Dead Good Hooks Some Live Ones

This evening, during the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival being held in Harrogate, England, half a dozen authors and their novels beat out some powerful competitors to capture the first-ever Dead Good Reader Awards. Here are the winners.

The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book: The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Transworld)

Also nominated: I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Transworld); The Defence, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion); I Let You Go, by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere); The Lie, by C.L. Taylor (Avon); and No Other Darkness, by Sarah Hilary (Headline)

The Lee Child Award for Best Loner or Detective:
Vera Stanhope, created by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan)

Also nominated: Cormoran Strike, created by Robert Galbraith (Little, Brown); John Rebus, created by Ian Rankin (Orion); Harry Hole, created by Jo Nesbø (Vintage); Lacey Flint, created by Sharon Bolton (Transworld); and David Raker, created by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph)

The Val McDermid Award for Fiendish Forensics:
Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Sphere)

Also nominated: Bones Are Forever, by Kathy Reichs (Cornerstone); Die Again, by Tess Gerritsen (Transworld); The Ghost Fields, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus); Flesh and Blood, by Patricia Cornwell (Harper); and Rubbernecker, by Belinda Bauer (Transworld)

The Reichenbach Falls Award for Most Epic Ending:
The Skeleton Road, by Val McDermid (Sphere)

Also nominated: The Defence, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion); The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Transworld); The Nightmare Place, by Steve Mosby (Orion); I Let You Go, by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere); and Personal, by Lee Child (Transworld)

The Dr. Lecter Award for Scariest Villain:
You Are Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)

Also nominated: The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes (Harper); Into the Darkest Corner, by Elizabeth Haynes (Myriad); An Evil Mind, by Chris Carter (Simon & Schuster); The Stand, by Stephen King (Hodder); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Quercus)

The Patricia Highsmith Award for Most Exotic Location:
Amsterdam, The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die, by Marnie Riches (Maze)

Also nominated: Bardsey Island, The Bones Beneath, by Mark Billingham (Sphere); Boston, The Kind Worth Killing, by Peter Swanson (Faber); Greece, The Long Fall, by Julia Crouch (Headline); Nepal, The Lie, by C.L. Taylor (Avon); and Oslo, Police, by Jo Nesbø (Vintage)

Those commendations were presented by the UK crime fiction-oriented Web site Dead Good. Winners were chosen through online polling as well as by a vote among attendees at the Harrogate festival.

Congratulations to all of the winners and runners-up!