Press Release! Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV 3 2013

Shortlist Announcement heralds the return of the TV Book Club

 

The motives are numerous, the list of suspects lengthy, and the body count sky high…the shortlists for this year’s Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards in association with the Crime Writers’ Association are announced today. In addition to the ceremony itself ITV 3 will show a six-part prime time series, The Crime Thriller Club which includes a crime thriller version of the successful TV Book Club, starting on 16th September.

The winners of 11 Awards honouring TV, Books and Film will be announced at The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on Thursday 24^th October at the Grosvenor House Hotel. The stars of all three genres are guaranteed to turn out in force. The awards for books include the CWA Goldsboro 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, alongside Film and TV-based Daggers.

This year’s CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year is fiercely contended, and pits Belinda Bauer’s Rubbernecker, featuring the obsessive Patrick, whose anatomical dissection class reveals unwelcome truths, up against Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, in which the victims of a century jumping psychopath speak again. Also in the mix, Becky Masterman’s Rage Against The Dying reveals the secrets of mummified flesh, and Dead Lions by Mick Herron, brings flesh and blood to the shady world of cold war spooks.

Viewers will need good detective skills to uncover the winner of the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best New Crime Writer of the Year, so well matched are the talented debut writers vying for the prize.  The award pits an 82 year old ex-Marine, in Derek B. Miller’s Norwegian By Night against a hired hitman Caruana in Hanna Jameson’s Something You Are. Menacing urban crime is equally apparent in  Malcolm Mackay’s Glasgow based  The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, whilst Thomas Mogford’s Shadow of the Rock is set in the sunnier, though no less brutal, climes of Tangiers.  

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year has a cast list that includes Indian mobsters, the remnants of Franco’s savage Secret Police, a secret network of Nazi asylum seekers in Ireland, religious fanatics, and a fair smattering of homegrown British criminal masterminds:  Thriller authors, Roger Hobbs for Ghostman, Stuart Neville for Ratlines, Mark Oldfield for The Sentinel and Robert Wilson for Capital Punishment are all preparing to slug it out.

The awards, which showcase the UK’s best crime fiction and drama are part of the ITV3 Crime Thriller season, which includes a crime writing magazine show for crime fans called The Crime Thriller Club which will feature 'Living Legends' – interviews with established authors Martina Cole, Nicci French, Harlan Coben, Patricia Cornwell, Wilbur Smith and Frederick Forsyth, who will be inducted into the CWA Hall of Fame at the Awards Ceremony.

At the heart of the Crime Thriller Club series is The Crime Thriller Book Club, with six specially selected titles guaranteed to grip readers who can join the discussion online. The 6 books were selected by Amanda Ross of Cactus TV and her team, whose selections for the TV Book Club created many No 1 Best Selling Authors.  The featured titles are:

• Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay (Orion)
• Dare Me by Megan Abbott (Picador)
• Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler (Transworld)
• The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay (Pan Books)
• City of Devils by Diana Bretherick (Orion)
• The Scent of Death by  Andrew Taylor (Harper Collins)

Amanda Ross, Managing Director of Cactus TV, who created the Awards for ITV3 said: “I was delighted to bring a Crime Thriller version of my Book Club to TV. All the titles we’ve picked are great, with a wide range of styles to suit every type of Crime fan, and hopefully encourage some new readers to the Crime Thriller genre.”

Alison Joseph, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, commented: "The 2013 Crime Thrillers Award shortlists are all about inspirational story-telling and great writing. They show, once again, just why this genre continues to be so hugely popular and so greatly loved by readers."   

The cream of acting talent is also recognised at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards with categories across Film, TV (UK and International) and for those talented individuals who so masterfully bring unsavoury characters to life, with awards for Best Actor and Actress, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

Dame Mary Perkins, founder of Specsavers, said: “As autumn creeps in there’s nothing I like more than curling up with a good book, the more bloodcurdling the better. Therefore it’s a pleasure to be a part of the Crime Thriller Awards for several years now, truly the premier showcase of world class writing, acting and production.”

….ENDS…

The Complete Shortlists for Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards are as follows:

The CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year 

• Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer (Bantam/Transworld)
• The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins)
• Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman (Orion)
• Dead Lions by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

The CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best New Crime Write of the Year 

•  Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller (Faber and Faber)
• Something You Are by Hanna Jameson (Head of Zeus)
• The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)
• Shadow of the Rock by Thomas Mogford (Bloomsbury)

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year

•  Ghostman by Roger Hobbs (Transworld)
• Ratlines by Stuart Neville (Random House)
• The Sentinel by Mark Oldfield (Head of Zeus)
• Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson (Orion)

The Film Dagger

• Sky Fall
• Jack Reacher
• Killing Them Softly
• Looper
• Seven Psychopaths

The TV Dagger

• Luther
• Top of the Lake
• Broadchurch
• The Fall
• Bletchley Circle

The International TV Dagger

• Homeland
• Boardwalk Empire
• The Killing 3
• Arne Dahl

The Best Supporting Actor Dagger

• Paul McGann for A Mother's Son 
• Mandy Patinkin for Homeland
• Andrew Buchan for Broadchurch
• Warren Brown for Luther
• Roger Allam for Endeavour

The Best Supporting Actress Dagger

• Pauline Quirke for Broadchurch
• Amelia Bullmore for Scott & Bailey
• Holly Hunter for Top of the Lake
• Jodie Whittaker for Broadchurch
• Ruth Wilson for Luther

The Best Actor Dagger

• Damien Lewis for Homeland
• David Tennant for Broadchurch
• Idris Elba for Luther
• Jason Isaacs for Case Histories
• Paddy Considine for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane

The Best Actress Dagger

• Sofie Grabol for The Killing 3
• Olivia Colman for Broadchurch
• Claire Danes for Homeland
• Gillian Anderson for The Fall
• Lesley Sharp for Scott & Bailey

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2013 will take place on Thursday, 24^th October at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel produced by Cactus TV, and will be televised on ITV3 on the 29^th October at 9pm. The 2013 Awards are the sixth annual event created and produced by Cactus TV for ITV3, and the annual sponsored by Specsavers and in conjunction with the Crime Writers' Association.

Visit http://www.crimethrillerawards.com/ for more information

                                                                                                                                                                               

Specsavers

Specsavers was founded by Doug and Dame Mary Perkins in 1984 and is now the largest privately owned opticians in the world. The couple still run the company, along with their three children. Their eldest son John is joint managing director. Specsavers has almost 1,600 stores throughout the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Australia. Specsavers was voted Britain’s most trusted brand of opticians for the eleventh year running by Reader’s Digest in 2012. More information can be found at: www.specsavers.co.uk.

Cactus TV

Cactus TV is a production company run by husband and wife team Simon and Amanda Ross. Productions include Saturday Kitchen for BBC1, The Roux Scholarship, Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain for BBC2, Rachel Allen, The National Book Awards and 8 years of the Channel 4 Richard & Judy show live from Cactus studios. Amanda’s previous Book Club choices have created many million selling authors.

ITV3

ITV3 is the UK’s second most popular digital channel and its focus on character driven narrative and drama helps the channel attract an upmarket audience. ITV3 is available on Freeview (channel 10), Freesat (115), Sky Digital (119) and Virgin Media (116).

Crime Writers’ Association

The Crime Writers’ Association has a membership of over 500 writers of fiction and non-fiction. Its main aims are to promote the crime genre and to support professional writers. The CWA has been providing social and professional support for its members for more than half a century, as well as administering the prestigious Dagger Awards. The Daggers name and Crossed Daggers logo are registered Trade Marks of the Crime Writers’ Association, and are used under licence. For further information on the CWA: www.thecwa.co.uk or contact info@thecwa.co.uk.

Agile Marketing

Agile Marketing is a publishing-specialist promotions & project management agency. They project manage the Crime Thriller Awards in the book trade, liaising with publishers and retailers to ensure the campaign to raise the profile of Crime Fiction is maximised instore and amongst readers. They also manage the supporting website: www.crimethrillerawards.com

  

Tickets

Tickets for the televised Awards event on Thursday, 24^th October 2013 will be limited (tables of 10 and individual tickets are available). For ticket information, please email Alastair, Agile Marketing: alastair@agile-ideas.com

Media enquiries:

Please contact Eleanor Riches at Midas Public Relations on 02073617860 or Eleanor.riches@midaspr.co.uk