THE NIBBIES: 2026 British Book Awards

The 2026 British Book Awards, the Nibbies, were announced in London. The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by The Bookseller. There are 17 categories, but I'm listing the category of most interest to crime fiction fans. 

Crime and Thriller Book of the Year: 

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith (Raven)

Nominees: 

Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall (Michael Joseph)

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Borough Press)

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (Viking) 

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (Bantam)

The Tenant by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)

HT: TheRapSheet

Mo Hayder: R.I.P.

Sad news. Crime writer Mo Hayder (Clare Dunkel) died from motor neurone disease on July 27, at the age of 59. Mo Hayder's jobs included filmmaker, Tokyo nightclub hostess, and English language teacher in Asia. She was also the author of Birdman; The Treatment; The Devil of Nanking, winner of the Elle Magazine crime fiction prize; Pig Island, shortlisted for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel; Ritual, shortlisted both for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award and for the coveted Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award; Skin; and Gone; as well as the winner of the 2011 Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library award for outstanding body of work.

From The Bookseller:

“It is with much sadness that we announce that Clare Dunkel died yesterday morning,” her publisher Century announced on 28th July. “Clare was diagnosed with motor neurone disease on 22nd December. She fought valiantly, but the disease progressed at an alarming rate. She leaves behind a husband and daughter.” The 59-year-old lived in England's West Country and was a full-time writer.

The news comes four months after it was announced she was turning her attention from crime fiction to speculative thrillers with a switch from long-time publisher Bantam Press to Century. “Most recently, Clare had started a brand new series in a new genre, which she was very excited about,” Century said. “Writing as Theo Clare, The Book of Sand will be published posthumously by Century in early 2022. It is set in an alternate universe where nothing is quite as it seems.” 

Dunkel had said of the book: “It has taken me four years to finish it… I am so happy to be writing fiction set in an entirely imaginative universe of my own creation.” 

Writing as Mo Hayder, Dunkel published 10 novels with Transworld's Bantam Press over the past 21 years. Her fifth novel, Ritual, was nominated for the Barry Award for Best Crime 2009 and was voted Best Book of 2008 by Publishers Weekly. Gone, her seventh novel, won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and her novel Wolf was nnominated for Best Novel in the 2015 Edgar Awards and is currently being adapted for the BBC. In 2011 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for an outstanding body of work. 

Altogether she has sold 1.2 million books in the UK for £6.17m through Nielsen BookScan; her UK bestseller is Gone, which has sold 143,580 copies in paperback since 2010.

Read more Here:

 

 

 

Author murdered for rare book worth £50K

Well, this is very disturbing Book News. The Bookseller reported that author Adrian Greenwood was allegedly stabbed to death by a perpetrator who wanted to rob him of rare books including a valuable first edition of The Wind in the Willows worth £50,000.

Unemployed Michael Danaher targeted Greenwood, an antiques dealer, who had also written history books for The History Press, at his home on Iffley Road in Oxford on April 6.

According to The Guardian, Greenwood’s name was on a list of other robbery victims including novelist Jeffrey Archer and model Kate Moss.

Danaher is accused of stabbing the author multiple times in the chest, neck and back.

Later he allegedly listed the copy of The Wind in the Willows for sale on the internet.

Read more Here.

New MA in Crime Fiction at University of East Anglia

From The Bookseller:

The University of East Anglia is adding a Masters in Crime Fiction to its Creative Writing program, which will launch in September 2015.

The new Masters will address the genre from a critical, theoretical and historical perspective as well incorporating a large Creative Writing component. Publisher Little, Brown will be supporting the course by sponsoring a £3,000 award for one student and also reading the manuscripts each student will produce by the end of the course, providing feedback and links to publishing opportunities.

It will be a low-residency course, with students attending three short residential periods a year over the two-year program. These residential periods will introduce students to key industry professionals, including literary agents and publishers, and major writers in the genre, who will run masterclasses. Ongoing creative and critical projects, presentations and interactions will continue between visits to the UEA.

The MA will also be launching with at least one full fees bursary, provided by UEA’s Centre for Creative and Performing Arts.

Read more here.