me Your Hand, by Megan Abbott (Picador)
  • Safe Houses, by Dan Fesperman (Head of Zeus)
  • Killing Eve: No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings (John Murray)
  • Lives Laid Away, by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Crime)
  • To the Lions, by Holly Watt (Bloomsbury)
  • Memo from Turner, by Tim Willocks (Jonathan Cape)

CWA Sapere Books Historical Dagger:

  • The Quaker, by Liam McIlvanney (Harper Fiction)
  • Destroying Angel, by S.G. MacLean: (Quercus)
  • Smoke and Ashes, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
  • The House on Half Moon Street, by Alex Reeve (Raven)
  • Tombland, by C.J. Sansom: (Mantle)
  • Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)

CWA International Dagger:

  • A Long Night in Paris, by Dov Alfon; translated by Daniella Zamir (Maclehose Press)
  • Weeping Waters, by Karin Brynard; translated by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon (World Noir)
  • The Cold Summer, by Gianrico Carofiglio; translated by Howard Curtis (Bitter Lemon Press)
  • Newcomer, by Keigo Higashino; translated by Giles Murray (Little, Brown)
  • The Root of Evil, by Håkan Nesser; translated by Sarah Death (Mantle)
  • The Forger, by Cay Rademacher; translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia)

CWA Short Story Dagger:

  • “Strangers in a Pub,” by Martin Edwards (from Ten Year Stretch, edited by Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller; No Exit Press)
  • “Death Becomes Her,” by Syd Moore (from The Strange Casebook, by Syd Moore; Point Blank Books)
  • “The Dummies’ Guide to Serial Killing,” by Danuta Reah (from The Dummies’ Guide to Serial Killing and Other Fantastic Female Fables, by Danuta Reah [aka Danuta Kot]; Fantastic)
  • “I Detest Mozart,” by Teresa Solana (from The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories, by Teresa Solana; Bitter Lemon Press)
  • “Bag Man,” by Lavie Tidhar (from The Outcast Hours, edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin; Solaris)

Dagger in the Library:

  • M.C. Beaton
  • Mark Billingham
  • John Connolly
  • Kate Ellis
  • C.J. Sansom
  • Cath Staincliffe

Debut Dagger
(for the opening of a crime novel by an uncontracted writer):

  • Wake, by Shelley Burr
  • The Mourning Light, by Jerry Krause
  • Hardways, by Catherine Hendricks
  • The Firefly, by David Smith
  • A Thin Sharp Blade, by Fran Smith

Diamond Dagger Recipient

  • Robert Goddard

2019 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award

Sisters in Crime (SinC) announced the winner of the 2019 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award

  • Jessica Martinez of Orcutt, CA,

The award, which honors the memory of pioneering African-American crime fiction author Eleanor Taylor Bland with a $2,000 grant to an emerging writer of color, was created in 2014 to support SinC’s vision statement that the organization should serve as the voice for excellence and diversity in crime writing.

2019 Ned Kelly Award Longlists

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced the longlists for the 2019 Ned Kelly Awards. The complete lists are at the link.

2019 Ngaio Marsh Award Nominees

The 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award Nominees in all three categories are listed at the link (we previously posted the Best Novel longlist here.)