You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Stig Abell, Mick Herron and Adam Sisman win at 2024 CrimeFest Awards
Stig Abell, Mick Herron and Adam Sisman are among the winners of the 2024 CrimeFest awards, announced on 11th May at a gala dinner event during the crime fiction convention in Bristol.
Times Radio journalist Abell has won the £1,000 Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award for Death Under a Little Sky (Hemlock Press), which features London detective Jake Jackson. “It offers a different slant to the usual detective mysteries, and I was compelled to finish the book and get to the end, which I didn’t guess,” Specsavers co-founder Dame Mary Perkins said of the winning book. “His mesmerising prose and deft plot made Death Under a Little Sky unputdownable.”
The eDunnit Award for the best e-book was awarded to Prom Mom (Faber & Faber) by Laura Lippman, who has won the same prize twice before. The winner of the H R F Keating Award for best biographical or critical book on crime fiction is The Secret Life of John le Carré by Sisman (Profile Books), and the Last Laugh Award for the best humorous book has been awarded to The Secret Hours (Baskerville) by Herron — who is a multiple CrimeFest Award winner.
The Best Crime Novel for Young Adults aged 12 to 16 has gone to Elizabeth Wein for her murder mystery Stateless, while the Best Crime Novel for Children aged 8 to 12 has been given to J T Williams for The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison (Farshore).
Moreover, the Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama – which is decided by public vote – has been awarded for the second year running to the third season of ‘Slow Horses’ starring Gary Oldman, which is based on Herron’s Slough House books (Baskerville). Produced by See-Saw and shown on Apple TV+, the drama follows a “dysfunctional and disgraced” team of MI5 agents.
Adrian Muller, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “Crime fiction is recognised as the biggest selling and most influential genre in publishing. As ever, this year’s nominees reflect the genre’s power, reach and popularity, and it was a hotly contested shortlist. We congratulate all 2024 winners, and would especially like to thank Specsavers for their ongoing support in celebrating new talent, with the Debut Award.”
CrimeFest is held between 9th and 12th May, and featured guests this year include G T Karber, James Lee Burke and Lynda La Plante, among many others.
