Best in Class at Harrogate

Following on yesterday’s pronouncement—also from Britain’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival—that Chris Brookmyre’s Black Widow has been honored with the 2017 Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award comes word of this year’s half-dozen Dead Good Reader Award recipients. It seems there’s often better early publicity surrounding the multi-stage process involved in selecting the conferees of these commendations sponsored by the UK-based crime-fiction Web site Dead Good. But this time around the results seemed to come pretty much out of the blue. The announcement of winners was made earlier today in Harrogate, England.

The Kathy Reichs Award for Fearless Female Character:
Helen Grace, created by M.J. Arlidge

Also nominated: Lori Anderson, created by Steph Broadribb; Erika Foster, created by Robert Bryndza; Ruth Galloway, created by Elly Griffiths; Isabella Rose, created by Mark Dawson; and Jane Rizzoli, created by Tess Gerritsen

The Case Closed Award for Best Police Procedural:
The Wrong Side of Goodbye, by Michael Connelly (Orion)

Also nominated: Let the Dead Speak, by Jane Casey (Minotaur); Love You Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan); Rather Be the Devil, by Ian Rankin (Orion); The Taken, by Alice Clark-Platts (Penguin); and Written in Bones, by James Oswald (Michael Joseph)

The Hidden Depths Award for Most Unreliable Narrator:
The Escape, by C.L. Taylor (Avon)

Also nominated: Behind Her Eyes, by Sarah Pinborough (HarperCollins); Good Me Bad Me, by Ali Land (Michael Joseph); My Husband’s Wife, by Jane Corry (Penguin); My Sister’s Bones, by Nuala Ellwood (Penguin); and Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney (HQ)

The Page to Screen Award for Best Adapted Book:
Never Go Back, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)

Also nominated: Apple Tree Yard, by Louise Doughty (Sarah Crichton); Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty (Amy Einhorn); The Black Echo, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Black Swan); and The Night Manager, by John
le Carré (Knopf)

The Cat Amongst the Pigeons Award for Most Exceptional Debut:
Baby Doll, by Hollie Overton (Century)

Also nominated: A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker); Deep Down Dead, by Steph Broadribb (Orenda); The Dry, by Jane Harper (Little, Brown); Rattle, by Fiona Cummins (Macmillan); and Sirens, by Joseph Knox (Doubleday)

Congratulations to all of this year’s contenders!

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)