Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Boyle’s Voice Rises Above All

A little over a month after the announcement of finalists for Capital Crime’s 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award, competition organizers bring word that London-based journalist and writer Darren Boyle has secured the accolade with his unpublished thriller, The Black Pool. You can watch the digital declaration of Boyle’s victory here.

As Shotsmag Confidential explains, “Boyle has more than 20 years’ experience working in the national media in Dublin and London. The Black Pool is set in contemporary Dublin and features a journalist protagonist who ventures deep into the murky world of organised ‘tiger raids’ gangs. How much is he willing to risk for the ultimate story?”

“In acknowledgement of the quality of this year’s entries,” the blog adds, “the judges gave two honourable mentions to the shortlisted writers Patti Buff, a native of southern Minnesota who has lived in Germany for the last twenty years (for The Ice Beneath Me), and Casey King, an Irish crime writer from County Cork (for No Time to Cry).” The other seven works contending for this year’s New Voices Award were The Incident at Palmer Road, by Andrea Crossett; Wasteland, by Luke Deckard; Garotte 2, by Mary McQueen; Self Help for Serial Killers: Let Your Creativity Bloom, by Mairi Campbell-Jack; Five by Five, by Claire Wilson; How Like Wolves, by Andrew Fadairo; and The Venom of the Snake, by M.Z. Turner.

As this year’s top vote-getter, Boyle will receive £1,000 in prize dough, plus a trophy and a “potential offer” of publication (apparently no promises are being made) from Thomas & Mercer, Amazon Publishing’s imprint for mysteries and thrillers.

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