Love It and List It

The UK Web site Crime Fiction Lover announced back in October that it would begin conducting its first-ever competition for what it was calling, of course, the Crime Fiction Lover Awards. The reading public was invited to vote for their favorites in each category, and CFL editors reserved the right to name their own picks—which in each and every case, turned out to differ from the popular consensus.

The winners were announced earlier today.

Best Crime Novel: The Night Hawks, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)

Also nominated: The Dark Remains, by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin (Canongate); Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Headline); The Devil’s Advocate, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion); I Know What I Saw, by Imran Mahmood (Bloomsbury); True Crime Story, by Joseph Knox (Transworld); and 1979, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)

Best Novel Editor’s Choice: Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)

Best Debut Crime Novel: The Source, by Sarah Sultoon (Orenda)

Also nominated: Black Drop, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper); Edge of the Grave, by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan); The Waiter, by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker); Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Simon & Schuster); and Burying the Newspaper Man, by Curtis Ippolito (Red Dog Press)

Best Debut Editor’s Choice: Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Simon & Schuster)

Best Crime Novel in Translation: The Girl Who Died, by Ragnar Jónasson, translated by Victoria Cribb (Michael Joseph)

Also nominated: Hotel Cartagena, by Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda); Bullet Train, by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa (Harvill Secker); The Rabbit Factor, by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston (Orenda); Riccardino, by Andrea Camilleri, translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Mantle); Cold As Hell, by Lilja Sigurdardóttir, translated by Quentin Bates (Orenda); and Little Rebel, by Jérôme Leroy, translated by Graham H. Roberts (Corylus)

Best in Translation Editor’s Choice: Riccardino, by Andrea Camilleri, translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Mantle)

Best Indie Crime Novel: The Strangers of Braamfontein, by Onyeka Nwelue (Abibiman)

Also nominated: Black Reed Bay, by Rod Reynolds (Orenda); Evaders, by E.C. Scullion (RedDoor Press); Little Lies, by Valerie Keogh (Bloodhound); The Butcher’s Prayer, by Anthony Neil Smith (Fahrenheit 13); The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave (Orenda); and The Corpse with the Iron Will, by Cathy Ace (Four Tails)

Best Indie Novel Editor’s Choice: The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave (Orenda)

Best Crime Show: Line of Duty

Also nominated: Bosch, Mare of Easttown, Paris Police 1900, Time, and Endeavour

Best Crime Show Editor’s Choice: Mare of Easttown

Best Author: Elly Griffiths

Also nominated: Ian Rankin, M.W. Craven, Ann Cleeves, William Shaw, and S.A. Cosby

Best Author Editor’s Choice: Ian Rankin

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees! Crime Fiction Lover has already declared that this contest for commendations will return in 2022, and it is soliciting sponsors for that event.