Up with Women Down Under

The organization Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the shortlist of nominees for its 2014 Davitt Awards. These prizes are named for Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud (1865), and are meant to honor the best in Down Under crime/mystery fiction by women. The nominees are:

Best Adult Novel:
• Dark Horse, by Honey Brown (Penguin Books Australia)
• Nefarious Doings, by Ilsa Evans (Momentum Press)
• A Bitter Taste, by Annie Hauxwell (Penguin Books Australia)
• Web of Deceit, by Katherine Howell (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent (Picador Books)
• The Dying Beach, by Angela Savage (Text)

Best Young Adult Novel:
• The Midnight Dress, by Karen Foxlee (UQP)
• Girl Defective, by Simmone Howell (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Cry Blue Murder, by Kim Kane and Marion Roberts (UQP)
• Every Breath, by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)
• A Ring Through Time, by Felicity Pulman (Harper Collins)

Best Children’s Novel:
• The Perplexing Pineapple: The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta), Book 1, by Ursula Dubosarsky (Allen & Unwin)
• The Looming Lamplight: The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta), Book 2, by Ursula Dubosarsky (Allen & Unwin)
• Verity Sparks: Lost and Found, by Susan Green (Walker Books)
• Truly Tan: Jinxed!, by Jen Storer (Harper Collins)
• Truly Tan: Spooked!, by Jen Storer (Harper Collins)

Best True Crime Book:
• Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport, by Anna Krien (Black Inc)
• Deadly Australian Women, by Kay Saunders (ABC Books)

Best Debut Book (any category):
• A Trifle Dead, by Livia Day (Twelfth Planet Press)
• The Midnight Dress, by Karen Foxlee (UQP)
• Girl Defective, by Simmone Howell (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent (Picador Books)
• Every Breath, by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)

In addition, 660 members of Sisters in Crime Australia will cast votes for their Readers’ Choice award recipient of the year.

The winners in all six categories will be declared during a “gala dinner” on Saturday, August 30, by South African crime writer Lauren Beukes.

(Hat tip to Crime Watch.)