November Road
Lou Berney
Harper Fiction
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
This Year's Winner
November Road
Lou Berney
Harper Fiction
Weaving together a love story and a chase thriller set against the backdrop of JFK’s assassination, Lou Berney’s sparse prose creates an atmosphere of jeopardy and terror interwoven with great tenderness and beauty. The period setting is skilfully realised, and the sense of dread laced through the story builds to an overwhelming conclusion.
Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller, ‘one simply has to turn the pages’. Eligible books in this category are thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction, psychological thrillers and action/adventure stories.
Shortlist
This is Gomorrah
Tom Chatfield
Hodder & Stoughton
One Way Out
AA Dhand
Bantam Press
Between Two Evils
Eva Dolan
Raven Books
Cold Storage
David Koepp
HQ
The Whisper Man
Alex North
Michael Joseph
The Judges 2021
Corinne Turner (Chair)
Corinne has managed and helped develop authors’ literary estates for around 30 years. She is Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd and also owns and manages the literary estate of children’s author, Willard Price.
David Headley
David Headley is the managing director of Goldsboro Books, a much admired, leading independent bookseller, based in central London. He is also the managing director of the D H H Literary Agency.
Myles Allfrey
Myles Allfrey is a Kent-based podiatrist with a keen interest in crime fiction. Myles is a sometime book reviewer and co-founder of CrimeFest, the crime-writing convention held in Bristol.
Thanhmai Bui-Van
Thanhmai has been a bookseller, book buyer and now works in sales at Titan Books. Crime fiction has been a constant in her book career and she says, ‘over the years it’s been a pleasure discovering new authors.’
Karen Blewett
Karen worked in the publishing industry for over 20 years, in a variety of senior financial and commercial roles for Dorling Kindersley and Little, Brown. While her day job involved numbers and systems, her first love has always been reading.
Tom Fleming
Tom Fleming is the longstanding deputy editor of Literary Review. He also writes for The Spectator, The TLS and Apollo, among other publications.
2020 Shortlist
Title | Author | Publisher |
November Road | Lou Berney | Harper Fiction |
This is Gomorrah | Tom Chatfield | Hodder & Stoughton |
One Way Out | AA Dhand | Bantam Press |
Between Two Evils | Eva Dolan | Raven Books |
Cold Storage | David Koepp | HQ |
The Whisper Man | Alex North | Michael Joseph |
2020 Longlist
Title | Author | Publisher |
A Shadow Intelligence | Oliver Harris | Little, Brown |
Between Two Evils | Eva Dolan | Raven Books |
Cemetery Road | Greg Iles | Harper Fiction |
Cold Storage | David Koepp | HQ |
Keep You Close | Karen Cleveland | Bantam Press |
November Road | Lou Berney | Harper Fiction |
One Way Out | AA Dhand | Bantam Press |
Perfect Kill | Helen Fields | Avon |
The Chain | Adrian McKinty | Orion Fiction |
The King’s Evil | Andrew Taylor | Harper Fiction |
The River | Peter Heller | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
The Whisper Man | Alex North | Michael Joseph |
This is Gomorrah | Tom Chatfield | Hodder & Stoughton |