Capital Crime today announced the shortlists for its annual Fingerprint Awards, which champion the very best in crime writing from across the globe, as voted for by readers.
Authors both new and established are represented across the categories, which are Crime Novel of the Year, True Crime Book of the Year, Thriller of the Year, Historical Crime Novel of the Year, Debut Novel of the Year, Audiobook of the Year and Genre-Busting Book of the Year.
The shortlists of five have been selected by the festival’s board members, from a longlist carefully curated by the Tastemakers Committee - a panel of leading independent bloggers and reviewers - who have championed their standout titles across each category. Each selected book had to be first published in English between 1 January and 31 December 2025 to qualify. No fees were charged for selection.
Readers can vote for their preferred winners in each category on the Capital Crime website by Saturday 30th May. The winners will be revealed at the Fingerprint Awards on the evening of Thursday 18th June as part of the Capital Crime festival in London at the Royal Leonardo Hotel, in the shadow of St Paul’s. This year’s Fingerprint Awards ceremony, attended by Capital Crime ticket holders, authors, nominees and leading figures from the publishing industry will be hosted by acclaimed radio and TV broadcaster, and host of The Bookshelf Podcast, Ryan Tubridy.
Leading the overall Crime Book of the Year shortlist are two 2025 Fingerprint winners, M.W. Craven, for The Final Vow, and Vaseem Khan, for Quantum of Menace, featuring the famous Quartermaster from the Bond series. Sunday Times bestseller Sarah Pinborough is shortlisted for We Live Here Now; and they are joined by Liam McIlvanney and Tariq Ashkanani, authors of The Good Father and The Midnight King respectively.
For the Thriller Book of the Year, Lisa Jewell’s Sunday Times bestselling Don’t Let Him In and Virdee creator A.A. Dhand’s The Chemist are up against Human Remains by Jo Callaghan, The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North and Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins.
Tackling topics as diverse as Lord Byron, the final days of the British Raj, and the Canadian Gold Rush, the shortlist for Historical Crime Book of the Year sees Anthony Horowitz’s Marble Hall Murders, the latest in his bestselling, BBC adapted Magpie Murders series, up against CWA Dagger-winner Abir Mukherjee, for his latest Wyndham and Banerjee mystery The Burning Grounds. Also shortlisted is The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson; The Rush by Beth Lewis and Dangerous by Essie Fox.
Broadcasters Chris Chibnall and Steph McGovern are both shortlisted for the Debut Crime Novel of the Year, for Death at the White Hart and Deadline, respectively; and are up against Oscar nominated Icelandic screenwriter Jón Atli Jónasson for Broken; Nina Bhadreshwar for The Day of the Roaring and Kelly Mullen for This is Not a Game.
The Genre-Busting Book of the Year shortlist, set up to recognise a book that defies traditional boundaries of crime fiction, and may feature elements of sci-fi, romance or other genres of fiction, sees Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver and Little Red Death by A.K. Benedict up against Blood Like Ours by Stuart Neville, Small Fires by Ronnie Turner and Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy.
The True Crime Book of the Year shortlist features several books exploring the states of nations through crime, as well as writing intended to recentre the focus on the victims rather than the killers, including Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a memoir by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim; and A Flower Travelled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland, chronicling the harrowing events of Argentina’s Dirty War, which saw hundreds of pregnant women kidnapped and disappeared. They are up against Story of a Murder by prize-winning social historian Hallie Rubenhold, focusing on Cora Crippen, the murdered wife of the infamous Doctor Crippen, and the women who brought him to justice; Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser, which explores whether lead exposure was connected to the explosion of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s and 1980s; and A History of Modern Britain in Twenty Murders by Professor David Wilson, the UK’s leading criminologist.
The Audiobook of the Year sees second nominations for both Lisa Jewell and Sarah Pinborough for, respectively, Don’t Let Him In, narrated by Richard Armitage and Joanne Frogatt, and We Live Here Now, narrated by Helen Baxendale and Jamie Glover. They are up against S. A. Cosby’s King of Ashes, narrated by Adam Lazarre-White; Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton; and Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver, narrated by Steven Pacey.
In addition, two further
categories will be selected solely by the Capital Crime Advisory Board;
the Industry Award of the Year – recognising the best marketing
campaign, editorial work, or publishing strategy; and the Thalia Proctor
Lifetime Achievement Award – marking an outstanding contribution to the
crime writing industry.
The shortlist is as follows -
Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
King of Ashes by S A
Cosby
We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver
True Crime Book of
the Year
Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold
Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts-Guiffre
Murderland: Crime and
Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
A History of Modern
Britain in Twenty Murders by Prof. David Wilson
A Flower Travelled in
My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland
Debut Crime Book
Broken by Jón Atli
Jónasson
Deadline by Steph
McGovern
Death at the White
Hart by Chris Chibnall
The Day of the
Roaring by Nina Bhadreshwar
This is Not A Game by Kelly Mullen
Genre-Busting Book
Kill Them with
Kindness by Will Carver
Little Red Death by A.
K. Benedict Book
Blood Like Ours by Stuart Neville
Small Fires by Ronnie
Turner
Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy
Historical Crime Book
of the Year
The Art of A Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
The Rush by Beth
Lewis
Dangerous by Essie Fox
Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Thriller Book of the
Year
The Chemist by A A Dhand
Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
Human Remains by Jo
Callaghan
The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins
Overall Crime Book of
the Year
The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
The Final Vow by M W
Craven
Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan
The Good Father by Liam McIlveney
We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
Congratulations
to all the nominate authors. The winner
will be announced on Thursday 18th June 2026 during the Capital Crime
Festival.
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