Press Release
Hachette UK triple win at the CWA Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 200922/10/2009
John Hart was chosen for the coveted Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year for The Last Child (John Murray), while William Brodrick was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for A Whispered Name (Abacus) and Orion author Harlan Coben won the ITV Bestseller Dagger, voted for by viewers online.
John Hart is the Edgar-Award winning author of two international bestsellers, The King of Lies and Down River. The judges said that The Last Child, his third book, was an accomplished and ambitious piece of southern gothic.
William Brodrick was a Franciscan friar before leaving the order to become a practising barrister and then a writer. In winning the Gold Dagger, he joins a long and illustrious line stretching back to 1955 and The Little Walls by Winston Graham, now best known as the author of the Poldark novels. The judges described A Whispered Name as ‘A moving novel that stretches the parameters of the crime genre, intertwining past and present and throwing light on a neglected aspect of World War One.’
Orion Author Ian Rankin and Little, Brown's Val McDermid were also recognised at the award ceremony, collecting trophies to commemorate their inaguration into the Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame.
The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement.
The evening, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, boasted an array of famous faces from the worlds of screen and books, and was hosted by comedian Alan Davies. The culmination of a six-week season of ITV3 crime and drama programming, the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2009 will be televised on ITV3 on Tuesday, 27th October at 9pm.