Mackintosh, King and Galbraith compete for CrimeFest Awards

Clare Mackintosh will compete against the likes of Stephen King and Robert Galbraith for the crime fiction convention CrimeFest's annual awards.

Mackintosh's debut I Let You Go (Sphere) will go head-to-head with King's Finders Keepers (Hodder & Stoughton), Ian Rankin's Even Dogs in the Wild (Orion) and J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith for Career of Evil (Sphere) for the Audible Sounds of Crime Award.

Also shortlisted for the £1,000 prize, awarded to the best unabridged crime audiobook, is Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train (Random House), which is to be released as a feature film later this year.

The shortlist for the Kobo eDunnit Award for the best crime fiction e-book, worth £500, includes another debut novelist Jax Miller for Freedom’s Child (HarperCollins), who will compete against Linwood Barclay’s Broken Promise (Orion) and Michael Connelly for The Crossing (Orion).

Meanwhile, Barry Forshaw is nominated twice for the H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction. He is nominated both for his exploration of the most influential police detectives in fiction, Crime Uncovered: Detective (Intellect), and for The Sherlock Holmes Book (Dorling Kindersley) which was co-written with David Stuart Davies.

The ceremony, which takes place at the CrimeFest Gala Awards Dinner on 20th May, also features the Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel. Among the nominees are Sascha Arango for The Truth and Other Lies (Simon & Schuster), Alan Bradley for As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust (Orion) and Simon Brett for Mrs Pargeter’s Principle (Severn House Publishing).

CrimeFest co-director Adrian Muller said: "The shortlist for our awards this year is our most exciting yet, with some of crime fiction’s greatest writers up against some of the most successful debut novelists we’ve seen in recent years.

“To have such a diverse selection of authors spanning crime, thriller, humour, biography and non-fiction on the list is fantastic and showcases the talent out there within the genre! We are all very much excited about seeing who wins on 20th May.”

CrimeFest, taking place in Bristol over 19th-22nd May, will host 65 speaking events and panel discussions on subjects such as ‘Crimes Against Humanity: Terrorism, War and International Intrigue’ and ‘Deadly Dames: Women As Killers, Investigators And Victims’.

Four independently published authors will take part in an Emerging Indie Voices Panel to discuss self-publishing, while Rankin, Susan Moody, Laura Wilson and others will take part in crime fiction quiz ‘Sorry I Haven’t a Cluedo’.

The award shortlist in full is:

Audible Sounds of Crime Award for best unabridged crime audiobook:

Sleep Tight, Rachel Abbott, read by Melody Grove & Andrew Wincott (Whole Story Audiobooks)
Make Me, Lee Child, read by Jeff Harding (Random House Audiobooks)
The Stranger, Harlan Coben, read by Eric Meyers (Orion Publishing Group)
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio UK)
The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins, read by Clare Corbett, India Fisher & Louise Brealey (Random House Audiobooks)
Finders Keepers, Stephen King, read by Will Patton (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Girl in the Spider’s Web, David Lagercrantz, translated by George Goulding and read by Saul Reichlin (Quercus)
I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh, read by David Thorpe & Julia Barrie (Hachette Audio)
Even Dogs in the Wild, Ian Rankin, read by James Macpherson (Orion Publishing Group)
 
Kobo eDunnit Award for best crime fiction e-book:

Broken Promise, Linwood Barclay (Orion Publishing Group)
The Crossing, Michael Connelly (Orion Publishing Group)
A Bed of Scorpions, Judith Flanders (Allison & Busby)
 A Southwold Mystery, Suzette A. Hill (Allison & Busby)
 Dreaming Spies, Laurie R. King (Allison & Busby)
 Freedom’s Child, Jax Miller (HarperCollins)
 Blood, Salt, Water, Denise Mina (Orion Publishing Group)
 The Silent Boy, Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

The Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel:

The Truth and Other Lies, Sascha Arango (Simon & Schuster)
 As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Alan Bradley (Orion Publishing Group)
 Mrs Pargeter’s Principle, Simon Brett (Severn House Publishing)
 Bryant & May and the Burning Man, Christopher Fowler (Transworld)
 Smoke and Mirrors, Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
 The Case of the ‘Hail Mary’ Celeste, Malcolm Pryce (Bloomsbury)
 Mr Campion’s Fox, Mike Ripley (Severn House Publishing)
 Savage Lane, Jason Starr (No Exit Press)

The H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction:

The Sherlock Holmes Book, David Stuart Davies & Barry Forshaw (Dorling Kindersley)
The Golden Age of Murder, Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)
 The Man With the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming’s James Bond Letters, Fergus Fleming (Bloomsbury)
 Crime Uncovered: Detective, Barry Forshaw (Intellect)
 Curtains Up: Agatha Christie – A Life in Theatre, Julius Green (HarperCollins)
 Criminal Femmes Fatales in American Hardboiled Crime Fiction, Maysam Hasam Jaber (Palgrave Macmillan)
 Crime Uncovered: Anti-hero, Fiona Peters & Rebecca Stewart (Intellect)
 John le Carré: The Biography, Adam Sisman (Bloomsbury)