Although Crime Fiction Lover has been going for over 10 years, we’ve never given out any awards for the best books and authors in the genre. All of that is about to change. Today we’re announcing the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021.

These awards are different. They’re international, with a very special judging panel. And you’re on it.

That’s right, the winners of our awards are going to be chosen by readers. We’ve spent many long years building up a community of crime fiction lovers around our website and we believe this is the way it should be. As part of our gang, you will play a role in deciding who wins a Crime Fiction Lover Award in 2021.

How it works…

Today, nominations for the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021 have opened and you can make your nominations using our online form. You can nominate across six categories:

Best Crime Novel

Best Debut

Best in Translation

Best Indie Novel

Best Author

Best Crime Show

To qualify for the shortlist, your nomination will need to have been published in English between 1 November 2020 and 31 October 2021. In the Best Author category, the author needs to have published a work of crime fiction during this period. We know it’s difficult to define what an ‘indie’ crime novel is. For this category we’re looking for crime novels published by smaller independent companies with a turnover under £500,000 (US$690,000).

Oh, and you don’t have to nominate in every category. If you have no opinion for some of them, that’s fine, just skip to the next question.

So, it’s time to think back across the past 12 months of crime fiction and tell us about your absolute favourite crime books, author and television show. Will it be some Nordic noir, Scottish crime fiction, a thriller, cosy crime or maybe some trendy Australian crime fiction? You can nominate anything in the crime fiction genre.

What happens next?

Nominations will officially close at noon on 10 November 2021. We’ll then compile the shortlists for each category. Then we will hold a final vote across all six categories. That’s going to be exciting!

As well as a Winner in each category, our team will select an Editor’s Choice award from the shortlist – which may or may not be the same as the book, show or author that receives the most votes.

Boaty McBoatface

Yup, we know what you’re thinking. Open your awards up to the public and you’re liable to end up with a crazy selection of winners that doesn’t reflect the best of the best. Rest assured, we have measures in place to detect and eliminate spam nominations and votes. (We’d ask anyone thinking of doing this to save everyone’s time and not bother.)

We are incredibly excited about these awards – the most important things for us are: one, that they’re driven by our community; and two, that everything is conducted fairly for all involved.

NOTE: Nominations closed at noon on 10 Nov.