Specsavers Crime Thrillers Awards 2011
25th July 2011
The Unusual Suspects at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
Longlists announced for Three Book Categories in the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2011 at Harrogate Festival
Completely Integrated Crime Thriller Screen and Retail Season Launches in August. Harrogate, Friday, 22nd July, 2011—Specsavers, Cactus TV and ITV3, in partnership with the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), are pleased to announce three key book longlists and one shortlist for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3, celebrating the very best of British and International crime thriller fiction.
The longlisted categories revealed today are the CWA Gold Dagger for the Best Crime Novel of the Year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller of the Year, and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for the Best New Crime Writer of the Year. The shortlisted category announced today is for the ITV3 People’s Bestseller Dagger. The lists for all four are as follows:
CWA GOLD DAGGER 2011
o Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Pan)
o Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)
o Snowdrops by A.D Miller (Atlantic Books)
o The Cypress House by Michael Koryta (Hodder & Stoughton)
o The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (Orion)
o The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)
o The Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle (Pan)
o White Heat by M.J McGrath (Mantle)
CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 2011, SPONSORED BY IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS LTD
o An Agent of Deceit by Chris Morgan Jones (Mantle)
o Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday)
o Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)
o Savages by Don Winslow (Heinemann)
o The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth (Corgi)
o The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Corvus)
o The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)
o The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)
CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2011
o Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday)
o Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (Myriad)
o Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller (Robinson)
o Or The Bull Kills You by Jason Webster (Chatto & Windus)
o Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus)
o The Dead Woman of Juárez by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail)
o The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)
o The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (Hodder)
ITV3 PEOPLE’S BESTSELLER DAGGER 2011
o David Baldacci - The Sixth Man (Macmillan)
o Lee Child - Worth Dying For (Bantam)
o Mark Billingham - Good As Dead (Little, Brown)
o Peter James - Dead Man’s Grip (Macmillan)
o Peter Robinson - Before the Poison (Hodder)
The shortlists for the CWA Gold Dagger for the Best Crime Novel of the Year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller of the Year, and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for the Best New Crime Writer of the Year will be announced on Monday 22nd August.
The 2011 season documentary series called The A to Z of Crime was also announced today, starting on Thursday 1st September at 9.00pm on ITV3. This follows the huge success of the 2010 Crime Documentaries season, which reached an audience of nearly 4 million viewers. The actual awards show saw a 67% increase in reach to 970,000 including repeats. ITV3 will be showing 6 x 1 hour documentaries in the lead up to the awards ceremony at Grosvenor House, featuring five specially selected bestselling authors as listed above.
In the six weeks leading up to the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2011, the British public will get the chance to vote for the ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger both by phone and online. The winner will be presented with their award at the glamorous awards ceremony on 7th October, celebrating the very best of Crime & Thriller fiction. Voting is now open and full details on how to vote are below.
Emma Tennant, ITV Controller of Digital Channels, says: “Crime drama is a big part of what ITV3 does and is extremely popular with our viewers. The A to Z of Crime is a great fit for the channel and I’m delighted that we are broadcasting the series as well as the Crime Thriller Awards.”
Richard Holmes, Specsavers marketing director, says: “Last year’s Crime Thriller Awards were another great success and we’re very proud to be involved in this annual showcase of world class writing. I’m enjoying the shortlisted titles and really looking forward to hearing the results of the awards. As ever, I can’t wait to find out how it all ends.”
The Executive Producer for the Awards and the Crime Season, Cactus TV’s Amanda Ross, says:
“I’m delighted that Specsavers and ITV have given me such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the stars, writers and creators of the most popular genre of entertainment. It’s gratifying to see The Specsavers Crime Thriller Daggers and our Crime Thriller season reach such a wide audience.”
Peter James, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, comments: “The annual and much coveted Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards is a fantastic celebration of the depth and breadth of crime fiction and the authors who write it. The long list is packed with great crime authors who write in depth and with the greatest intelligence about human life, the human condition, and issues that affect the lives of each and every one of us. That is what great writing always has been about and always will be. Indeed, this is a booming time for Crime fiction, which is more popular today throughout the western world than any other form of fiction writing.”
Last year’s winners for the Crime Writers' Association Daggers included Belinda Bauer, Simon Conway and Ryan David Jahn, with Film and TV daggers going to Benedict Cumberbatch (Best Actor Award), Maxine Peake (Best Actress Dagger for Criminal Justice) and Inception (Film Dagger 2010) among others.