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Transmitting in the six weeks running up to this year’s Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, the hour-long Crime Thriller Club is a magazine show for fans of the whodunit. It will include famous faces from the crime thriller world – the actors who star in TV’s biggest crime thriller shows, as well as the writers responsible for creating some of our favourite characters and series.
crime drama collections Watch the Specsavers Crime Thriller Club Season from September 15th and the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards in October.
The SPECSAVERS
AWARDS 2014
Welcome to a celebration of one of the most popular genres in publishing and on our screens. This official tie-in magazine aims to guide you through the shortlists for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards and show you the great titles selected for the TV series The Crime Thriller Club. Find out more about all the shortlisted authors and TV series at www.crimethrillerawards.com
WELCOM
to the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards
crime drama collections Channel 10 on Freeview Channel 119 on Sky and Channel 116 on Cable www.itv.com/itv3
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his September there is an exciting TV series about crime writing on ITV3 called The Crime Thriller Club – sponsored by Specsavers. In each show a specially selected crime or thriller title will be critiqued, a bestselling author – a Living Legend – will be interviewed and the books shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards will be featured. The finale to the season is the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, in conjunction with the Crime Writers’ Association, which will air on ITV3 in October – check out the awards show to find out which books, authors, TV shows and actors featured in this magazine go on to collect a Dagger! The Crime Writers’ Association is delighted to be part of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards. In this partnership we celebrate not only the extraordinary high quality of today’s crime and thriller fiction writing, but also its success in appealing to such a wide and ever-growing range of readers and viewers. The Crime Writers’ Association, founded in 1953, has played a major role in discovering and supporting the careers of many of our finest writers. Among the huge roll call of those the CWA has honoured are PD James, Ian Rankin, Frederick Forsyth, Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid and Alexander McCall Smith.
E Photo: Hugo Glendinning
2014
Alison Joseph Chair Crime Writers’ Association
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB SELECTED BOOK
How do you get yourself started on a book? Pam Houston, the American writer who wrote the wonderfully titled Cowboys Are My Weakness, said that when she’s getting ready to write, things start ‘glimmering’ at her and that’s exactly what it’s like for me: odd things – a doorway, an old book, an envelope, a momentary glimpse of a woman in a dark dress sitting at a table at night – start to strike me as significant. I don’t do anything with them immediately – even writing them down can kill the excitement – but I keep them in the back of my mind and they brew, gradually putting out feelers towards one another, attracting other ideas and building themselves into a story. I used to start writing as soon as I had my
main character and the basic idea of the story, developing it by editing again and again; with Before We Met, however, I plotted the book carefully beforehand – there are so many lies and subtle shifts in those lies that I needed to be able to keep careful track of them. Who or what has influenced your style of writing? I love writers who combine gripping stories with crisp but evocative writing and a strong sense of place and atmosphere. I love the Brontes – Jane Eyre in particular made a big impression on me – and as a teenager I was a huge fan of Daphne du Maurier. After being put off Dickens as a teenager, I tried him again three or four years ago and was bowled over. I hardly spoke while I was reading A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. My favourite writer of all,
BEFORE WE MET Lucie Whitehouse crime drama collections
however, is Graham Greene. His stories are engrossing and his writing incredibly powerful. If there’s a novel I wish I’d written, it’s Brighton Rock – the sense of evil in that book is so strong. Landscape and cities are the other major influences on my writing. Three of my books so far have started with an idea of a place and a time of day. I find twilight very inspiring, especially on a lonely street or a deserted beach. If you were recommending your book to a friend how would you describe it? I’d say that Before We Met is a psychological suspense novel about a woman who but for the grace of God could be one of us. After years of commitment phobia, she meets someone who makes marriage seem suddenly worth doing only to discover very quickly that she’s married into a nightmare.
A whirlwind romance. A perfect marriage. Hannah Reilly has seized her chance at happiness. Until the day her husband fails to come home... The more questions Hannah asks, the fewer answers she finds. But are the secrets that Mark has been keeping designed to protect him or protect her? And can you ever really know what happened before you met?
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB SELECTED BOOK
Who or what has influenced your style of writing? Stephen King. I was eleven when I read The Dead Zone, and I’m still first in line whenever he releases a new book. Story is everything with King and this is something I try to bring into my own work. Most people don’t want to read research, they don’t want to ooh and ah at the literary techniques employed, they just want to lose themselves in a good story. If you were recommending your book to a friend how would you describe it? Watch Me is a modern-day whodunit set in a small town in Louisiana where everyone’s got secrets and nothing is what it seems… it’s a tense page-turning thriller that will keep you guessing right to the very end. This is the second book
in a series featuring Jefferson Winter, a brilliant ex-FBI profiler who now travels the world hunting serial killers. The books are written as standalones, which means they can be read out of order – I took this approach because I wanted to make the series as accessible as possible. Which of your characters did you most enjoy writing? It’s got to be Winter every time. I’ve now written five stories featuring him, and with each one I’ve got to know him a little better. What I like most is the way he constantly surprises me; it’s like he’s taken on a life of his own. He’s charming, charismatic and complex, and I love writing about him. In addition to the main novels, I’m also working on The Jefferson Winter Chronicles, an eBook series set during Winter’s FBI days. It’s been a blast writing
WATCH ME James Carol crime drama collections
about him as a precocious nineteen year old kid. He’s more abrasive than his thirty-something incarnation, and rawer, but still lots of fun. That said, I enjoy writing all of my main characters. Novel writing is a long process so when I finish and it’s time to move on there’s a touch of sadness – I’ve spent months getting to know these characters and it’s now time to say goodbye. What are you currently working on? I’ve just finished the fourth draft of Hush Little Baby (the second instalment of the Jefferson Winter Chronicles)… tomorrow I’ll start the fourth draft of Chasing Shadows (working title for book three). If that wasn’t enough, I’ll be starting the first draft of 15 Minutes (book four) in September so I’m starting to get ideas together for that. Like Winter, I have a low boredom threshold and prefer to keep busy.
Jefferson Winter is back in James Carol's second thriller featuring the ex-FBI profiler from the bestselling Broken Dolls. Ex-FBI profiler Jefferson Winter has taken a new case in sunny Louisiana, where the only thing more intense than the heat is a killer on the loose in the small town of Eagle Creek. But in a town where secrets are rife and history has a way of repeating itself, can Winter solve the case before someone else dies?
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB SELECTED BOOK
Who or what has influenced your style of writing? I was most influenced by the writers I read during my teen years and early twenties when I was burning with ambition to write. Writers like Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, H.E. Bates, J.P. Donleavy and Raymond Chandler were among those who most influenced my writing. My earliest influences, however, as a kid, were Hergés Adventures Of Tintin. Hergé was such a great storyteller, and could create character with a stroke of his pen or a single line of dialogue. How much research do you have to do, which are the most difficult types of scenes to research and have you ever had to go to extreme or unusual lengths to research a scene? It’s
quite possible that I enjoy the research more that the writing. With my journalistic training I have never been afraid to pick up a phone or fire off an email asking someone for help. And 99 times out of 100 I’ll get a positive response. People around the world have been hugely helpful and generous with their time. My most difficult research project was for the China Thrillers – getting behind the scenes of the Chinese police at a time when China was still a very closed society. My researches there have led me to eat snakes and scorpions, and face up to the dissected corpse of an executed prisoner in a Shanghai police morgue where he’d had his organs removed in the autopsy room. What would you like readers to take away from the experience of reading your novel? I would hope that it might make them
ENTRY ISLAND Peter May crime drama collections
think about who they are, and the journey taken by their ancestors that has led them to the place they are in now. I would also like them to take away an enhanced understanding of the inhumanity perpetrated by the rich against the poor during the Highland Clearances, and be motivated to stand against similar injustice wherever it might arise. What's the most outlandish idea you've ever had for a storyline and has it made it into one of your books? The most outlandish idea I probably ever had was to lead two characters, diametrically opposed in hostility and hatred, to the discovery that they were in fact twins (non-identical, of course). It never made it into a book, but was an inherent part of the unfolding story in the Gaeliclanguage TV drama series, Machair, that I created along with my writer wife, Janice Hally.
When Detective Sime Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret. But what had initially seemed an open-and-shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim’s wife, and is convinced that he knows her – even though they have never met. And when Sime’s insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny.
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THE
CRIME THRILLER CLUB
LIVING LEGENDS
B
arry Forshaw looks at the six authors selected for the Crime Thriller Club TV feature Living Legends. All these authors will be members of the Hall of Fame, awarded at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards. Crime fiction expert Barry Forshaw’s latest books are Euro Noir and Nordic Noir.
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VAL McDERMID
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he inexorable ascent of Robert Harris as one of the UK's most important popular novelists has been an unusual phenomenon, quite unlike the career path of most of his peers. His breakthrough book was the powerful Fatherland in 1992 (with its dark alternative view of history, in which Germany was the winning nation in
the Second World War), and from that time onwards, a sequence of striking and genrebending novels followed, for which the description ‘thriller’ no longer seemed sufficient: Archangel, Enigma, The Fear Index and the much-acclaimed The Ghost, filmed by Polanski. But if there is one thing that has marked out Harris’s career, it is his wholly admirable refusal to be typecast with regard to category.
PHOTO: Charlie Hopkinson
ROBERT HARRIS
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al McDermid has joined the elite ranks of those serious novelists who write crime fiction, with both series fiction and highly compelling standalones. Her early books featuring journalist Lindsay Gordon were followed by a series featuring the dogged PI Kate Brannigan, adding new levels of gritty sociological observation. But even better was to
come. McDermid’s third series featuring profiler and clinical psychologist Tony Hill was quite her strongest work yet. McDermid began forging plots of psychological complexity quite the equal of many a writer of so-called ‘serious’ fiction. And she now has a dedicated crime readership eager for every new offering and the kind of serious attention her more literary peers might envy.
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PHOTO: Mark DeLong
MICHAEL CONNELLY Linwood Barclay, Harlan Coben and Robert Crais), Michael Connelly is perhaps the most interested in the conflicted character of his protagonists, and the alwaysmerican author beleaguered Michael Mickey Haller is his Connelly alternates masterstroke. The his two Lincoln Lawyer was protagonists, lowthe book that put rent lawyer Mickey Mickey on readers’ Haller and tough radars, but virtually cop Harry Bosch, all his work has the and sometimes (to panache of that the delight of his book, and most are fans) sets them immensely assured against each other pieces of writing. in the same book. Of the quartet of American crime novelists whose speciality is ironclad storytelling (the other three are
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DEAN KOONTZ
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ean Koontz’s thrillers prove over and over again that he can handle plotting more ingeniously than most of his contemporaries. What’s more, Koontz can ratchet up the tension with such authority that the reader is comprehensively gripped from page one. But this isn’t a writer who is just interested in the execution of a
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precision-tooled plot. What we get in his books – along with the cleverly orchestrated tension – is a series of killer twists, the kind that Koontz has always been adept at. But perhaps most cherishable of all his skills is his refusal to repeat himself: a phenomenon all too rare these days, when so many thriller writers simply recycle the same material. That is most definitely not Dean Koontz's way.
PHOTO: Neil Davidson
DENISE MINA
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long with being one of the finest practitioners of the crime writer’s art, the Scottish novelist is also a social commentator of perception and humanity, as her recent novel, The Red Road, reminds us. After Mina won the John Creasey Dagger for Best First Crime Novel, for her remarkable Garnethill (1998), each subsequent novel was keenly awaited.
But high reader expectations can be a heavy cross to bear, and more than one writer has come to grief attempting to recreate earlier triumphs. Such books as Exile, however, proved that Mina is a writer up for the long haul. And The Red Road is among her most impressive work, with the social issues addressed by the book as cogently handled as the satisfying plotting.
LYNDA LA PLANTE compelling blockbusters with strong women characters, but she is a far more subtle writer than this might suggest. It takes real command to produce popular he multi-tasking writing as Lynda La Plante sophisticated as (writer, producer this, and if the and sometime conflict and menace actress) is the she deals in may be creator of Prime familiar fare, her Suspect’s Jane books treat the Tennison, the most subjects in a headinfluential of all on, vigorous female detectives. fashion that lifts Initially, La Plante’s her effortlessly thrillers – such as above the rest. Wrongful Death, featuring her other major female copper, Anna Travis – may appear to be straightforwardly
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB SELECTED BOOK
Who or what has influenced your style of writing? Starting out, I wanted to write in the tradition of the American privateeye novel but make it my own. So my private eye was a woman, a single parent and she lived in Manchester. More recently people say that writing for television has influenced my writing and made it more filmic. How do you get yourself started on a book? Usually I have a question that I want to answer but I have to know the characters, to understand their background and imagine how they will behave before I begin. Once they are clear then I can get going and I develop the plot as I write. How much research do you have to do, which are the most
difficult types of scenes to research and have you ever had to go to extreme or unusual lengths to research a scene? It varies from book to book, research is my least favourite part of writing and procedural scenes are probably the hardest (partly because procedures can change). I have in the past cold-called a brain surgeon and also grilled another parent (a doctor) in the school playground about the technicalities of killing someone with a syringe full of air. Who’s your favourite literary character (or antihero) and why? Eeyore, from Winnie The Pooh. Just the thought of him makes me laugh and I’m immediately reminded of the delights of reading to myself as a child. If you were recommending your book to a friend how would you
LETTERS TO MY DAUGHTER’S KILLER Cath Staincliffe crime drama collections
describe it? It’s the story of an ordinary woman whose daughter is murdered and her life in the aftermath of that terrible loss. It looks at murder from the point of view of those left behind and asks whether it is ever possible to get beyond the grief and anger and hatred. What would you like readers to take away from the experience of reading your novel? I hope that they would empathise with the characters, be moved by what happens to them and be able to imagine themselves in that situation. What are you currently working on? A story of a graduate who goes missing in China and her family’s journey there to try and find her.
Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. Ruth's burden of grief and hatred has only grown heavier with the passing of time, her avid desire for vengeance ever stronger. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the demons of the past, and the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, but will she ever find peace? Letters to My Daughter's Killer exposes the aftermath of violent crime for an ordinary family and explores fundamental questions of crime and punishment, namely: can we really forgive those who do us the gravest wrong?
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB Photo: Andy Anderson
SELECTED BOOK
Are you a keen reader of crime fiction? Who is your favourite crime author? Beth Ann: I like contemporary female crime writers. One of my favourites is Megan Abbott, who was nominated for Dare Me last year; another favourite is Laura Lippmann. And I’m lucky that I count them both as pals as well as inspirations. Tom: Like BA above, I love Abbott and Lippman but I also love Lehane and Pelecanos. These guys make crime beautiful. Also, a new guy William Boyle. What would you like readers to take away from the experience of reading your novel? Tom: That history repeats itself. Katrina was so similar to the Flood of ’27. I don’t think George W. Bush
learned a damned thing. He needed to know his history. Who or what has influenced your style of writing? Tom: Cormac McCarthy has influenced me a lot and through him William Faulkner. I love the dense sentences of both these writers but also their intricate knowledge of their subjects and subject matter. Stephen King is another giant influence of mine in that he made me want to do what he does, which is enthral you and make time stop. When was your first book published and what were you doing before you were a writer? Beth Ann: My first book was a book of poetry called Open House, which I published when I was thirty. Before I was a writer, I was a waitress dreaming about being a writer and collecting lots of scraps of sentences on sodden napkins.
Tom: My book of stories, Poachers, appeared in 1999. Before that I’d worked in a warehouse, sandblasting plant, chemical plant, engineering office and taught English. What's the most outlandish idea you've ever had for a storyline and has it made it into one of your books? Tom: It’s my book Smonk, which is my favourite of my solo novels. It’s a broad comedy/horror novel/southern gothic/ historical/western novel set in Alabama in 1927 and it’s got a character who, well, isn’t human. He was terrific fun to write and I never knew what he’d do next, or what he’d say. What are you currently working on? Tom: BA and I are co-writing another novel but all we can say is that it also has a crime and it’s set in Mississippi but this time the book will be contemporary.
THE TILTED WORLD Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly crime drama collections
April 1927. After months of rain, the Mississippi River has reached dangerous levels and the little town of Hobnob is at threat. Residents fear the levee will either explode under the pressure of the water or be blown by saboteurs from New Orleans, who wish to save their own city. But when an orphaned baby is found the lives of Ingersoll, a blues-playing prohibition agent, and Dixie Clay, a bootlegger who is guarding a terrible secret, collide. They can little imagine how events are about to change them – and the great South – forever. For in the dead of night, after thick, illusory fog, the levee will break...
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CRIME THRILLER BOOKCLUB SELECTED BOOK
How do you get yourself started on a book? Because my series is based around a real historical character, Giordano Bruno, I begin with his life, where he was and what he was doing in that particular year. Because he travelled a lot, it keeps things interesting as there is usually a change of scene. Then I look at who he was meeting and what was going on in that place, usually in terms of the wars of religion, espionage etc. The final key is working out how I could work a murder into that background. When I've figured that out, I can start on the story. Which of your characters did you most enjoy writing? I've enjoyed writing Bruno from the beginning. It was a challenge because I'd fallen in love with him
as a character when I first read about him as a student, so I wanted my fictional version of him to do justice to everything I found fascinating about the real Bruno. I had to try to make him as clever and witty and charismatic as he was alleged to have been in life. But as the books have progressed I feel that my Bruno has grown into his own person and I always enjoy exploring his character further. What would you like readers to take away from the experience of reading your novel? I hope that people will enjoy the story for its own sake – I think one of the things people like about crime fiction is the idea of having a puzzle to solve, so I hope it offers that. But I hope it will also spark an interest for readers in that period of history because it was so crucial to the formation of England and there are some great
TREACHERY S.J. Parris crime drama collections
characters involved. If you were recommending your book to a friend how would you describe it? A story of intrigue and murder set in one of the most turbulent times in English history, with a compelling and sexy hero... Who’s your favourite literary character (or antihero) and why? I've always felt an affinity with Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, as she's constantly putting her foot in it without meaning to. But I'd probably have to say Sherlock Holmes, as he's the original loner detective who succeeds because of his brilliant mind; I think all the recent reinterpretations of his character are a tribute to the enduring charisma of Conan Doyle's creation.
August, 1585: Elizabeth’s England is on the brink of war. Sir Francis Drake is preparing to launch a daring expedition against the Spanish when a murder aboard his ship changes everything. Giordano Bruno is a hereticturned-spy, now working on Queen Elizabeth’s behalf. He agrees to hunt the killer down, only to find that someone with a deadly grudge is shadowing his every move. More than one dangerous plot is afoot in Plymouth’s murky underworld. But as Bruno tracks a murderer through its crime-ridden streets, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the future of England itself.
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CRIME NOVEL of the YEAR THE CWA GOLDSBORO GOLD DAGGER othing grips the British reader N quite like a crime novel; they dominate sales from supermarkets to independents. Here we look at the best crime scenes to judge the overall crime novel of the year.
Seven years ago in Cape Town, three white South African schoolboys were abducted in broad daylight on three consecutive days. They were never heard from again. Now, a new case for the unpredictable Senior Superintendent Vaugh DeVries casts light on the original enquiry; for him, a personal failure which has haunted him and cost him his marriage. As secrets are unearthed, a complex history of abuse, deception and murder comes to the fore.
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Shadows are closing in on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Most of his best agents have left the Homicide Department and hostile forces are lining up against him. When Gamache receives a message about a mysterious case, he is compelled to investigate – a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world has vanished. As he begins to shed light on the investigation, he is drawn into a web of murder, lies and corruption. Facing his most challenging and personal case to date, can Gamache save the reputation of the Sûreté, those he holds dear and himself?
SHORTLIST LONGLISTED TITLES FOR THIS AWARD Sean is on the run and he has abandoned his blood-stained car. He takes to the parched fields only to be caught in a vicious animal trap. Near unconscious from loss of blood, he is freed and taken in by two women and it's then that Sean's problems really start.
When Natty’s daughter collapses on a school trip to France, Natty leaves her oldest friend, Eve, to take care of things at home. Two weeks later Natty finds that her husband has fallen in love with Eve. Then Natty receives an anonymous note: Eve has done this before… Don’t let her take what’s yours.
Wade disappeared when Easter was six and she never saw him again until she turned twelve, the day he stole her and her little sister away in his car. As they drive through North Carolina, Wade has one more shot at being a good dad. Except someone is following them. Someone who wants Wade dead and doesn’t care who gets hurt.
The Corporal is snatched by the Secret Service. He is needed for his knowledge of Iranian military secrets but he will not talk unless his wife is brought out of Iran to join him. The Corporal is slowly offering up his knowledge as he believes his wife will be with him shortly. He has no idea she is running for her life. When a child is found locked inside a burning car DCI David Rosen is drafted in to investigate. He soon discovers that there are dark forces at work on the estate. Each second counts as Rosen battles to find the killers and save the missing souls. Terry Flynt is asked to defend a man accused of murder. The problem is the accused man is a former friend who betrayed him badly. Terry delves into Vernon's life and is forced to confront secrets from their shared past that could have devastating consequences for them both.
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THRILLER of the YEAR SHORT CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER an Fleming said there was one essential Icriterion for a good thriller – that ‘one simply has to turn the page.’ This applies to all of the novels selected, but which is the best thriller of the year?
1895. In Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of twenty thousand spectators baying ‘Death to the Jew!’. Picquart is put in command of ‘the Statistical Section’ – the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down Dreyfus. Dreyfus is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devil’s Island. When Picquart discovers another German spy operating on French soil, his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it. Despite official warnings, Picquart persists, and soon the officer and the spy are in the same predicament.
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Raised in Natchez, Mississippi, former prosecuting attorney Penn Cage learned all he knows of honour and duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now Tom stands accused of murdering an African-American nurse with whom he worked in the 1960s, when racist violence was at its peak. As he hunts for the truth, Penn uncovers a long-buried secret that could place his family in mortal danger – a conspiracy of greed and murder connected to a vicious sect of the KKK. Up against the most powerful men in the state, Penn faces an impossible choice: does a man of honour choose his father or justice?
TLIST LONGLISTED TITLES FOR THIS AWARD At once a thriller about a lonely woman trying to reclaim her father's memory and a stunning novel of moral ambiguity, uncertainty and corruption. This novel plunges into the labyrinth of the world's most insidious scam. Jack Reacher is back at the headquarters of his old unit. Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer but Reacher doesn’t expect what comes next. He’s in big trouble, accused of homicide. Will he be sorry he went back? Or – will someone else?
A young woman murdered in a run-down Manhattan hotel. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering sun of Saudi Arabia. A man’s eyes stolen from his living body as he leaves a secret Syrian research laboratory. Smouldering human remains on a mountainside in the Hindu Kush. A plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One thread that binds them all, one man to take the journey. Pilgrim.
Part psychological thriller and part courtroom drama, Apple Tree Yard is a dark, smart, and undeniably sexy page turner. With her trademark intelligence, awardwinning author Louise Doughty weaves an intricate tale of adultery, murder, sex, and deception that will keep readers in suspense until the very end.
No one hears as a hood is pulled over Mia and a van carries her away. Mia is the daughter of a US army officer stationed near Venice. An activist group demanding an end to US military bases in Italy claims responsibility but the Venice Carabinieri are not convinced. The Corporal is snatched by the Secret Service. He is needed for his knowledge of Iranian military secrets but he will not talk unless his wife is brought out of Iran to join him. The Corporal is slowly offering up his knowledge as he believes his wife will be with him shortly. He has no idea she is running for her life.
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BEST FIRST NOVEL SHORTLIS
CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAG his award, in memory of the Crime TWriters’ Association founder, John Creasey, is for the best crime novel by a first-time author. These nominated writers have made a great impact with their first published books.
Having nothing left to lose changes everything. Todd and Jodie have been together for more than twenty years. They are both aware their world is in crisis, though neither is willing to admit it. Todd is living a dual existence, while Jodie is living in denial. But she also likes to settle scores. When it becomes clear their affluent Chicago lifestyle could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows everything is at stake. It's only now she will discover just how much that she's truly capable of.
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London 1727 – Tom Hawkins falls foul of his debtors and finds himself in The Marshalsea debtors’ prison. It is a savage world of its own, with simple rules: those with family who can lend them a little money may survive. Those with none will starve in squalor – and those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate. The trouble is, Tom Hawkins isn’t good at following rules and his future looks even bleaker when one of his fellow inmates is murdered and it seems that he might be sharing a room with the murderer.
ST
GGER LONGLISTED TITLES FOR THIS AWARD A compulsively readable psychological thriller set in New York and at Oxford University, in which a group of six students play an elaborate game of dares and consequences – with tragic results A murder in a Manhattan hotel. A father beheaded in Saudi Arabia. A man’s eyes stolen. Human remains in the Hindu Kush. A plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One thread that binds them all, one man to take the journey. Pilgrim.
Calcutta, 1837. Young Ensign William Avery is tasked by his employers – the East India Company – to track down disgraced agent Xavier Mountstuart, lost to the jungle. Forced to take with him dissolute, disillusioned, errant genius exofficer Jeremiah Blake, Avery is sure their mission is doomed. When their search leads them into Kali-worshipping, Thugee territory, survival depends upon trust. Fighting for their lives, the pair close in on their elusive quarry only to discover the horrifying truth behind their mission. With death and danger on all sides, is it too late to save themselves?
New Orleans, 1919. As a serial killer – the Axeman – stalks the city, three individuals set out to unmask him... Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot, heading up the official investigation, is struggling to find leads. Michael has a grave secret and if he doesn't get himself on the right track fast it could be exposed. Former detective Luca d'Andrea has spent the last six years in a penitentiary, after Michael, his protégée blew the whistle on his corrupt behaviour. Now Luca is back working with the mafia, whose need to solve the mystery of the Axeman is as urgent as that of the authorities. Meanwhile, Ida is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Ida stumbles across a clue which lures her and her musician friend, Louis Armstrong, to the case – and into terrible danger.
Peanut escapes a labour camp in China. Two decades earlier, he was a spy for the British. Peanut reaches out to his onetime MI6 paymasters via Philip Mangan, offering secrets in return for his life. The secrets prove more valuable than Mangan or Peanut could ever have known. Spademan used to be a garbage man. Before the dirty bomb hit. Before his wife was killed. Before Manhattan became a burnt-out shell. Now he’s a hitman. Spademan must finish his job, clear his conscience and make sure he doesn’t end up in the ground.
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‘So contemporary it feels as if it was written next year. Brilliant’ DENISE MINA ‘A brilliant introduction to a new crime series‌ The plot is tight, the anger righteous and the action thrilling’ METRO ‘The modern scourge of people-trafďŹ cking is brilliantly described in this ingenious and compassionate novel’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘An absorbing, provocative tale‌ This is an exceptional debut’ IRISH TIMES
DISCOVER DISCOV VER ER THE UK’S HOTTEST HOT TEST NEW CRIME WRITER EVA DOLAN D
Read and watch exclusive content from Eva at Dead Good, WKH KRPH RI NLOOHU FULPH ERRNV GUDPD DQG ÂżOP www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk
Visit the home of killer crime books, TV and film.
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FILM AND TV DAGGERS
SHORTLISTS
F
ilm and TV Dagger awards are also presented at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards. These celebrate crime fiction off the page and focus on the very best of the genre in film and television, from the UK and internationally. These awards reflect the exceptional talent that brings fictional characters to life.
FILM DAGGER NOMINATIONS Awarded to the best motion picture in the crime thriller genre.
COLD IN JULY
DOM HEMINGWAY
FILTH
PRISONERS
STARRED UP
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Lionsgate
Lionsgate
Entertainment One
20th Century Fox
crime drama collections
TV DAGGER NOMINATIONS For the best new single drama, season or serial produced and transmitted in the UK.
HAPPY VALLEY RED Production Company/BBC1
LINE OF DUTY: SERIES 2
SHERLOCK: SERIES 3 THE BLETCHLEY Hartswood Films,BBC CIRCLE: SERIES 2
World Productions/BBC2 Wales, WGBH/BBC1
ITV Studios, World Productions/ITV1
THE HONOURABLE WOMAN Drama Republic, Eight Rooks/BBC2
INTERNATIONAL TV DAGGER NOMINATIONS Awarded to the best crime thriller programme of the year, produced outside the UK.
FARGO: SEASON 1
INSPECTOR
26 Keys Productions, The MONTALBANO: Littlefield Company, Mike SERIES 9 Palomar/RAI Zoss Productions, FX Productions, MGM Television/FX
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: SEASON 2
THE BRIDGE: SERIES 2
Nimbus Film, Filmlance Lionsgate Television, International/BBC Four Tilted Productions/Netflix
TRUE DETECTIVE: SEASON 1 Anonymous Content, Parliament of Owls, Passenger, Neon Black Lee Caplin, Picture Entertainment/HBO
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Film and TV Daggers
BEST ACTRESS NOMINATIONS Recognising exceptional acting talent, this award goes to a lead actress in a TV drama.
BRENDA BLETHYN FOR VERA ITV Studios/ITV
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL FOR THE HONOURABLE WOMAN
KEELEY HAWES FOR SARAH LANCASHIRE ANNA MAXWELL LINE OF DUTY FOR HAPPY VALLEY MARTIN FOR DEATH World Productions/ Red Productions/ COMES TO BBC Two BBC One PEMBERLEY
Drama Republic,Eight Rooks/BBC Two
(Origin Pictures/ BBC One)
& THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE
BEST ACTOR NOMINATIONS
ITV Studios/ITV
Awarded to an actor in a TV crime drama who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role.
BENEDICT SHAUN EVANS FOR MARTIN FREEMAN CUMBERBATCH FOR ENDEAVOUR FOR FARGO Mammoth Screen, 26 Keys Productions/FX SHERLOCK Hartswood Films/BBC1 Masterpiece, ITV & SHERLOCK Studios/ITV1
Hartswood Films/BBC1
MATTHEW STEVE PEMBERTON McCONAUGHEY FOR FOR HAPPY VALLEY Red Production TRUE DETECTIVE Anonymous Content/HBO
crime drama collections
Company/BBC1
SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINATIONS For an actress who has delivered memorable performances in a supporting role in a TV crime drama.
AMANDA ABBINGTON FOR SHERLOCK Hartswood Films/ BBC One
VICKY McCLURE FOR LINE OF DUTY World Productions/ BBC2
HELEN McCRORY FOR PEAKY BLINDERS Tiger Aspect/BBC Two
GINA McKEE FOR BY ANY MEANS Red Planet Productions/BBC One
MICHELLE MONAGHAN FOR TRUE DETECTIVE Anonymous Content/HBO
SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINATIONS Recognising extraordinary acting talent in a supporting role in a TV crime drama.
MARK GATISS FOR SHERLOCK
DAVID LEON FOR VERA
JAMES NORTON FOR HAPPY VALLEY
MANDY PATINKIN FOR HOMELAND
Hartswood Films/BBC1
ITV Studios/ITV
Red Production Company/BBC1
Teakwood Lane Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Fox 21/Channel 4)
BILLY BOB THORNTON FOR FARGO 26 Keys Productions/Channel 4
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WIN 10 copies of one of the shortlisted titles for your reading group. Visit readinggroups.org/ specscomp and enter by 24 October 2014. Brought to you by Reading Groups for Everyone where you can:
• Find your nearest reading group • Add your reading group • Get free books and other offers readinggroups.org Because everything changes when we read
Caffeine Nights... A new name in Crime Fiction
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CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger
CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
Hall of Fame
MICK HERRON for Dead Lions
DEREK B. MILLER for Norwegian By Night
MARTINA COLE
2013 AWARD WINNERS
CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
ROGER HOBBS for Ghostman
The Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read MALCOLM MACKAY For The Necessary Death Of Lewis Winter
Hall of Fame
WILBUR SMITH
The Film Dagger
The TV Dagger
The International TV Dagger
SKYFALL
BROADCHURCH
THE KILLING III
The 2013 awards were a glamorous and star-studded celebration of the very best in crime thriller fiction and drama. Winners included some of the world’s most successful crime and thriller writers and the stars of their gripping TV and film adaptations. Photo Credits: Awards pictures courtesy of ITV. Wilbur Smith photo: Alexander James. Mick Herron photo: Lee Gillies.
The Best Actress Dagger
The Best Actor Dagger
OLIVIA COLMAN for Broadchurch
DAVID TENNANT for Broadchurch
The Best Supporting Actress Dagger
AMELIA BULLMORE for Scott and Bailey
The Best Supporting Actor Dagger ANDREW BUCHAN for Broadchurch
Transmitting in the six weeks running up to this year’s Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, the hour-long Crime Thriller Club is a magazine show for fans of the whodunit. It will include famous faces from the crime thriller world – the actors who star in TV’s biggest crime thriller shows, as well as the writers responsible for creating some of our favourite characters and series.
crime drama collections Watch the Specsavers Crime Thriller Club Season from September 15th and the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards in October.
www.crimethrillerawards.com
.co.uk
Experience crime writing to die for... Whether you’re an arm-chair detective or a hard hitting super sleuth, Book Noir has something for you. We examine the clues, inspect the evidence and interrogate the informants to bring you the most intriguing and exciting Crime and Thriller titles. Book Noir solves the mystery of what book to read next. Visit booknoir.co.uk to reach beyond the bestseller crime lists to seek out hidden gems, discover breakthrough authors and uncover the latest thrilling titles.
Book Noir Book Noir is part part of tthe he b br brand and new Nudge Network. Network. A p place lace wher e communities of booklovers bo ooklovers can once again browse browsse and where disco ver the the world world of books boo oks along with with independent, in-depth in-d depth discover news, high-quality high-quality reviews review ws and engaging content content from from the the h w orlds of publishing publishing and film. fi worlds Exp lore the the whole whole Nudge Network Network at www .nudgemeno ow.com Explore www.nudgemenow.com
The SPECSAVERS
AWARDS 2014 The ITV3 Crime Season is produced by
Executive Producer: AMANDA ROSS Director of Digital Channels: ANGELA JAIN Commissioning Editor, Entertainment: KATE MADDIGAN Producers: CHARLOTTE JOHNSTONE & DAVID COYLE Production Manager: CLAIRE JACKSON The magazine is produced by Managing Director: ALASTAIR GILES Production Manager: DANIELLE BOWERS Account Manager: CATHERINE TURNER Magazine designed by Steve Wells for Agile Marketing Awards photos from ITV AND A BIG THANK YOU TO SPECSAVERS FOR ALL THEIR SUPPORT. CWA dagger logo : The name Dagger and the Crossed Daggers logo are both registered trademarks of the Crime Writers' Association, all other trademarks are the property of their respective owner. For more information on all nine CWA Daggers go to the Crime Writers' Association website: www.thecwa.co.uk
PHOTO CREDITS: DENISE MINA PHOTO: NEIL DAVIDSON. MICHAEL CONNELLY PHOTO: MARK DELONG. VAL MCDERMID PHOTO: CHARLIE HOPKINSON. STARRED UP FILM IMAGE: AIDAN MONAGHAN
SHOULD’VE GONE TO SPECSAVERS
Proud sponsor of The Crime Thriller Awards ©2014 Specsavers. All rights reserved.