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)
