Ned Kelly Awards 2025 winners announced

The Australian Crime Writers Association has announced the 2025 Ned Kelly Award winners.

Winning works in each category, chosen from shortlists announced in August, are:

Best crime fiction

• The Creeper (Margaret Hickey, Penguin)

Best true crime writing

• A Thousand Miles from Care (Steve Johnson, HarperCollins)

Best debut crime fiction

• All You Took from Me (Lisa Kenway, Transit Lounge)

Best international crime fiction

• A Case of Matricide (Graeme Macrae Burnet, Text).

The winners were announced via a live-streamed video on the Australian Crime Writers Association website on Thursday, 26 September.

Judges praised Hickey’s The Creeper for ‘its chilling storytelling [and] incredible setting and for seamlessly drawing readers into the dark world of the protagonist’ and Kenway’s novel as an ‘original and fascinating exploration of anaesthesia and memory following the death of a beloved spouse’.

They also called A Thousand Miles from Care ‘a gripping and heartbreaking story’ and A Case of Matricide ‘extremely clever, witty and moving’.

According to organisers, over 180 authors entered the Ned Kelly Awards this year.

Last year’s winners included Darling Girls (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan), The Only Suspect (Louise Candlish, S&S), Crossing the Line (Nick McKenzie, Hachette) and Murder in the Pacific: Ifira Point (Matt Francis, Big Sky).

More information about the awards is available on the Australian Crime Writers Association website.

Category: Awards