AN POST IRISH CRIME NOVEL of the YEAR 2021 Nominations are revealed!!!

   The much-anticipated nominations for AN POST IRISH CRIME NOVEL of the YEAR 2021 have been revealed!!

And it's an abolute cracker of list, but...

WHO WILL WIN THE COVETED TITLE??

 

 

IN AUTHOR ALPHABETICAL ORDER, THE NOMINATIONS ARE....

 

April in Spain by John Banville

John Banville previously published his crime novels under the pseudonym name Benjamin Black, and April in Spain sees a change of direction in this. Banville is well known for his series of crime novels based on the 1950’s pathologist Quirke, which were also adapted for T.V., starring Gabriel Byrne.

April in Spain is set on the idyllic coast of San Sebastian, where pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax - despite the beautiful beaches, cafes, and the company of his wife. When he glimpses a familiar face, April Latimer, at a bar, at first it’s hard for him to know whether his imagination is running away with him, because April was murdered years before. The Irish Independent who sponsors the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award, describes the novel as “a slow-burning mystery, a love story and a study of the corruption and power of the Irish political elite – quite a lot to pack into one crime novel. Banville has achieved it with grace and poise.”

 

The Dark Room by Sam Blake

Sam Blake is the pseudonym for Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, founder of the writers’ resource website, Writing.ie, as well as The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy, and is the tour-de- force behind Murder One, Ireland’s premium crime-writing festival. She is also a board member of the Society of Authors, fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, past chair of Irish PEN and convenor of the Irish Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Sam Blake has achieved enormous success with her Garda Detective Cat Connolly series and two other standalone mysteries, becoming a Number One bestseller in Ireland. In The Dark Room we follow Rachel Lambert, from London, and Caroline Kelly, from New York, to Hare’s Landing in West Cork. The two women have their own reasons for coming to this remote spot but must join forces in their investigations to uncover the truth about a 30-year-old missing person’s case. The Irish Independent says of The Dark Room, “a book which delivers a well-paced and layered plot that cleverly combines cold cases with present day drama, resulting in and intriguing read with plenty of twists and turns…Blake has a wonderful gift for description, ensuring the reader can picture every scene…”

 

The Killing Kind by Jane Casey

Jane Casey has been nominated several times for the Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award, winning the award in both 2015 and 2019. Well known for her fantastic London-based Maeve Kerrigan series of police procedurals, in 2015, she won the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award at the Edgars for her novel The Stranger You Know. A graduate of Oxford she also has received a M. Phil from Trinity College, Dublin. 

In The Killing Kind, a standalone novel, lawyer Ingrid finds her life under threat and needs to call on the help of the person who had previously stalked her. The Irish Independent review describes The Killing Kind as “that just-right blend of serpentine plot, believable characters and a hero we want to root for, plus a thriller tension that’s ratcheted so tightly at times, you almost need to put the book aside and take a breather.”

Could this be Jane’s third time as a winner?

 

The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh

Steve Cavanagh was nominated for Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year in 2019 for Twisted, and last year, 2020, for Fifty-Fifty. In The Devil’s Advocate, he continues his popular Eddie Flynn series, sending Eddie into America’s Deep South. Steve has achieved great success with his novels, becoming an International Award-Winning & Bestselling Author. His debut novel, The Defense, was nominated for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Thriller of the Year, and The Plea won the Prix Polar Award for Best International Novel.

Steve is a practicing lawyer and co-hosts the chart-topping podcast Two Crime Writers And A Microphone. The Irish Independent review of The Devil’s Advocate says, “Cavanagh has outdone himself with The Devil’s Advocate. Intense and intoxicating, it gets to the heart of a remote town, rife with racism and corruption. The compelling plot is expertly crafted with plenty of unexpected twists, while the evocative writing places the reader right in the middle

 

All Her Fault by Andrea Mara

Andrea’s debut novel, The Other Side of the Wall, was an instant hit with readers, followed by One Click, which was shortlisted for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year in 2018. This is Andrea Mara’s second time in contention for the award.

All Her Fault takes place in a quiet Dublin suburb, as Marissa Irvine goes to pick up son Milo from a play date with a boy at his new school, but the woman who answers the door isn't a mother she recognises. She isn't the nanny. She doesn't have Milo. And so begins every parent's worst nightmare.

In the Irish Independent’s review of All Her Fault, it says, “If you’re a parent, there’s no way to read the opening chapter of All Her Fault without thinking ‘That could be me!’. In a few short pages Andrea Mara manages to take the soothingly – boringly! – normal and turn it into something terrifying. In just a few lines she dismantles the web of trust, the assumption of security, that surrounds so much of what we do with our children and shows how very fragile both those things are. The result is a story that is chilling and compelling.”

 

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

Catherine Ryan Howard has previously been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year three times, initially for Distress Signals, then Rewind, which is being currently being developed for television, and in 2020, for The Nothing Man. Her second novel, The Liar’s Girl, was also a finalist for the prestigious 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel, and she has also been shortlisted for the John Creasey Blood Dagger Award, as well as being included in the Guardian’s list of 50 Great Thrillers by Women Written Since 1945.

56 Days will be her fourth nomination for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. The Irish Independent describes 56 Days as “a tricky, brilliantly entertaining — and very timely — thriller about Oliver and Ciara, who meet and hit it off just days before the first Covid lockdown was announced in March 2020. They decide to see out the curfew in the throes of a passionate affair — but one, or both, of them is hiding some very dark secrets…”

 

YOU CAN VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE NOVEL  HERE