“Chain” Scores, Davitts Delivered

Belfast-born author Adrian McKinty’s most recently published work, The Chain (Orion), has been named as Britain’s 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. That announcement came during a “virtual awards ceremony on what would have been the opening night of Harrogate’s legendary Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival,” reports the blog Fictionophile. This year’s festival was cancelled in April due to the continuing COVID-19 crisis.

As Fictionophile explains, The Chain “sees parents forced to abduct children to save the lives of their own.” That book recently won the 2020 Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel and is vying for Best Mystery Novel honors in the Macavity Awards competition.

The Chain was among half a dozen nominees for Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Also in the running were My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic); Worst Case Scenario, by Helen Fitzgerald (Orenda); The Lost Man, by Jane Harper (Little, Brown); Joe Country, by Mick Herron (John Murray); and Smoke and Ashes, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker).

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

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Also new is the shortlist of candidates for Sisters in Crime Australia’s 20th Davitt Awards. There are multiple categories of prizes here, among them these Adult Crime Novel contenders:

• Bruny, by Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin)
• Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley (Affirm Press)
• Life Before, by Carmel Reilly (Allen & Unwin)
• Present Tense, by Natalie Conyer (Clan Destine Press)
• The Scholar, by Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Australia)
• Six Minutes, by Petronella McGovern (Allen & Unwin)
• The Trespassers, by Meg Mundell (University of Queensland Press)

The complete list of nominees is here. The Davitt Awards are named for Ellen Davitt (1812-1879), Australia’s first crime novelist.

As In Reference for Murder explains, “The winners in the six categories of adult novel, YA novel, children’s novel, non-fiction book, debut, and Readers’ Choice awards will be announced at a September awards ceremony live on Zoom.”