Crimefest Names Its Final Winners

After sixteen successful years, Bristol’s iconic crime fiction convention, CrimeFest, will come to an end in 2025. But they went out with a bang, including the annual CrimeFest Awards, with winners revealed at a Gala Awards Dinner yesterday evening. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD:  Akira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) for The Night of Baba Yaga (Faber & Faber)

Other finalists include:

• Tom Baragwanath for Paper Cage (Baskerville)
• Tasha Coryell for Love Letters to a Serial Killer (Orion Fiction)
• C. L. Miller for The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (Pan Macmillan)
• Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching (Viking)
• Claire Wilson for Five by Five (Michael Joseph)

eDUNNIT AWARD:  Jean Hanff Korelitz for The Sequel (Faber & Faber)

Other finalists include:

• Martin Edwards for Hemlock Bay (Head of Zeus)
• Laurie R. King for The Lantern’s Dance (Allison & Busby)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Liz Moore for The God of the Woods (The Borough Press)
• Peter Swanson for A Talent for Murder (Faber & Faber)

LAST LAUGH AWARD:  Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Christmas (Severn House) 

Other finalists include:

• Cathy Ace for The Case of the Secretive Secretary (Four Tails Publishing Ltd.)
• DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin (Harvill Secker)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Orlando Murrin for Knife Skills for Beginners (Transworld)
• Antti Tuomianen (and translator David Hackston) for The Burning Stones (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD:  Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness (HarperCollins) 

Other finalists include:

• Jem Bloomfield for Allusion in Detective Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Ashley Bowden for Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 (Fabula Mysterium Press)
• Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction (Dead Ink)
• Sara Lodge for The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female (Yale University Press)
• Lynda La Plante for Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen (Zaffre)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA: Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)

Other finalists include:

• Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen (Apple TV+)
• Dalgliesh (series 3), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
• Lady in the Lake based on the book by Laura Lippman (Apple TV+)
• Moonflower Murders based on the book by Anthony Horowitz (BBC)
• The Turkish Detective, based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel (BBC)

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR CHILDREN:  Sufiya Ahmed for Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker (Bloomsbury Education)

Other finalists include:

• Natasha Farrant for The Secret of Golden Island (Faber & Faber)
• A.M. Howell for Mysteries at Sea: The Hollywood Kidnap Case (Usborne Publishing)
• M. G. Leonard for The Twitchers: Feather (Walker Books)
• Beth Lincoln for The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Nicki Thornton for The Floating Witch Mystery (Faber & Faber)

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS:  Kayvion Lewis for Heist Royale (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)

Other finalists include:

• H.F. Askwith for A Cruel Twist of Fate (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Denise Brown for It All Started With a Lie (Hashtag Press)
• A.J. Clack for Lie or Die (Firefly Press)
• Amie  Jordan for All the Hidden Monsters (Chicken House)
• Karen M. McManus for Such Charming Liars (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)