Dashiell Hammett Award: AIEP

David Llorente has won the Dashiell Hammett Award for Madrid: frontera. It was awarded last week at Semana Negra in Gijon, Spain.  The Hammett Award is given by AIEP (Asociación Internacional de Escritores Policíaco) for the best crime novel.

"Although any of the finalists would have been worthy of the prize, the jury stress that the winning novel stood out for its originality and daring style, as well as its ability to use literature as a tool for protest,” jury chairwoman and crime writer Noemí Sabugal said at a packed  news conference called to announce the prizes.

From: Black & Noir

In translation: Madrid: frontier was published in January 2016 and since then has not stopped traveling from the noir genre to science fiction, from science fiction to fantasy, from fantasy to social novel, from social novel to novel terror. No one knew where to put it. No one knew what springs of the novel gave the key of what would be his genre. The Black Week of Gijón has awarded him the Hammett. Clearly, the organization (AIEP) and the jury have understood that the black novel is elastic and versatile enough to move around the surface of other genres, enter their homes and take everything they need without having forgotten their essence of criticism Social and finger pointing to everything that begins to rot. 

FYI: In case you're confused. The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers awards their Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author.