The 2026 Fingerprint Shortlist

 

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 - 

Audiobook of the Year

 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 18^th June 2026 during the Capital Crime Festival.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight:- Beth Lewis

 

Name:- Beth Lewis

Job:- Author

Website:-.http://bethlewis.co.uk 

Twitter:- @bethklewis

Introduction

Beth Lewis is the author of three novels. Her debut novel The Wolf Road was published in 2016 and was shortlisted for the inugural Glass Bell Award. It was also one of Amazon's best books of 2016. Her second novel Bitter Sun was published in 2018. Her most recent novel The Origins of Iris was published in 2021. Her fourth book Children of the Sun is due to be published in 2024.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing)

I’m currently reading The Black Drop by Lenora Nattrass. I am on a bit of a historical fiction kick having just finished the most excellent Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. As for writing, I’m just waiting on the final edits for my next book, Children of the Sun which I am so excited to publish! 

Favourite book

Ever? Gosh, that’s a hard one. It’s changed a lot over the years but the recent one I can’t get out of my head is The Overstory by Richard Powers. It’s a wonderful, immersive read which made me look at trees and nature in whole new way.

How do you relax?

I have a toddler, relaxation is a foreign concept but when I collapse on the sofa at the end of the day, it’s usually in front of the TV, watching Bridgerton or a new shiny science-fiction show.

Which book do you wish you had written and why? 

I don’t wish I’d written anyone else's book as I probably wouldn’t have written it like they did.Though I do have some ideas I’d like other writers to tackle because I don’t think I could do them justice. 

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

I would probably say, “Writing is fun, publishing isn’t always, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Just play the game, kid.”

How would you describe your latest published book?

The Origins of Iris is about a woman escaping her abusive wife and meeting another version of herself who made different choices. It’s about love, hope, family, regret, the path not taken and it also explores domestic violence in a female LGBT+ relationship, something I’d never seen before in fiction. 

With Town and Country: Green Lanes to Mean Streets being the theme at St Hilda's this year, Where is your favourite town and where is your favourite country? Why have you chosen these?

I’ve just come back from a weekend in Amsterdam so right now, that’s my favourite town. A wonderful mix of old and new, rickety, leaning buildings housing trendy cafes and galleries, winding canals, it’s a city full of stories. I loved it. 

My favourite country is Canada. I adore it. It’s like a second home to me which is why I set my first book there. Majestic wilderness, incredible wildlife, just raw, untamed beauty everywhere. 

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

I can’t wait to hear so many amazing authors talk about subjects they are passionate about and hear all about their new books. My TBR will never recover!

The Origins of Iris by Beth Lewis (Hodder Studio)

One woman. Two lives. How far will she go to find herself? On the outside, Iris and Claude have a perfect marriage, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. One terrible night Claude’s abuse goes too far and Iris flees into the Catskill mountains. In the wilderness, Iris comes face to face with another version of herself. A woman who never met Claude and seemingly made all the right choices in life. Trapped by an oncoming storm, Iris must uncover why they are there, what it means, and if the other Iris is even real. As the storm hits, the truth of what happened that fateful night will change everything. An important, searing novel about one woman’s journey in fleeing an abusive relationship and confronting the secrets of her past.

Information about 2022 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book tickets can be found here.

St Hilda's Crime and Mystery Weekend - Town and Country: Green Lanes to Mean Streets

St Hilda's Crime and Mystery Weekend is taking place from 12 – 14 August 2022.  

We have an homage to Mo Hayder by Nadine Matheson, an expose of rural noir by S.A. Cosby, an evening with Mick Herron (on Slow Horses) and Elly Griffiths (on Cold Comfort Farm).

Peter May is talking about his early influences. 

Ann Cleeves is looking at the Human Geography of Crime.

Philip Gooden has penned our Murder Mystery with roles performed by crime writers, and special prizes to be won.

Plus intriguing and entertaining talks by Imran Mahmood, Abir Mukherjee, Beth Lewis, Greg Buchanan, Leye Adenle, Anna Bailey, Anthony J Quinn, Trevor Wood and William Shaw. 

It is going to be spectacular!

You can book to attend in person, either the whole weekend or just Friday night with Mick and Elly (and a three-course dinner). 

Accommodation is available, and meals can be booked at the college (where the food is delicious and vegan options are available).

The full programme is here.

More details and links to ticket sales can be found here.

First Monday Crime - July!

First Monday is going all out for its July 4th event, sponsored by Killer Reads, with triple CWA Historical Dagger winner Andrew Taylor (author of The American Boy and superb new novel The Ashes of London), Stephen Booth (Multiple award winning writer  of the Cooper and Fry series and respected goat breeder (honest – we looked it up)), Anna Mazzola (winner of the Brixton Bookjam Debut Novel competition for her stunning debut novel The Unseeing) and Beth Lewis (London-based editor and former circus performer – whose wonderful debut novel The Wolf Road is taking the publishing world by storm).  The evening will be chaired by Claire McGowan, bestselling author of the Paula Maguire series and senior lecturer on the City University Crime Writing MA course. Are they excited to have five phenomenal authors talking to us about their books? Yes. Yes, they are.

 

 

A mix between a social evening and a festival-style panel, First Mondays offers the crime fiction community – whether readers, writers or industry professionals – a place to meet, enjoy each other’s company and hear about the latest and most intriguing crime fiction around.

First Mondays begin at 6.30pm on the first Monday of each month with a panel discussion chaired by, amongst others, Barry Forshaw (Brit Noir etc), Jake Kerridge (Daily Telegraph) and James Kidd (Independent). Upcoming authors include Sophie Hannah, Mark Billingham and Belinda Bauer, as well as a host of established and debut authors from all over the world. After the panels, the conversation spills over to The Peasant pub.

First Monday is grateful to City University’s Crime Thriller MA Programme and Goldsboro Books for their generous support in staging our events. The July event will be held in the College Building of City University on St John Street (close to Angel Tube station).

Tickets may be purchased here.

 

Organizer

First Monday

Date:

July 4

Phone:

(+44) 0207 836 7376

Email:

FirstMondayCrime@gmail.com

Time:

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Cost:

£5

Venue

City University London

Northampton Square

London, EC1V 0HB United Kingdom

What's Your Poison and All About Agatha - Crime Events at Heffers Bookshop

Heffers' summer Crime Fiction party, What’s Your Poison? returns at 6.30pm on Thursday 14th July. Come along for an evening of chat, author readings, a quiz - and our now-traditional themed cocktail!

Authors appearing include James Aitcheson, Belinda Bauer, Simon Booker, Alison Bruce, Barbara Cleverly, Mike Craven, Ruth Downie, Barry Forshaw, Elly Griffiths, Jim Kelly, Christobel Kent, Beth Lewis, Peter Morfoot, Abir Mukherjee, Peter Murphy, Betsy Reavley and Mike Ripley.  Tickets are £6.50 and can be purchased here or by calling 01223 463200

When- Thursday, 14 July 2016 from 18:30 to 20:00

Where- Heffers Bookshop - 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1TY

 

At 6.30pm on 11th October, join us at Heffers bookshop for an evening with three

authorities on Agatha Christie: All About Agatha. Sophie Hannah, John Curran and Julius Green will talk about the life and works of the world-famous crime writer, and answer your questions.  Everything you ever wanted to know about Agatha Christie but were afraid to ask!  Tickets for the event are priced at £7.50 and guests will be served a glass of wine.

They can be purchased through - https://allaboutagatha.eventbrite.co.uk/ or by calling 01223 463200

When- Tuesday, 11 October 2016 from 18:30 to 20:00

Where- Heffers Bookshop - 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1TY