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.
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)
