Crime Fiction Lover readers are discerning people, and they nominated a whole range of authors for this award. Our shortlist brings it down to six who have published excellent novels in 2024. Each is worthy of the Best Crime Author accolade in our 2024 awards, but it’s now up to you to decide who it will be. Below, we bring you a little more information on each writer and what they achieved this year.
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Tana French
This Irish author has been a favourite since 2007, when her debut, In the Woods, picked up the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry awards for best first novel. Her Dublin Murders sextet have been highly acclaimed, and in 2024 she brought us The Hunter, in which two strangers arrive in a small village during a boiling hot summer. Both hope to make it rich, but soon one will be dead. A retired Chicago detective, Cal Hooper, has come to a little corner of West Ireland for the quiet life. He’s forged a relationship with local woman, Lena, and looks out for a rudderless young tearaway, Trey. When Trey’s father turns up with an Englishman with a get rich quick plan, village life is turned upside down. Cal and Lena try to maintain the peace; Trey doesn’t play along. The vivid setting, authentic dialogue and gripping storytelling make for a top read.
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Ian Rankin
A few years ago Sir Ian James Rankin OBE found himself faced with a similar dilemma as fellow Scot Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had with Sherlock Holmes. How do you retire one of Britain’s best loved fictional detectives? Fortunately John Rebus got a reprieve and Edinburgh’s finest survived retirement and has been recalled to duty as a private investigator, of sorts. In Midnight and Blue, the 25th novel in the series, fans find Rebus in prison. When a murder is committed in the jail, all the inmates and guards are suspects and Rebus can’t resist investigating. Here, Ian Rankin has upped the stakes for his antihero detective. 2024 has also seen Rebus appear in stage play, A Game Called Malice, and in a new television adaptation carried on the BBC.
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Attica Locke
This year the American author and television writer Attica Locke completed her powerful and popular Highway 59 trilogy with Guide Me Home, which follows on from Bluebird, Bluebird and Follow Me Home. Texas Ranger Darren Mathews has handed in his badge, which means he may avoid trial for past crimes. His mother, a destructive force in his life, is the cause of his downfall. Now she wants him to investigate the disappearance of a black girl at an all-white sorority at a nearby college. Her sorority sisters, the campus police, even the girl’s family, deny she has disappeared, but Sera Fuller is nowhere to be found. A bloodstained shirt discovered in a woodland clearing may be the last trace of her. A reckoning with his past may finally show Darren the future he can build. With a Southern gothic feel, Locke’s writing is steeped in noir while at the same time reflecting the African American experience. A fantastic conclusion to the series.
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Ace Atkins
American author Ace Atkins has been writing mysteries and thriller since the 1990s, including the Nick Travers and Quinn Colson series, and also spent 10 years continuing Robert B Parker’s Spenser books. In 2024, he produced what is arguably his best novel in Don’t Let the Devil Ride. Addison McKellar and her husband Dean have a rocky marriage, but then he vanishes. Addison is angry with Dean but, as time goes on and everyone stonewalls her, she begins to worry what’s behind it. The police dismiss her concerns so Addison turns to Memphis PI Porter Hayes. Porter and Addison dig into Dean’s affairs and discover that he was never the business owner and family man he pretended to be. Dean was deeply enmeshed in a high-stakes web of international intrigue, and others are searching for him too. This is witty Southern noir packed with action; a proper page turner.
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Janice Hallett
This popular British author gets better with each book – intelligent contemporary mysteries that take an epistolary format, combining letters, records, emails, text notes, podcast transcripts and more, delighting readers with whodunnit puzzles packed with charm. As in The Appeal, The Twyford Code and The Alperton Angels, her 2024 standalone novel The Examiner revels in guessing games as readers get to figure out the mystery for themselves. The mature students of Royal Hastings University’s new art course are a strange bunch. Overqualified artist Alyson, clueless Patrick, city boy Cameron bluffing it and sculptor Jem, who is gifted but spiky. The course is blighted by ‘accidents’ and rivalries. Everything culminates with a final collaborative assignment – but can they actually work together? The external examiner is convinced one of the students has been killed but no one is admitting anything. Another distinctive book from a great author.
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Abir Mukherjee
Scottish author Abir Mukherjee made his name with the Wyndham and Banerjee books, set in early 20th century India, when the country was under British rule. In 2024, he changed direction and penned a wonderful action thriller. Hunted is a fast-paced contemporary novel that opens with the bombing of an LA shopping mall in the run-up to a presidential election. Meanwhile, at Heathrow airport in London, Sajid Khan is arrested and told that his daughter together with an American ex-serviceman are wanted terrorists. The FBI agent tracking the suspects begins to realise there’s more behind this story. It’s twisty, high-octane stuff that also takes a deep dive into race and identity, and echoes of recent events in America add to the zeitgeist of the novel. This bold new venture has paid off – Hunted has been well received, bringing Mukherjee to a new audience. You’ll love it.
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To see all six shortlists for our awards, and to link through to the voting form, click here.
