Embargoed to 10pm, Friday August 21, 2009 Media Release: ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF 9th DAVITT AWARDS
This year 39 crime books competed for the Davitt Awards which were set up by Sisters in Crime in 2001 to celebrate the achievements of Australian women crime writers. Justice Betty King presented the awards to a crowd of 140 at the Celtic Club. For the third year running, the awards were sponsored by the Victoria Police Museum.
A Beautiful Place To Die (PanMacmillan), the debut novel by Sydney-based filmmaker turned crime writer, Malla Nunn, tonight won Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards for the best (adult) crime novel by an Australian woman in 2008.
Blue Mountains writer Catherine Jinks took out the Davitt (young adult) for Genius Squad (Allen & Unwin)
Melbourne’s Chloe Hooper won the Davitt (true crime) for much-awarded The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (Penguin Books Australia).
The Davitt Reader’s Choice (as voted by the
members of Sisters in Crime) went to last year’s Davitt (Adult Fiction) winner, Gold Coast writer Katherine Howell, for her second novel, The Darkest Hour. The judging panel comprised Dr Shelley Robertson (Sisters in Crime member, forensic pathologist), Rosi Tovey (former owner of Chronicles Bookshop in St Kilda), Dr Sue Turnbull (Head of Media Studies, La Trobe University, Sisters in Crime national co-convenor and Sydney Morning Herald crime columnist), Sylvia Loader (Sisters in Crime national co-convenor, and reviewer) Tanya King (reviewer and former Sisters in Crime national co-convenor).
The awards are named after Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) who wrote Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865.
For a complete list of nominations see the Sisters in Crime website.
Well done Chloe Hooper.I thought The Tall Man was a fantastic book. well researched and written.
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