From Davitts to Dead Goods

Sisters in Crime Australia has announced its shortlist of contenders for the 2022 Davitt Awards, which are meant to celebrate “the best crime and mystery books by Australian women.” There are six Davitt categories in all, but below I have listed nominees in the two classifications that may be of greatest interest to Rap Sheet readers.

Adult Crime Novels:
• Unforgiven, by Sarah Barrie (HQ Fiction)
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
• You Had It Coming, by B.M. Carroll (Profile)
• All That I Remember About Dean Cola, by Tania Chandler (Scribe)
• Bodies of Light, by Jennifer Down (Text)
• Shelter, by Catherine Jinks (Text)
• The Beautiful Words, by Vanessa McCausland (HarperCollins)
• Once There Were Wolves, by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Random House)
• The Family Doctor, by Debra Oswald (Allen & Unwin)
• The Second Son, by Loraine Peck (Text)
• The Silent Listener, by Lyn Yeowart (Viking)

Debut Crime Books:
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
• Shadow Over Edmund Street, by Suzanne Frankham (Journey to Words)
• Larrimah: A Missing Man, an Eyeless Croc and an Outback Town of 11 People Who Mostly Hate Each Other, by Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson (Allen & Unwin)
• The Waterhole, by Lily Malone (Lily Malone)
• Unsheltered, by Clare Moleta (Simon & Schuster)
• The Family Doctor, by Debra Oswald (Allen & Unwin)
• The Second Son, by Loraine Peck (Text)
• Shiver, by Allie Reynolds (Hachette)
• Crime Writer, by Dime Sheppard (Ruby)
• House of Hollow, by Krystal Sutherland (Penguin Random House)
• The Silent Listener, by Lyn Yeowart (Viking)

The Davitt Awards are named for Ellen Davitt (1812-1879), the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud (1865). This year’s prize winners will be declared on Saturday, August 27, during a ceremony in Melbourne, Victoria.

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)

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In addition, the British crime-fiction Web site Dead Good released, during the recent Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival held in Harrogate, England, the recipients of its 2022 Dead Good Reader Awards. Again, there were half a dozen divisions of candidates vying for these honors, but I shall list just a couple of them here.

The Something in the Air Award for Most Atmospheric Novel: I Know What You’ve Done, by Dorothy Koomson (Headline Review)

Also nominated: Bamburgh, by L.J. Ross (Dark Skies); Breathless, by Amy McCulloch (Michael Joseph); No Honour, by Awais Khan (Orenda); The Shadows of Men, by Abir Mukherjee (‎Harvill Secker); and The Shape of Darkness, by Laura Purcell (Raven)

The Love Is Blind Award for Most Twisted Couple: The Couple at No. 9, by Claire Douglas (Penguin)

Also nominated: The Golden Couple, by Greer Hendricks and
Sarah Pekkanen (Macmillan); Into the Dark, by Fiona Cummins (Macmillan); Lie Beside Me, by Gytha Lodge (Michael Joseph); Nasty Little Cuts, by Tina Baker (Viper); and Nobody But Us, by Laure van Rensburg (Michael Joseph)

Look here for all of this year’s Dead Good Reader Award victors.