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Hannah Brown has won the 2021 Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award for her historical suspense novel My Name Is Emma.
Each year editors at Sphere choose the best novel by a graduating student, with the winner receiving £3,000.
My Name Is Emma follows the arrival of the eponymous servant into the home of widowed mother Mrs Jackson, building up to a terrible crime based on a true story.
Chair of judges, Sphere publishing director Ed Wood, said: “My Name is Emma is a wholly coherent first step into the world of historical mystery writing, a tale that slowly reveals its secrets as it moves towards a genuinely shocking conclusion. Hannah Brown has a confident, effortless voice that gripped us from the first page.”
Brown said: “I am astounded and grateful to win an award from such a prestigious publisher. The Crime Fiction Masters at University of East Anglia was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I feel so privileged to have written alongside such fantastic professors and an incredible cohort.”
For the first time, judges also awarded a highly commended prize to Duality – a Russian in Osaka by Denise Kuehl, a Japanese-set procedural with near-future touches.
Wood said: “Duality is a daring, unique novel with an unusual setting, strong, literary prose and compelling characters. This is the first time we have chosen a highly commended entry, and we expect to see Denise produce something truly special in the coming years.”
The 2020 winner was Emma Styles, whose No Country for Girls will be published by Sphere, while other winners included Femi Kayode with Lightseekers (Bloomsbury Raven). Authors previously graduating the course have included Harriet Tyce for Blood Orange and Trevor Wood for The Man on the Street.