Len Deighton a personal appreciation by Mike Ripley

 

Have Pencil, Will Write.

They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, they are wrong.

One of the proudest moments of my life was when, as a student, I had an essay, on the economic policies of fascist states in Europe in the 1930s, returned from the tutor who had marked it with the added comment: Stop trying to write like Len Deighton! (Despite, or perhaps because of this, I got a good mark.)

Even earlier in my academic career, I had reason to be grateful to Len Deighton. As a teenage schoolboy I treated myself to the first hardback novel I ever bought, Billion Dollar Brain in 1966 (it cost 21 shillings). During a lesson with a notoriously sarcastic English master, we were asked to name the novel we had read most recently and I was immediately accused of lying as I could not have read Billion Dollar Brain because ‘it’s not out in paperback yet’. When I claimed I had the hardback first edition, and could bring it to school, the master said: ‘Can I borrow it?’ He did, and I got excellent marks for the rest of the term.

I have written extensively on the impact Len’s debut novel, The Ipcress File (1962), had on me and the whole spy-fiction genre and it is certainly the novel I have read more times than any other and for me, the anonymous hero of Ipcress, Horse Under Water, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain (‘Harry Palmer’ in the films) is an icon of the Sixties. With advancing age, I have come to realise that I belong to the early generation of Deighton fans, as there is a younger generation which believe his massive contribution to spy fiction began in the Eighties with his triple trilogy featuring the world-weary spy Bernard Samson. I’m sticking to my guns. Much as I enjoyed the Samson saga (and its background novel Winter) I think those first four books were Deighton’s greater achievement.

But they were not his only achievement. He had already established himself as a graphic artist (and noted designer of book covers) and combined this skill with a natural talent for cooking in his famous ‘cookstrips’ which even the most culinary illiterate male could follow. He also found time to be a film producer. At the end of the Sixties he broke new ground writing his WWII novel Bomber with the aid of a word-processor, gaining a reputation as a keen adopter of new technology, especially when it was reported that he had a personal telex machine and one of the first radio car telephones. I did once ask Len if it was true about the car phone and he replied with a cheeky grin: ‘And the first call I took on it was Bertrand Russell asking if I knew how to contact The Beatles…’ 

He put his interest in WWII to good use, establishing himself as a military historian of the conflict who had clearly considered and research the German side, in which he was assisted by his wife Ysabele and her fluency in numerous languages. The war was to feature in his fiction in novels such asiXPD, City of Gold and Goodbye Mickey Mouse, which he once told me was his favourite book, and spectacularly in his ‘alternate history’ SS-GB.

I first met Len in The Travellers’ Club in London, where he researched the background to the opening of his novel Winter – specifically New Year’s Eve 1899 in Vienna. Although we had corresponded via email through our mutual friend Harry Keating we had never actually met and Len must have sensed my nervousness, for he quickly set me at my ease and offered me his basic rules when attending any sort of business meeting: ‘Have a clean shirt, wear a tie and always be polite.’ I think he appreciated my reply: ‘Well two out of three ain’t bad’.

From then on we would meet for lunch whenever he was in London, and damn fine lunches they were even without alcohol. (I only ever saw Len drink once, a single glass of champagne at a lunch he hosted in Knightsbridge.) He introduced me to the cuisine of Anton Mosimann (and Anton himself) while I introduced him to the cooking of Marcus Waring, and though the food was good, it was the table talk which always made the occasion. 

At one lunch in a Japanese restaurant a discussion about the economy of Renaissance Florence somehow turned into an explanation (by Len) of how stolen money could be 'laundered' into US dollars in Vichy France. A month or so later, I asked him if I could use his idea as the basis of a plot. He agreed and it became the backbone of my novel Mr Campion's War.

On another occasion, I told him of a recent poll on Radio 5 to find the ‘best Bond villain’ and whilst Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob, etc. all scored highly, one person voted for film producer Kevin McClory. I knew Len had known McClory, and worked with him on various Bond projects, and would be amused by the poll. He was, and immediately penned an eBook, James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for his Father.

His stories about the film world and publishing in the Sixties were always entertaining, often self-depreciating and (almost) never rancorous. Although when published, Ipcress File was touted as the ‘anti-Bond’ and the media of the time would have loved a Fleming/Deighton confrontation. But Ian Fleming chose Ipcress as his book of the year for The Sunday Times and Deighton has credited the boom in spy stories in the 1960s to the success of the Bond films. He has always maintained that there were two strands: he wrote spy fiction, Ian Fleming (with many others aping him) wrote spy fantasy.

It was that definition which I used as a basic thesis in my history of British thrillers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I dedicated to Len Deighton. For that I remain eternal grateful, as well as for the many books he urged me to read (which I did) and the authors I should champion – Ted Allbeury being a case in point. And, of course, for the casual advice about writing and being an author which passed across those many tables.

I especially remember him going suddenly serious and asking if I ever suffered from ‘writers’ block’. When I said ‘no’, he seemed relieved and dismissed the idea as ‘the blank wall we secretly know is incompetence’. He scoffed at associating writers’ block with technology, from electric typewriters to word processors to laptops. ‘The only implements needed to write book are pencil and paper, everything else is luxury.’

Len Deighton wrote a lot over thirty non-stop years and I thought, as a long-time fan, I had read it all, but I discover one piece which I have missed, his editing of Drinkmanship in 1964, which sounds right up my street.

What a hero!

Ripster Revivals #21

 

Ripster Revivals # 21: An Apology

Actually, two apologies. First to frantic regular readers who have been wondering why this column has not appeared since before Christmas. This is due entirely to modern technology and problems with the website about which I neither know nor care. And secondly, to Ayo Onatade, who has graciously allowed me to impose upon the Shots blog which she curates so magnificently. {Note to Editor: We have told her, haven’t we?}

Happy New Reading Year

Readers of regular crime novels will need an entire suspension bridge of disbelief to cope with Vivian Dies Again by C.E. Hulse [Viper], which could have been called Groundhog Death Day. The titular anti-heroine and victim, Vivian, is a self-confessed ‘manic pixie dream slut in going-out underwear’ who has her drug-dealer on speed dial. 

Vivian’s special skill set of gate-crashing family parties, ravaging the cocktail bar and upsetting (or sleeping with) her relatives results in most of them having a good reason to murder her and the inevitable duly happens – eighty-four times as Vivian is caught in a time-loop which makes her re-live (should that be re-die?) the experience. Naturally (well, you would, wouldn’t you) she uses this supernatural reset button to try and solve her own murder with the help of a grumpy wine waiter.

Also out now is Sounds Like Trouble by American writing duo Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith [Faber]. I am not being disingenuous when I say this struck me as a traditional private eye story; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is set, naturally, in California and features a partnership of endearingly flirty detectives, Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham, who take it in turns to narrate their latest case which they have taken on with some trepidation as their client are the bosses of Los Angeles’ three main crime families. The tone is light, the pace sprightly and overall, great fun.

Coming next month is debut novel The Artful Anna Harris by Tracy Maton [Viper] which possibly falls into the category of ‘domestic noir’ as the predictably unpredictable protagonist Anna leaks details of her London past combined with her present situation in village life in Somerset. The problem for the reader is whether she is a faithful or a traitor as she adapts her own personality and adopts those of others. It’s not long before there’s a death – by herd of cows – and things begin to get rather creepy as Anna perfects her chameleon-like skills, having lost her moral compass somewhere along the way. The Talented Miss Maton is particularly good at depicting the suffocating effects of village life where an incomer is expected to conform to the ideals of the ruling extended families.

Illustrations in crime novels, other than maps, are rare but not unknown (I recall a Minette Walters’ novel from 2000 using the technique) but I have never before come across a book with such atmospheric, and relevant, commissioned artwork. Totem by Matthew Hall [Eye Books], published in May, is part legal, part environmental thriller set in British Columbia which highlights both the threat of ruthless developers to the natural forest and the treatment of Canada’s First Nation’s natives. The illustrations in Totem are by Jeff ‘Red’ George, an Ojibway artist from the Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation.

Remembrances of Readings Past

Readers of this column and many a book dealer will know, I have a weakness for the old A-format paperback (that slides easily into the poacher’s pocket of one’s Barbour waxed jacket), especially Pan or Fontana titles with the price in pre-decimal currency. So I can understand why I was attracted to The Storm Knight (cover price: five shillings) by Frederick E. Smith, whom I knew only as the author of 633 Squadron, the basis of an incredibly popular film in my youth with a theme tune still played to this day by the massed bands of the RAF on royal occasions.

I had honestly no idea that Frederick Escreet Smith (1919-2012) was the author of more than thirty books in various genres in addition to the ten war novels featuring his legendary squadron of WWII Mosquito fighter-bombers.

His 1966 novel The Storm Knight looked like just the sort of thriller I was brought up on, involving a wartime back story, a sunken ferry (containing vital secrets) in a Norwegian fjord and a passing Canadian tourist who just happens to be a skin-diver and underwater salvage expert. Oh, and there’s a girl who has an interest in the wreck and you know what’s going to happen there from the off, despite some cack-handed attempts at seduction by our skin-diving hero.

For a while it reminded me of a tale Hammond Innes might have told, but the geography, sailing and diving scenes are nowhere near what Innes could do. And despite decent baddies, a minefield and the wreck of the ferry lying on a rock shelf, teetering on the brink of an abyss, The Storm Knight does not actually thrill that much. The ‘skin diving’ scenes – an odd expression given the temperature of the water in a Norwegian fjord – are rather laboured and confusing unless you know that a Drager was a German breathing apparatus, as it is not explained, and the cover illustration suggests an aqualung. But I’m being picky. My main complaint was why was it called The Storm Knight? I think I missed that bit.

Thinking of Smith’s best-known work, plus the fact that the 1964 film was on television (again) this month, reminded me that 633 Squadron had been published in Air Ace Picture Library, one of several series of one-shilling comic books (would we call them graphic novels today?) which told stories of derring-do, mostly from WWII. 

Among these 64-page ‘pocket libraries’ produced by competing publishers, were Battle, Combat, Action and Commando, but the first, and my personal addiction, was War Picture Library which began in 1958 and ran through more than 2000 titles up to 1984. The artwork was noted for its precision when it came to uniforms and equipment and the stories for their historical accuracy. While individual authors were never specifically identified, it is safe to assume that many of the stable of writers had first-hand experience of the war and the stories they created were never simply of the gung-ho crash-bash-boom-kapow(!) variety. The storytelling was of the highest quality, and I do not think that is me looking back on a mis-spent youth through a soft-focus lens.

I still remember some of those stories more than fifty years on and one in particular has always stuck in my mind – I even remembered that it was War Picture Library #80 – from 1961, the dramatically titled Banzai! about a small group of Australian soldiers fighting a last-ditch action during the Japanese invasion of New Guinea.

A quick search on Ebay informs me that a reprint was issued in the Battle Picture Library in 1984 and can be bought for about ten quid. Makes me almost wish I’d kept my first edition, but that went – along with my collection of about 200 others – when I started secondary school and discovered my first James Bond book: Dr No in, you’ve guessed it, an A-format Pan paperback (which I still possess).

From the To-Be-Read Pile

I really cannot think why it has taken me so long to get around to reading Eric Ambler’s Send No More Roses as I picked up a 1977 first edition at a very reasonable price about five years ago.

It is a ‘late’ Ambler (1909-1998) whose personal golden age is usually regarded as the 1930s and early ’40s, though all Amblers are well worth reading even when, as in this case, the elements of suspense, jeopardy and violent action are deliberately toned down. This is a cerebral thriller covering familiar Ambler themes; primarily, the nature of crime – in this case, when does legal tax avoidance become illegal tax evasion – and, as always, who can you trust among your fellow criminals? (Some may be faithfuls but there are always traitors.) There is also the Ambler trademark of having an international cast of characters, several of them deliberately stateless, or at least of convoluted origins, all gathered in a rented villa on the French Riviera, an old Ambler stomping-ground. (As an aside: did Ambler ever set a novel completely in England?)

Published in the US as The Siege of the Villa Lipp, though in my UK edition it is the Villa Esmerelda, the location is seemingly perfect for a bizarre meeting between a shady but successful international money-launderer and a trio of criminologists determined to label him a super-villain and the archetype of a new breed of ‘Able Criminals’. The small main cast of six become embroiled in lengthy debates, with one side blustering and indignant, the other accused and seemingly defensive but definitely not telling all the truth. Interlaced with reports of this distrustful summit, the main protagonist provides flashbacks (honest ones?) to his early career in the British army in Italy during the war and the beginning of what today would be called money-laundering and white-collar crime.

An external but very real threat to the villa and its guests emerges resulting in a rapid and dramatic escape, the threads of the story then being tied up far away from the Riviera, in the Caribbean and on an obscure South Pacific island near Fiji. And once again Ambler demonstrates his long-held theory that the innocent can easily find themselves involved in crime (or espionage) and that there is no such thing as a super-villain, merely greedy and distrustful men.

The central subject matter – tax evasion/avoidance – may not seem to be the usual Ambler fare. Could it be that Ambler had some personal score to settle with the tax authorities? Who knows? The important thing is that in Send No More Roses, Ambler is as damnably readable as he ever was.

Bespoke Problems

The problem with having a bespoke book dealer is that they tantalise me with books which I simply have to have and thus my To-Be-Read continues to increase. Despite my best efforts, its growth seems unstoppable; so much so that I have nick-named my dealer The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

My latest acquisition was Time Right Deadly the 1956 debut novel of ‘Sarah Gainham’ (Rachel Ames, 1915-1999), the edition being a 1957 Dragon paperback, an imprint I was unfamiliar with, but which was an imprint of publisher Arthur Barker which became Weidenfeld & Nicholson and subsequently Orion – publishers I have heard of.

The novels of Sarah Gainham, set mainly in the post-war Austria she knew well, have recently been reappraised as significant contributions to spy fiction. Her debut novel however, although there are hints of possible espionage, is primarily a detective story and the story of two detectives. When charming and rather randy journalist Julian Dryden is shot dead in a dodgy part of the Russian sector of occupied Vienna in 1947, suspicion falls on one of his lovers, Ellen Perrott, who is married to an unbelievably tolerant British diplomat. Ellen is not a sympathetic character, bitchily dismissing one of her rivals for Dryden’s affections as ‘A common little thing ...(with)…her provincial worries about her reputation in the intervals of concupiscence.’

In the first half of the book, the dim and lazy Colonel Thompson leads the British investigation, despite not speaking a word of German, or Russian. He is convinced of Ellen Perrot’s guilt but too worried about upsetting the status quo to take action. Then (for no clear reason I can see), the investigation is taken over by a retired Austrian policeman, Mollner, who chain smokes cigars, re-questions witnesses and uncovers Dryden’s involvement in a people smuggling ring which, for a price, helps people escape from behind the descending Iron Curtain.

It is the grizzled veteran Mollner, who knows the ways of Central Europe, rather than the stiff, humourless Thompson who doesn’t care about them, who brings the case to a conclusion.

True Crime 

I met Patricia Cornwell once. It would have been back in 1990 at a party to mark the UK publication of her ground-breaking debut thriller Postmortem and I was there as the crime fiction critic of the Sunday Telegraph (“an excellent chiller with pace and tension”), very much in the shadow of those far more experienced reviewers Harry Keating and Julian Symons.

Now, thirty-six years and thirty-six(?) best-selling novels on, Ms Cornwell gives us an autobiographical memoir, True Crime, to be published in May by Sphere, which has already been described as ‘achingly honest’ and, according to fellow bestseller James Patterson, ‘could be the best book she’s ever written’.

The Other Cornwell

Nicholas Cornwell, better known by his pen-name Nick Harkaway, has done sterling work continuing the legend of his father’s famous creation George Smiley, but I had no idea he himself must have had an adventurous past, as chronicled by novelist John Harris…

Until normal service is resumed,

The Ripster.

The Extraordinary Gwen Moffat

In all the publicity due to the American Climber Alex Honnold free-climber scaling the skyscraper in Taiwan - Renaissance Man The Talented Mr Ripley pointed out that BBC Radio 4 referenced British Rock Climber Gwen Moffat on their ‘Rewind’ programme this week.

Here’s a 3.5 minute clip from Rewind’ about Gwen Moffat © 2026 BBC Radio 4

I use the term extraordinary as not only is she an acclaimed and accomplished mountain climber, as well as a prolific writer of detective / crime fiction BUT also one of Shots Magazine’s longest serving book reviewers.

And Gwen is now 101 Years Young and as fit as ever and continuing to provide her incisive book reviews in our review pages.

“Longevity isn’t how many years you’ve lived, it is how you’ve spent them. In youth the fun is enhanced by danger; in old age by serenity” – Gwen Moffat on her 100^th Birthday

For more information about the extraordinary Gwen Moffat CLICK HERE

For Gwen Moffat’s book reviews at Shots Magazine CLICK HERE

The Spymasters Book Prize

 

Aspects of History have announced their longlist for their Inaugural SpyMasters Book Prize.

Spy Hunter by HB Lyle

The Old Fox by Robert Perkins

Paying in Blood by Karen Haden

Committed by Chris Merritt

Second Skin by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

The King Street Affair by Jon Sealy

Shadow of Poison by Peter Tonkin

The Borodino Sacrifice by Paul Phillips

Out in the Cold by Steve Urszenyi

Soldier Spy by Rosemary Hayes

The Violin & the Candlestick by David Jarvis

Mr Campion’s Christmas by Mike Ripley

Honour Among Spies by Merle Nygate

The Peacock and the Sparrow by IS Berry

Foxtrot Mike Lima by Cat Connor

Operation Nightfall by Karl Wegener

Death of a Princess by R.N.Morris

With Prejudice by Roger Price

Midnight in Vienna by Jane Thynne

Found by Will Erikson

Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd

The award is open to any spy novel, published in hardback or paperback, in 2024. They accepted both historical and modern spy thrillers

A cash prize of £500 will be awarded to the winning author. Aspects of HIstory will also interview the winner on the SpyMasters podcast. A shortlist of six titles will then be announced on 1st September 2025.

The winner will be announced at a special event in September, at which the longlist and special guests will be invited. Congratulations to all the nominated authors.

Shortlist Announced for Final 2025 CrimeFest Awards

 

CrimeFest, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, has announced the shortlists for its final annual awards.

The awards began 17 years ago when CrimeFest launched in 2008; they honour the best crime fiction and non-fiction books released in the UK in the last year.

2025 will be the final awards as organisers announced this year CrimeFest will come to an end.

The awards feature the hotly-contended Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award, which offers a £1,000 cash prize. 

Authors in contention for the £1k prize are Tom Baragwanath for his New Zealand small-town mystery Paper Cage, Cosmo’s Thriller of the Year Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell, and the cosy crime caper The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, by C.L. Miller.

Also making the Specsavers shortlist are Akira Otani with the gripping Japanese cult thriller The Night of Baba Yaga, Tracey Sierra’s Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Nightwatching, and Scotland’s Claire Wilson with her debut, Five by Five. 

Adrian Muller, Co-host of CrimeFest, said: “The Specsavers Debut Novel Award has become one of the most highly anticipated awards of the genre over the years, and we’d like to thank Specsavers for their on-going support in celebrating new talent.”

The shortlist for the CrimeFest H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book features icon of the genre Lynda La Plante with her memoir, Getting Away with Murder. 

The category also includes an exploration of Agatha Christie, with Mark Aldridge’s Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 by Ashley Bowden, and Sara Lodge’s The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Detective. Jem Bloomfield is also in contention for Allusion in Detective Fiction, as are Dan Coxon and Richard V Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays on Crafting Crime Fiction.

CrimeFest’s Last Laugh Award for best humorous crime novel sees returning favourites authors Mike Ripley, Orlando Murrin, and Antti Tuomainen. It also welcomes Cathy Ace with The Case of the Secretive Secretary, Bella Mackie for What a Way to Go, and DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin.

DG Coutinho received the 2025 bursary for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend and feature on a panel at the final CrimeFest for their first novel, a darkly comic thriller set in a toxic office culture.

Bella Mackie is also nominated for the best crime fiction e-book published in 2024; What a Way to Go is shortlisted for the E-Dunnit Award. She’s up against stalwart of the genre Martin Edwards with Hemlock Bay, Laurie R. King for The Lantern's Dance, the American novelist and playwright Jean Hanff Korelitz with The Sequel, Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods and Peter Swanson’s A Talent for Murder.

The nominees for the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children (aged 8 - 12) include Sufiya Ahmed for her World War Two adventure set in Cairo, Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker, M. G. Leonard for Feather (The Twitchers) from the bestselling birdwatching detective series, and the magical murder mystery, The Floating Witch Mystery by Nicki Thornton. They’re joined by fellow children’s authors Natasha Farrant, A.M. Howell, and Beth Lincoln.

Adrian Muller said: “We are proud to be one of the few genre awards that recognise and celebrate children, and young adult crime fiction. This category has really boomed in recent years. It’s a fitting legacy that over the years we’ve gifted thousands of free children’s and young adult books to inner city schools in Bristol as part of our outreach and charitable work. The genre is a fantastic gateway into reading, so the hope these books have inspired new generations of readers and writers.”

Leading British crime fiction reviewers and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults, alongside the members of the School Library Association (SLA), form the CrimeFest judging panels.

The Best Crime Fiction for Young Adults (aged 12-16) features H.F Askwith’s A Cruel Twist of Fate, Denise Brown’s It All Started with A Lie, and A.J Clack’s dark reality-TV based Young Adult thriller, Lie or Die.

Also in contention are the razor-sharp romantasy All The Hidden Monsters by Annie Jordan, the sequel to the Waterstone’s prize winning Thieves’ Gambit, Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis and Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus. 

This year also features the Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama, which celebrate dramas based on a book screened in 2024. 

Eligible titles were collated from the Radio Times and CrimeFest readers established the shortlist and the winning title. The award is named in honour of Thalia, who worked with many crime writers in publishing and was a much-loved and valued member of the CrimeFest team.

Shortlisted shows include Apple TV’s Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen, P.D. James Dalgliesh (Channel 5, series 3), Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake adapted by Apple TV, Moonflower Murders on the BBC based on the books by Anthony Horowitz, Apple TV’s Slow Horses (series 4) from Mick Herron’s Slough House books and the BBC’s The Turkish Detective based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel.

The winners of the 2025 CrimeFest Awards will be announced at a gala dinner hosted during CrimeFest on Saturday 17 May at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, compered by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) chair and author, Vaseem Khan.

Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is the biggest crime fiction convention in the UK, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors attending over four days, from 15-18 May. 

2025’s CrimeFest promises to be bigger than ever as long-standing friends of the event gather for a celebratory finale, including blockbuster author, Lee Child who will be attending with his brother and co-Reacher author, Andrew Child.

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. Established in 2008, it follows the egalitarian format of most US conventions, making it open to all commercially published authors and readers alike.

All category winners will receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award. Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

The 2025 CrimeFest Award Shortlists in full:

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD

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)

Akira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) for The Night of Baba Yaga (Faber & Faber)

Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching (Viking)

Claire Wilson for Five by Five (Michael Joseph)

eDUNNIT AWARD 

Martin Edwards for Hemlock Bay (Head of Zeus)

Laurie R. King for The Lantern's Dance (Allison & Busby)

Jean Hanff Korelitz for The Sequel (Faber & Faber)

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)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD

Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness (HarperCollins)

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 on Crafting Crime Fiction (Dead Ink)

Sara Lodge for The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Detective (Yale University Press)

Lynda La Plante for Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen (Zaffre)

LAST LAUGH AWARD

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)

Mike Ripley for Mr Campion's Christmas (Severn House)

Antti Tuomainen (and translator David Hackston) for The Burning Stones (Orenda Books)

BEST CRIME FICTION AWARD FOR CHILDREN (aged 8-12)

Sufiya Ahmed for Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker (Bloomsbury Education)

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 FICTION AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULTS (aged 12-16)

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)

Kayvion Lewis for Heist Royale (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)

Karen M. McManus for Such Charming Liars (Penguin Random House Children's UK)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA

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)

Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)

The Turkish Detective, based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel (BBC)