Cartoon of the Day: Olympics

NED KELLY AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTS

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) announced the shortlist for the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards. Congratulations to all!

Best Crime Fiction

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

Best Debut Crime Fiction

• The Good Mother (Rae Cairns, Bandrui Publishing)
• The Second Son (Lorraine Peck, Text)
• The Bluffs (Kyle Perry, PRH)
• The Night Whistler (Greg Woodlands, Text)

Best True Crime

• The Husband Poisoner (Tanya Bretherton, Hachette)
• Stalking Claremont: Inside the hunt for a serial killer (Bret Christian, HarperCollins)
• Public Enemies (Mark Dapin, A&U)
• Hazelwood (Tom Doig, Viking)
• Witness (Louise Milligan, Hachette)

 Best International Cime Fiction

• The Guest List  (Lucy Foley, HarperCollins)
• The Secrets of Strangers (Charity Norman, A&U)
• Take Me Apart (Sara Sligar, Text)
• We Begin at the End (Chris Whittaker, A&U)
• Broken (Don Winslow, HarperCollins).

Established in 1995, the Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest, most prestigious awards honoring crime fiction and true crime writing.

For more information about the 2021 shortlists, go to the ACWA website.

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:

 

 

 

Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award Winners 2021

The Private Eye Writers of America announced the Shamus Award Winners for 2021. (For works published in 2020). Congratulations to all!

Best Original Private Eye Paperback

Brittle Karma by Richard Helms / Black Arch Books

Best Private Eye Short Story 

“Mustang Sally” by John M. Floyd in Black Cat Mystery Magazine

 Best Private Eye Novel

Blind Vigil by Matt Coyle / Oceanview

Best First Private Eye Novel

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey / Soho

The Eye, the PWA Life Achievement Award, was given to Michael Z. Lewin

Cartoon of the Day: Cats

 

THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021 was announced last night during opening ceremonies at Theakston Old Peculier Writing Festival being held in Harrogate, England. Chris Whitaker won for We Begin at the End (Zaffre). The win also includes 3000 Pounds and an engraved oak beer cask, hand-carved by one of Britain's last coopere. 

In addition, Ian Rankin and Mark Billingham were names as recipients of the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award for 2021, and 2020. 

HT: The Rap Sheet