November Road
Lou Berney
Harper Fiction
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
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
Corinne Turner
Corinne has managed and helped develop authors’ literary estates for nearly 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
is a Kent-based podiatrist with a keen interest in crime fiction. Myles is sometime book reviewer and co-founder of CrimeFest, the crime writing convention held in Bristol.
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. Whilst her day job involved numbers and systems her first love has always been reading.
Zoe Aquilina
Zoe began her career in the book trade as a bookseller before working for many years in the field of intellectual property and literary estate management. More recently, she worked for a leading literary agency before taking on the varied challenges of parenthood! Zoe now works as a freelance intellectual property consultant and editor.
Marek Pruszewicz
Marek is on the board of Ian Fleming Publications. He was a senior editor in BBC News for nearly 20 years and a writer of history features for its website. He’s now director of communications for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, a global NGO.
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 |
Last Year's Winner
To The Lions
Holly Watt
Raven Books
A deeply uncomfortable read which lingers long in the memory, this tautly plotted and timely thriller shines a light on the role of the journalist as witness or protagonist and asks devastating questions about the value of human life before culminating in a life-or-death chase through the desert to Libya. This is a highly accomplished debut that marks Watt out as a fresh and important voice.
