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Bartlett, Prose and Alonge compete for début award as CrimeFest shortlists revealed
Graham Bartlett, Amen Alonge and Nita Prose are among those shortlisted for the £1,000 Specsavers Début Crime Novel Award at this year’s CrimeFest, now in its 16th year.
Former detective Bartlett, who is known for advising some of the biggest authors in the crime genre, has put himself on the line with his début, Bad for Good (Allison & Busby). He’ll be vying for the hotly contested début award with John Sutherland’s The Siege (Orion Fiction); Nita Prose’s The Maid (HarperCollins); Amen Alonge’s A Good Day to Die (Quercus); Oriana Rammuno’s Ashes in the Snow translated by Katherine Gregor (HarperCollins); Joachim B Schmidt’s Kalmann translated by Jamie Lee Searle (Bitter Lemon); Hayley Scrivenor’s Dirt Town (Macmillan); and Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark (HarperCollins).
Adrian Muller, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “The Specsavers Début Novel Award has become one of the most coveted, and we’d like to thank Specsavers for their ongoing support in celebrating new talent. We are also proud to be one of the few genre awards that recognise and celebrate e-books, humour, children and Young Adult crime fiction novels. Our inclusive awards reflect the values of our convention, and showcase the incredible diversity and reach of the genre which dominates today’s cultural landscape.”
British crime fiction reviewers and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults, alongside the members of the School Library Association (SLA), form the CrimeFest judging panels. Featured guests at the convention in Bristol on the 11th-14th May are Mark Billingham and Elly Griffiths. All category winners will receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.
The 2023 Shortlists in full
Specsavers Début Crime Novel Award
- Amen Alonge for A Good Day to Die (Quercus)
- Graham Bartlett for Bad for Good (Allison & Busby)
- Nita Prose for The Maid (HarperCollins)
- Oriana Rammuno (translator: Katherine Gregor) for Ashes in the Snow (HarperCollins)
- Joachim B. Schmidt (translator: Jamie Lee Searle) for Kalmann (Bitter Lemon)
- Hayley Scrivenor for Dirt Town (Macmillan)
- John Sutherland for The Siege (Orion Fiction)
- Stacy Willingham for A Flicker in the Dark (HarperCollins)
eDunnit Award
- Chris Brookmyre for The Cliff House (Abacus)
- Michael Connelly for Desert Star (Orion Fiction)
- M W Craven for The Botanist (Constable)
- Sara Gran for The Book of the Most Precious Substance (Faber & Faber)
- Ian Rankin for A Heart Full of Headstones (Orion Fiction)
- Peter Swanson for Nine Lives (Faber & Faber)
H R F Keating Award
- J C Bernthal & Mary Anna Evans for The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie (Bloomsbury Academic)
- John le Carré (edited by Tim Cornwell) for A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré 1945-2020 (Viking)
- Martin Edwards for The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators (Collins Crime Club)
- Barry Forshaw for Simenon: The Man, The Books, The Films (Oldcastle Books)
- Sian MacArthur for Gender Roles and Political Contexts in Cold War Spy Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
- Lucy Worsley for Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman (Hodder & Stoughton)
Last Laugh Award
- Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May’s Peculiar London (Doubleday)
- Elly Griffiths for The Locked Room (Quercus)
- Mick Herron for Bad Actors (Baskerville)
- Cara Hunter for Hope to Die (Viking)
- Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Mosaic (Severn House)
- Antti Tuomainen for The Moose Paradox (Orenda Books)
Best Crime Fiction Novel for Children (aged 8-12)
- Elly Griffiths for A Girl Called Justice: The Spy at the Window (Quercus Children’s Books)
- Anthony Horowitz for Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books)
- Sharna Jackson for The Good Turn (Puffin)
- M G Leonard for Spark (Walker Books)
- Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (Puffin)
- Sarah Todd Taylor for Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for Trouble (Nosy Crow)
Best crime novel for young adults (aged 12-16)
- Holly Jackson for Five Survive (Electric Monkey)
- Patrice Lawrence for Needle (Barrington Stoke)
- Finn Longman for The Butterfly Assassin (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
- Sophie McKenzie for Truth or Dare (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
- Ruta Sepetys for I Must Betray You (Hodder Children’s Books)
- Jonathan Stroud for The Notorious Scarlett and Browne (Walker Books)
