Bell Stars

London’s Goldsboro Books is out today with its longlist of nominees for the 2022 Glass Bell Award, a prize “awarded annually to a compelling novel, of any genre—from romance and thrillers, to historical, speculative and literary fiction—with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realized.” Among the nominees are—arguably—three to four books drawn from the crime and mystery fiction category.

• Ariadne, by Jennifer Saint (Wildfire)
• Daughters of Night, by Laura Shepherd Robinson (Mantle)
• Mrs. March, by Virginia Feito (Fourth Estate)
• Sistersong, by Lucy Holland (Macmillan)
• Tall Bones, by Anna Bailey (Transworld)
• The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)
• The Last Thing to Burn, by Will Dean (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Bloomsbury)
• The Prophets, by Robert Jones Jr. (Riverrun)
• The Wolf Den, by Elodie Harper (Head of Zeus)
• Threadneedle, by Cari Thomas (HarperVoyage)
• We Are All Birds of Uganda, by Hafsa Zayyan (Merky)

A Goldsboro Books news release informs us that a shortlist of half a dozen contenders “will be announced on 28th July, with the winner, who will receive both a cash prize, and a beautiful, handmade glass bell, to be announced on 8th September 2022.”

The Glass Bell Award was founded in 2017. Previous winners are Clare Whitfield (People of Abandoned Character), Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones and the Six), Christina Dalcher (Vox), John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furies), and Chris Cleave (Everyone Brave Is Forgiven).