Action! Suspense! Danger! Prizes!

This evening’s concluding banquet at ThrillerFest XVIII in New York City brought an announcement of which books and authors have won the 2023 Thriller Awards, in seven categories.

Best Hardcover Novel: Sundial, by Catriona Ward (Macmillan)

Also nominated: The Violence, by Delilah S. Dawson (Del Rey); Things We Do in the Dark, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur); The Fervor, by Alma Katsu (Putnam); The Children on the Hill, by Jennifer McMahon (Simon & Schuster); and Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone (MCD)

Best Audiobook: Things We Do in the Dark, by Jennifer Hillier; narrated by Carla Vega (Macmillan Audio)

Also nominated: Young Rich Widows, by Kimberly Belle, Fargo Layne, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie; narrated by Dina Pearlman, Karissa Vacker, Helen Laser, and Ariel Blake (Audible); The Lies I Tell, by Julie Clark; narrated by Anna Caputo and Amanda Dolan (Audible); The Photo Thief, by J.L. Delozier; narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs and Jeffrey Kafer (CamCat); and The Silent Woman, by Minka Kent; narrated by Christine Lakin and Kate Rudd (Blackstone)

Best First Novel: The Resemblance, by Lauren Nossett (Flatiron)

Also nominated: Blood Sugar, by Sascha Rothchild (Putnam); Dirt Creek (aka Dirt Town), by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron); A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur); and The Fields, by Erin Young (Flatiron)

Best Paperback Original Novel: The Housemaid, by Freida
McFadden (Grand Central)

Also nominated: The Lies I Told, by Mary Burton (Montlake); No Place to Run, by Mark Edwards (Thomas & Mercer); Unmissing, by Minka Kent (Thomas & Mercer); Anywhere You Run, by Wanda Morris (Morrow); The Couple Upstairs, by Holly Wainwright (Pan Macmillan); and The Patient’s Secret, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)

Best Short Story: “Stockholm,” by Catherine Steadman
(Amazon Original Stories)

Also nominated: “Russian for Beginners,” by Dominique Bibeau (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], March/April 2022); “The Gift,” by Barb Goffman (from Land of 10,000 Thrills, edited by Greg Herren; Down & Out); “Publish or Perish,” by Smita Harish Jain (EQMM, September/October 2022); “33 Clues Into the Disappearance of My Sister,” by Joyce Carol Oates (EQMM, March/April 2022); and “Schrödinger, Cat,” by Anna Scotti (EQMM, March/April 2022)

Best Young Adult Novel: Daughter, by Kate McLaughlin (Wednesday)

Also nominated: Our Crooked Hearts, by Melissa Albert (Flatiron); Sugaring Off, by Gillian French (Algonquin Young Readers); What’s Coming to Me, by Francesca Padilla (Soho Teen); and I’m the Girl, by Courtney Summers (Wednesday)

Best E-Book Original Novel: The Couple at Causeway Cottage, by Diane Jeffrey (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: Evasive Species, by Bill Byrnes (Self-published); The Seven Truths of Hannah Baxter, by Grant McKenzie (Self-published); The Hollow Place, by Rick Mofina (Self-published); and Fatal Rounds, by Carrie Rubin (Self-published)

Congratulations to all of this year’s prize contenders!

In addition, Charlaine Harris and Walter Mosley were presented with 2023 ThrillerMaster Lifetime Achievement Awards. Michael Connelly was given the annual Silver Bullet Award. And Minotaur Books was named as the winner of the 2023 Thriller Legend Award.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)