CrimeFest 2015 Day 1 Part 1

Copyright Ayo Onatade

So CrimeFest has started today and as usual I shall be doing by usual blogging and tweeting as much as possible.  Also for those of you that have followed me over the years will remember that my blog posts from CrimeFest tend to be a mixture of what is happening in the panels and whatever takes my fancy.  So sit back and enjoy.  If you want to follow what is happening at CrimeFest on Twitter then they are using ♯CrimeFest15.

So what has happened so far? 

The trip down was non-eventful. It was however lovely to bump into the lovely Daniel Gedon from Goldsboro books on the train.  Our arrival at Bristol was enlivened by the fact that it was pouring with rain.

It was lovely to see so many people on arrival at the hotel. Unfortunately I missed the first panel, which was Debut Authors: An Infusion of Fresh Blood, which featured Tom Callaghan, Jason Hewitt, S J I Holiday, Cal Moriarty, and M P Wright and moderated by Jake Kerridge.  It wasn’t done on purpose but I was waiting for my room to be ready.

I did however attend the panel A Woman in a Man’s World that had Ray Celestin, MJ McGrath, Helen Giltrow and William Shaw as panel members and MR Hall as the participating moderator.  This was a very interesting panel and the various comments from the panellists made for a lively debate.  It was interesting to hear from the panellists about their views. One of the things that Ray Celestin stated was that when he was writing his female character he did not want to be seen as sexist when it came to his character.  Furthermore, he chose a female as his third main character as he felt that it was a good idea.  The added problem was that not only was she not allowed to join the police because she was African American.  She was allowed to do menial work.  This is the reason why she joined the Pinkertons instead.  William Shaw also pointed out that for him the problem arose from the fact that he was writing a female character before feminism took root. M J McGrath explained that the inspiration for her main character Edie was from a true-life person who was a small Inuit woman. MR Hall stated that initially his main character was male but he decided that he wanted to write an emotional book hence the reason why he decided to change his main character to female.  In the case of Helen Giltrow she explained that her main female character was created by accident.  She literally took over as the book was been written.  She had initially wanted to write a book with a male hero.  One of the questions that was raised was whether or not women were a lot more interesting as lead characters in crime fiction.  According to MJ McGrath women have a lot more things to struggle with including for example childcare.  As William Shaw explained crime fiction was seen to be a man’s world.  On the other hand, MJ McGrath felt that crime books were all about character and psychological novels are being dominated by women – better known as Domestic Noir.  Both Helen Giltrow and MJ McGrath would have liked to have seen and read Before I Go To Sleep, with a male protagonist.  They also felt that it would also be interesting to read a novel about sexual assault by a woman to a man.  MR Hall also wondered if we expected our female lead characters to be heroic and if there was an actual reason for them to be heroic or an interest in them being so.  It was felt that there was a great tradition of men being the anti-hero but not women.  Ray Celestin however pointed out that we were starting to see women as anti-heroes.  But it was also felt that we expect different things from our male and female heroes.

Some of the other issues that were raised in the panel were whether or not male and female readers got the same from a book or were they looking for different things. Furthermore, it is impossible for women to read violence the same way as men.   It was also felt that women readers were a lot more judgmental about female characters than men.  It was noted that women are by far the largest readers of crime fiction.

More to follow…….

Scott Turow in conversation with M R Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Internationally best-selling US author, Scott Turow, will be in conversation with best-selling British crime-novelist and screen writer, M R Hall, in a rare UK event at 7 Bedford Row Chambers on Tuesday 12th November.

 Turow’s first novel, Presumed Innocent, has sold over 9 million copies and was made into a major motion picture starring Harrison Ford and Greta Scaachi.

 

The Chicago-based writer has since produced a further ten hugely successful novels, and is touring the UK to promote his latest, Identical, which is published this month (and described by the LA Times as: ‘A compulsively readable tale of love, guilt and revenge that may take its cues from the story of Pollux and Castor and other Greek myths but resonates even more strongly with the near-epic Kindle County narrative Turow has created over some three decades.…It is Turow's deftly drawn characters — coping with advancing age, old grief and lost love — that linger in the mind’).

Throughout his writing career, Turow has continued to practise as a US attorney specialising in criminal defence, and a large proportion of his work is now on pro bono cases (including getting innocent people off death row). In what promises to be a candid and revealing discussion, both writers will be giving insights into how their individual passions for justice led them to pick up the pen.

 After the discussion, the writers will be hosting what they hope will be a lively, gloves-off question and answer session with the audience, followed by an opportunity for guests to mix socially with the writers over drinks and canapés.

TUESDAY 12^TH NOVEMBER. Registration from 5.30pm; talk and Q&A 6pm-7pm followed by a drinks reception until 8pm.  7 BEDFORD ROW, WC1R 4BS.  TO SECURE A PLACE, PLEASE EMAIL CAMILLA ELWORTHY AT c.elworthy@macmillan.co.uk

 

Aspiring Authors in Life of Crime - Creative Thursday

Aspiring authors will have the rare chance to pitch their works to some of crime fiction’s most influential names in publishing.

‘Dragons’ Pen’ is the culmination of a day-long creative writing workshop as part of Europe’s biggest celebration of crime fiction, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2013.

The workshop offers the opportunity to pitch concepts to two powerhouse literary agents, Jane Gregory of Gregory and Company and Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown, commissioning editor from Little Brown Jade Chandler, and esteemed publisher Maria Rejt of Pan Macmillan.

Crime is the most lucrative genre. Blockbuster writer Lee Child sells a book a second and the genre dominates our TV and movie screens.

Gemma Rowland, Crime Festival Manager, said: “It’s not surprising then that so many wannabe authors opt for the genre because many probably see it as the equivalent of a lottery ticket, if they get it right, whether it’s commercial or critical acclaim. Everyone thinks they can write crime, it can be formulaic and it can be popular, but in fact to write crime well is a rare skill, which is why our Creative Thursday workshop is in such demand. It’s taught by authors, publishers, agents and editors - so gives a valuable and rare insight into how to really write crime fiction.”

Many of the most successful writers at work today in the genre will feature at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival this July as up to 90 authors gather from around the world including Kate Atkinson, Susan Hill, Ruth Rendell, Ann Cleeves, Lee Child and Ian Rankin.

Creative Thursday precedes the prestigious Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson and the official opening party for Europe’s biggest celebration of crime fiction.

Attendees will be welcomed by the 2013 programming chair, Val McDermid, before undergoing an intensive exercise-based workshop with Henry Sutton, crime novelist and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

A session will also be co-led by Bafta nominated screenwriter MR Hall and former lawyer William Ryan, with an interactive session also on real life crime scenarios from the Forensic Science Society.

2013 Creative Thursday, Thursday 18 July, Time - 9am – 6pm, Price - £99 per person. For more information or to book your place contact the Festival Office on 01423 562 303 or email crime@harrogate-festival.org.uk

Books to Look Forward to From Pan Macmillan

The Killing II by David Hewson is due to be published in January 2013.  Thirty-nine steps rose from the busy road of Tuborgvej into Mindelunden, with its quiet graves and abiding bitter memories.  Lennart Brix, head of the Copenhagen homicide team, felt he had been walking them most of his life.  Beneath the entrance arch, sheltering from the icy rain, he couldn't help but recall that first visit almost fifty years before.  A five-year-old boy, clutching the hand of his father, barely able to imagine what he was about see ...The bark of a dog broke his reverie.  Brix looked at the forensic officers, white bunny suits, mob hats, marching grim-faced down the rows of graves, towards the space in the little wood where the rest of the team was gathering ...Three gnarled stakes, replicas now, with the originals in the Frihedsmuseet.  A woman was tied to the centre pole, hands behind her back, bound with heavy rope round her torso.  Blonde hair soaked with rain and worse, head down, chin on chest, crouched awkwardly on her knees.  A gaping wound at her neck like a sick second smile.  She wore a blue dressing gown slashed in places all the way to the waist, flesh and skin visible where the frenzied blade had stabbed at her.  Her face was bruised and dirty.  Blood poured from her nostrils, had dried down each side of her mouth, like makeup on a tragic clown ...It is two years since the notorious Nanna Birk Larsen case.  Two years since Detective Sarah Lund left Copenhagen in disgrace for a remote outpost in northern Denmark.  When the body of a female lawyer is found in macabre circumstances in a military graveyard, there are elements of the crime scene that take Head of Homicide, Lennart Brix, back to an occupied wartime Denmark -- a time its countrymen would wish to forget.  Brix knows that Lund is the one person he can rely on to discover the truth.  Reluctantly she returns to Copenhagen and becomes intrigued with the facts surrounding the case.  As more bodies are found, Lund comes to see a pattern and she realises that the identity of the killer will be known once the truth behind a more recent wartime mission is finally revealed….

The Dance of the Seagull is by Andrea Camilleri and is due to be published in March 2013.  Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull, which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die.  Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed and the scene hangs over him like an omen.  About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends.  But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing – and it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations – Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out . . . Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail and the darkest murder, and moving from the docks of Vigata to its deep, dry wells where the Mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery

Her tattoo wasn't just a mark for life; it marked her for death too.  In New York's East Village, a young girl is brutally raped, tortured and murdered.  Detective Callum Doyle has seen the victim's remains.  He has visited the distraught family.  Now he wants justice.  Doyle is convinced he knows who the killer is.  The problem is he can't prove it.  In addition, the more he pushes his prime suspect, the more he learns that the man is capable of pushing back in ways more devious and twisted than Doyle could ever have imagined.  Add to that the appearance of an old adversary who has a mission for Doyle and won't take no for an answer, and soon Doyle finds himself at risk of losing everything he holds dear.  Including his life.  Marked is by David Jackson and is due to be published in January 2013.

  

The Betrayed is by David Hosp and is due to be published in January 2013.  When Sydney Chaplin left D.C. nine years ago for college, she vowed never to return.  But when her sister is found brutally murdered, she finds herself drawn once again into the shadowy web of her wealthy, powerful family.  Joined by Washington detectives Jack Cassian and Darius Train, and driven by her need to know the truth about her sister's death, Sydney will risk everything - her life and her family's future - to find the answers.  From the gritty streets and crack dens of the District's inner city, to the smart country clubs and gilded offices of the nation's political elite, Sydney, Cassian, and Train must slip deep into a labyrinth of money, power, and deceit to uncover a decades-old conspiracy that could rock the nation.

The Weeping Girl is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in April 2013.  Winnie Maas died because she changed her mind ...A community is left reeling after a teacher -- Arnold Maager -- is convicted of murdering his female pupil Winnie Maas.  It seems the girl had been pregnant with Maager's child.  Years later, on her eighteenth birthday, Maager's daughter Mikaela finally learns the terrible truth about her father.  Desperate for answers, Mikaela travels to the institution at Lejnice, where Maager has been held since his trial.  But soon afterwards, she inexplicably vanishes.  Detective Inspector Ewa Moreno from the Maardam Police is on holiday in the area when she finds herself drawn into Mikaela's disappearance.  But before she can make any headway in the case, Maager himself disappears -- and then a body is found.  It will soon become clear to Ewa that only unravelling the events of the past will unlock this dark mystery...

  

Dead Water is the fifth book in the Shetland Island series by Anne Cleeves and is due to be published in January 2013.  When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the Fiscal, down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation.  Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry.  Markham – originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London – had left the islands years before.  In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a seaman.  He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?  Willow and Jimmy are led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland’s North Sea oil and gas industry.  It soon emerges from their investigation that Markham was chasing a story in his final days.  One that must have been significant enough to warrant his death . . .

A body is found in the woods . . . A Dreadful Murder is by Minette Walters and is based on the true story of the shocking murder of Mrs Caroline Luard, which took place in Kent in August 1908.  Caroline Luard is shot dead in broad daylight in the grounds of a large country estate.  With few clues available, her husband soon becomes the suspect . . . But is he guilty?  Bringing to life the people involved in this terrible crime, in A Dreadful Murder bestselling author Minette Walters uses modern detective skills to attempt to solve a 100-year-old crime.  A Dreadful Murder is due to be published in February 2013.

When the body of his daughter’s friend is brought to his autopsy table, Quirke is plunged into a world of corruption that takes him to the darkest corners of religion.  “At first they thought it was the body of a child.  Then they noticed the pubic hair and the nicotine stains on the fingers”  So begins the latest Quirke case, a story set in Dublin at a moment when newspapers are censored, social conventions are strictly defined, and appalling crimes are hushed up.  Why?  Because in post-war Ireland the Catholic Church controls the lives of nearly everyone.  But when his daughter, Phoebe loses her close friend Jimmy Minor to murder, Quirke can no longer play by the Church’s rules.  Along with Inspector Hackett, his sometime partner, Quirke investigates Jimmy’s death and learns just how far the Church will go to protect its own.  Holy Orders is by Benjamin Black and is due to be published in June 2013.

  

When Oscar Amalfitano begins an impulsive affair with one of his students at the University of Barcelona, he has no idea where it will lead.  More than his turbulent revolutionary past, or the death of his beautiful wife, the scandalous exposure of this relationship will change him forever.  Forced to flee with his seventeen-year-old daughter, Amalfitano finds himself in Santa Teresa, a sprawling town on the US--Mexico border.  Haunted by dark tales of murdered women, this mythical place is populated by mysterious characters.  We meet Castillo, who makes his living selling his forgeries of Larry Rivers paintings to wealthy Texans; Pancho Monje, a son born of six generations of foundlings; and Arcimboldi, a magician and writer whose work has been important to Amalfitano for some time, but whose return to prominence is just beginning.  Woes of the True Policeman is an exciting, kaleidoscopic novel, lyrical and intense yet darkly humorous.  Exploring the limits of memory and the power of art, it returns to the world and characters of Bolano's masterpiece, 2666.  Woes of the True Policeman is by Roberto Bolaño and is due to be published in January 2013.

Returning from Death Benefit, embattled medical student Pia Grazdani decides to take a year off from her studies and escape New York City.  Intrigued by the promise of the burgeoning field of medical technology, Pia takes a job at Nano, LLC, and a lavishly funded, security-conscious nanotechnology institute in the picturesque foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  Nano, LLC is ahead of the curve in the competitive world of molecular manufacturing, including the construction of microbivores, tiny nano-robots with the ability to gobble up viruses and bacteria.  But the corporate campus is a place of secrets.  When Pia encounters a fellow employee on a corporate jogging path suffering the effects of a seizure, she soon realizes she may have literally stumbled upon one of Nano, LLC's human guinea pigs.  Is the tech giant on the cusp of one of the biggest medical discoveries of the twenty-first century -- a treatment option for millions -- or have they already sold out to the highest bidder?  Nano is by Robin Cook and is due to be published in February 2013. 

The Twelfth Department is by William Ryan and is due to be published in May 2013.  This is the third Captain Korolev mystery set in 1930s Stalinist Russia, from the celebrated author of The Holy Thief and The Bloody Meadow.  Moscow, 1937.  Captain Korolev, a police investigator, is enjoying a long-overdue visit from his young son Yuri when an eminent scientist is shot dead within sight of the Kremlin and Korolev is ordered to find the killer.  It soon emerges that the victim, a man who it appears would stop at nothing to fulfil his ambitions, was engaged in research of great interest to those at the very top ranks of Soviet power.  When another scientist is brutally murdered, and evidence of the professors' dark experiments is hastily removed, Korolev begins to realise that, along with having a difficult case to solve, he's caught in a dangerous battle between two warring factions of the NKVD.  Then his son Yuri goes missing ...A desperate race against time, set against a city gripped by Stalin's Great Terror and teeming with spies, street children and Thieves.

Pure evil wears many disguises . . . Four am on a wet stretch of the A1 and a driver skids out of control.  Quick on the scene, Senior Investigating Officer Kate Daniels and partner DS Hank Gormley are presented with a horrifying image of carnage and mayhem that quickly becomes one of the worst road traffic accidents in Northumberland’s history.  However, as the casualties mount up, they soon realise that not all deaths were as a result of the accident . . .  On the other side of town a house goes up in flames, turning its two inhabitants into charred corpses.  Seemingly unconnected with the traffic accident, Kate sets about investigating both incidences separately.  However, it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems, and Kate and her colleagues are one always step behind a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to get what they want.  Deadly Deceit is by Mari Hannah and is due to be published in February 2013.

Coroner Jenny Cooper investigates ...An unlikely suicide or a deadly conspiracy?  When Bristol Coroner Jenny Cooper investigates the fatal plunge of a man from a motorway bridge, she little suspects that it has any connection with the sudden death of a friend's thirteen-year-old daughter from a deadly strain of meningitis.  But as Jenny pieces together the dead man's last days, she's drawn into a mystery whose dark ripples stretch across continents and back through decades.  In an investigation which will take her into the sinister realms of unbridled human ambition and corrupt scientific endeavour, Jenny is soon forced to risk the love and lives of those closest to her, as a deadly race to uncover the truth begins ... The Chosen Death is by M R Hall and is due to be published in January 2013.

 

Also due to be published in June 2013 is the new Roy Grace by Peter James entitled Dead Man’s Time.

 

A twenty-nine-year-old man lives alone in his Glasgow flat.  The telephone rings; a casual conversation, but behind this a job offer.  The clues are there if you know to look for them.  He is an expert.  A loner.  Freelance.  Another job is another job, but what if this organisation wants more?  A meeting at a club.  An offer.  A brief.  A target: Lewis Winter.  It is hard to kill a man well.  People who do it well know this.  People who do it badly find out the hard way.  The hard way has consequences.  An arresting, gripping novel of dark relationships and even darker moralities, The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter is by Malcolm Mackay and is due to be published in January 2013.

CWA Dagger Awards and the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards

The results of the CWA Dagger Awards and the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards are out!

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

 

The CWA Gold Dagger – sponsored by Constable & Robinson

The Rage by Gene Kerrigan (Harvill Secker)

The other nominees were –

The Flight by MR Hall

Bereft by Chris Womersley 

Vengeance in Mind by NJ Cooper

© Midaspr

The John Creasey New Blood Dagger – sponsored by Goldsboro Books

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (Bantam)

The other nominees were -

Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

What Dies in Summer by Tom Wright

Good People by Ewart Hutton

© Midaspr

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications

A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins) 

The other nominees were –

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

The Fear Index by Robert Harris

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

The Specsaver’s Bestseller Dagger 2012:

      Kathy Reichs

©Ali Karim

The Film Dagger

      Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Studio Canal)

The TV Dagger

      Sherlock: Series 2 (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The International TV Dagger

 The Bridge (Danmarks Radio, Sveriges Television/BBC4)

The Best Actress Dagger

      Claire Danes for Homeland (Teakwood Lane Productions, Showtime Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Keshet Media Group, Fox 21/Channel 4)

The Best Actor Dagger

      Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The Best Supporting Actress Dagger
Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO/Sky Atlantic)

The Best Supporting Actor Dagger

      Martin Freeman for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

Best Detective Duo: 

      Lewis - DI Robbie Lewis & DS James Hathaway

The press notice is below –

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2012

Winners revealed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, Thursday 18^th October, 2012—Cactus TV and ITV3, in partnership with the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), are pleased to announce the winners of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2012, a showcase of the UK’s most wanted crime fiction and drama, hosted by Bradley Walsh. 

A host of famous faces from TV, Film and Publishing which included Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Rupert Penry-Jones and Steven Berkoff gathered on the black carpet for a gala awards ceremony celebrating the very best offences of the year at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. The awards ceremony, now in its fourth year, formed a crescendo to ITV 3’s six week season of crime and drama programming including a specially commissioned documentary series called Crime Connections, featuring crime writers, actors, producers and directors.

Winners on the night were:

<    Specsaver’s Bestseller Dagger 2012: Kathy Reichs

<    CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year sponsored by Constable and Robinson: Gene Kerrigan, The Rage

      CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications: Charles Cumming, A Foreign Country

      CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, sponsored by Goldsboro Books: Wiley Cash, A Land More Kind than Home

Gene Kerrigan’s The Rage won the CWA Gold Dagger. His suspense driven storm of violence set in the backstreets of Dublin proved unbeatable, an immense accolade given the literary oomph of his co-nominees: MR Hall’s The Flight, Chris Womersley’s Bereft and Vengeance in Mind by NJ Cooper, previously Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Gene Kerrigan commented: "I'm aware of the writers who have previously received the Gold Dagger and I'm honoured to have my name on the same page."

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller was taken home by Charles Cumming for A Foreign Country. Despite being regarded as one of the best of the new generation of British spy writers, A Foreign Country was by no means assured of success, pitted as it was against some monumental thrillers: Megan Abbott’s Dare Me, which revealed the bitter power rivalries of a cheerleading squad, Robert Harris’s much lauded The Fear Index andNeal Stephenson’s Reamde which portrays the world of hacking.

Charles Cumming said "For spy writers, the Steel Dagger is our Booker prize, so I'm thrilled to have won such a prestigious award. Some great writers have picked up the Steel Dagger, including Henry Porter, Dan Fesperman and Tom Rob Smith. I'm honoured to have joined their ranks."

The CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger was awarded to Wiley Cash, named the best new crime author of the year for A Land More Kind than Home.Cash toughed it out against serious competition from Tanya Byrne’s Heart-Shaped Bruise, Tom Wright’s What Dies in Summer and Ewart Hutton’s Good People to win the title for his tale of the smarting underbelly of religious fanaticism of his Deep South youth.

Wiley Cash said "As an American writer, it's a shock and a real honor to win an award in a genre with such a proud British tradition."

The Bestseller Dagger was awarded to Kathy Reichs. All five shortlisted authors were also inaugurated into the Crime Thriller Hall of Fame alongside such all-time greats as Colin Dexter, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Kathy Reichs said “Given the extraordinary company in which I find myself nominated for this award, I can't express how shocked and delighted I am.  This is truly an unexpected honor.”

Amanda Ross, creator and executive producer of the Awards, said: “This has been a fantastic year for the genre, and it was great to see so many star authors and actors at the event.”

The cream of acting talent is also recognised at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards with categories for Best UK and International Crime Series, Best Actor, Best Actress in a Crime series and Best Film. The British public also voted for their favourite detective duo by phone vote. Winners are as follows:

Best Detective Duo: 

      Lewis - DI Robbie Lewis & DS James Hathaway

The Film Dagger

      Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Studio Canal)

The TV Dagger

      Sherlock: Series 2 (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The International TV Dagger

      The Bridge (Danmarks Radio, Sveriges Television/BBC4)

The Best Actress Dagger

      Claire Danes for Homeland (Teakwood Lane Productions, Showtime Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Keshet Media Group, Fox 21/Channel 4)

The Best Actor Dagger

      Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The Best Supporting Actress Dagger

      Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO/Sky Atlantic)

The Best Supporting Actor Dagger

      Martin Freeman for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

####

The Winners of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2012 are as follows:

The CWA Gold Dagger – sponsored by Constable & Robinson

      The Rage by Gene Kerrigan (Harvill Secker)

The John Creasey New Blood Dagger – sponsored by Goldsboro Books

      A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (Bantam)

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications

      A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)

The Specsaver’s Bestseller Dagger 2012:

       Kathy Reichs

The Film Dagger

      Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Studio Canal)

The TV Dagger

      Sherlock: Series 2 (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The International TV Dagger

      The Bridge (Danmarks Radio, Sveriges Television/BBC4)

The Best Actress Dagger

      Claire Danes for Homeland (Teakwood Lane Productions, Showtime Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Keshet Media Group, Fox 21/Channel 4)

The Best Actor Dagger

      Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

The Best Supporting Actress Dagger

      Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO/Sky Atlantic)

The Best Supporting Actor Dagger

      Martin Freeman for Sherlock (Hartswood Films/BBC1)

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Media enquiries:

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

Pictures of the awards can be supplied upon request.

Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2012 took place on Thursday, 18^th October at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel and will be televised on ITV3 on the 23^rd October. The 2012 Awards are the fifth annual produced by Cactus TV for ITV3, and the fourth annual sponsored by Specsavers and in conjunction with the Crime Writers' Association.

The vote for the Specsavers Bestseller Dagger is promoted by Agile Marketing and is not endorsed, controlled or associated with ITV or ITV3.

                                                                                                                                                                               

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 an independent production company run by husband and wife team Simon and Amanda Ross. The company have produced over 3000 hours of television. Cactus formatted the Book Awards and brought them to television for the first time in 2004. They devised and ran the Richard & Judy Book Club which grew into 8 successful series of The Specsavers TV Book Club, the longest running ad-funded deal in the TV industry. Cactus’ other productions include Saturday Kitchen for BBC1, Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain for BBC2, The Roux Scholarship and The Roux Legacy, Rachel Allen, Galaxy British Book Awards and 8 years of the Richard & Judy show live from Cactus studios.

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 in store and amongst readers. They also manage the supporting website: www.crimethrillerawards.com

  

Eleanor Riches
Midas Public Relations

10-14 Old Court Place, London W8 4PL
T: 020 7361 7876
midaspr.co.uk | twitter.com/midaspr