Harris and May win at Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards

Robert Harris (pictured) and Peter May were among the winners at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2014.

The awards, held on Friday (24th October) at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, included accolades for books as well as for film and television.

Harris won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year, for An Officer and a Spy (Arrow), and was also inducted into the Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame.

May won the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year for Entry Island (Quercus), chosen by a group of independent publishing experts from the Awards Academy, from a shortlist of six crime reads featured throughout the Crime Thriller Club Series on ITV3.

Meanwhile Ray Celestin won the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best New Crime Writer of the Year for The Axeman’s Jazz (Mantle), while Wiley Cash won the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year for This Dark Road to Mercy (Doubleday).

Also inducted into the Hall of Fame was novelist Denise Mina, as was ITV television programme "Midsomer Murders".

Among the television and film winners were Matthew McConaughey, who won Best Actor for "True Detective", and Keeley Hawes for Best Actress for "Line of Duty."

The ceremony, organised by Cactus TV and ITV3 with the Crime Writers’ Association, was hosted by Bradley Walsh.

Amanda Ross, m.d. of Cactus TV, said: ‘This is the most popular genre of fiction on the screen and in print, so it’s great to be able to honour its true stars.”