2012 Davitt Awards shortlists announced

8 August 2012 Books+Publishing

The shortlists for this year’s Davitt Awards, presented by Sisters in Crime for crime books written by Australian women, have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each of the categories are:

Adult fiction

Beyond Fear (Jaye Ford, Bantam)
A Decline in Prophets (Sulari Gentill, Pantera Press)
Death and the Spanish Lady (Carolyn Morwood, Pulp Fiction Press)
Love, Honour and O’Brien (Jennifer Rowe, A&U)
The Courier’s New Bicycle (Kim Westwood, HarperVoyager)
Shattered Sky (Helene Young, Hachette)

True crime

The Australian Book of Family Murders (Wendy Lewis, Pier 9)
Cold Case Files: Past Crimes Solved by New Forensic Science (Liz Porter, Macmillan)

Children’s and young adult fiction

The Golden Day (Ursula Dubosarsky, A&U)
Dangerously Placed (Nansi Kunze, Random House)
Surface Tension (Meg McKinlay, Walker Books).

The shortlisted books in each of the categories will also be eligible for the Reader’s Choice Award, and debut books will be considered for a new award for best debut, presented for the first time this year.

Judging organiser Tanya King-Carmichael said there was a notable increase in the number of titles submitted in the children’s and young adult category this year. ‘The strength of children’s and young adult crime fiction is reflected not just in the numbers of books being published but in the quality of the writing which grows more compelling and more imaginative each year,’ she said.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced on 1 September in Melbourne. More information about the Davitt Awards can be found on the Sisters in Crime website here.

Category: Local news