The horns have sounded from the citadel. The champions have been declared. Scroll down to discover the winners of the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2024.

But how did we get here? Well, our awards are driven by readers of crime fiction. We opened nominations across our six categories on 16 October, and thousands were received up to 6 November. Then we removed all the spam and released our shortlists on 11 November, with readers voting to choose the winners. Voting closed on 4 December and here we are. For each category, our editors have selected an Editor’s Choice award from the shortlisted books as well.

We’d like to thank all the readers who participated, everyone who helped spread the word, all the creative people out there in the publishing industry, and the advertisers who support our site and make it happen.

Finally, huge CONGRATULATIONS to the winners!

Book of the Year Winner: Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin

Sometimes, you’ve got to know when to quit. And sometimes, you’ve got to know when not to quit. Edinburgh author Ian Rankin had been in two minds about bringing his aging ex-detective back into the fray, but a new Rebus story was there and it had to be told. Rebus has always been a risk-taker and his transgressions have finally caught up with him – with Rankin making a genius move by putting his protagonist in prison, rubbing shoulders with the men he put away. It’s a violent place. A murder takes place. And, well, once a detective, always a detective; Rebus starts investigating. When we reviewed Midnight and Blue it received five stars, and Crime Fiction Lover readers agreed, voting it our Book of the Year. You’ve read it, right? If not, grab a copy here tout de suite.

Book of the Year Editor’s Choice: Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

Texan author Attica Locke brought her Highway 59 series to an end in powerful fashion. A little bit like Rebus, Darren Mathews is no longer a practicing investigator. Disillusioned, he’s left the Texas Rangers, but when a case comes along, he can’t leave it alone. It’s his mother who brings it to him – and, whoa, are there issues there as well. But who else will find justice for Sera Fuller, a college student and sorority member who made a complaint against her housemates and has now gone missing? Beneath the surface of this Texas town, there’s an undercurrent of corruption that runs from the political to the criminal, and plenty of America’s current troubles concerning race and inequality come to the fore. Congratulations, Attica Locke, on winning our Editor’s Choice award. Read the full review here and/or order a copy here.

Best Debut Winner: The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

Debut crime author Jennie Godfrey was a child growing up in West Yorkshire when the Yorkshire Ripper was at large. She and the other kids were frightened by their elders, who literally warned them to be careful or the Ripper would get them. And, more than that, her father worked in the same depot as Peter Sutcliffe, unaware of the man’s crimes. This background knowledge brings total authenticity to Godfrey’s first novel – the tale of Miv and Sharon, pre-teen girls who try to solve the mystery of the disappearing women. They start by listing the suspicious things about the people down their road, and in their community… You can just imagine the secrets they uncover. Voted winner of our Best Debut Novel Award for 2024 – The List Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey. If you haven’t read it, it’s time you did!

Best Debut Editor’s Choice: Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney

Like The List of Suspicious Things, Deadly Animals has a protagonist on the cusp of adolescence – here, in the form of Ava Bonney. She’s clever. Different. An outsider. And this book is well creepy too. Ava has a thing for what happens to animals when they die. She’s fascinated by roadkill and how skin, flesh and fur decompose. Out looking about one day, she finds something a lot more serious than a dead fox or two – it’s her schoolmate Mickey Grant, lying dead, and it looks like he’s been killed by an animal. Before long, someone else goes missing and Detective Seth Delahaye is on the case. Can Ava help him solve it? We haven’t posted our review of this novel yet – it’s coming soon. But our reviewer pins it as one of the best books of the year, and so Marie Tierney wins our Editor’s Choice award in the Debut category for Deadly Animals. Grab your copy here.

Best in Translation Winner: Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson, translated by Victoria Cribb

Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson has built a solid reputation as a weaver of all kinds of mysteries, from his police procedurals featuring Ari Thór to his more Nordic noir-styled works such as The Girl Who Died, winner of the same award in 2021. There’s a hint of a Golden Age-style mystery about Death at the Sanatorium in terms of both its cover and its plot. Six people inhabited the old tuberculosis hospital after it closed – the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant – working on a project. Far away from anywhere, when one of the nurses is murdered, the culprit must be among those at the site. Cold, shadowy, haunted perhaps, the sanatorium’s secret lies dormant for decades until criminologist Helgi Reykdal decides to uncover the truth. Fans of Scandinavian crime fiction voted for this novel in their droves, and congratulations go out to Ragnar Jónasson and Victoria Cribb on their second CFL Award. Order a copy here.

Best in Translation Editor’s Choice: The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani, translated by Sam Bett

Akira Otani is from a new generation of Japanese crime authors, who have broken away from the norms of classic mystery writing that have dominated the genre in Japan for decades, and daringly embraced a different approach. There’s action. There’s violence. And what was once forbidden seems to abound on the pages of The Night of Baba Yaga. Reviewed on our site, this five-star read is the somewhat fatalistic story of Yoriko Shindo, a fierce fighter and deadly opponent who is captured by a yakuza boss and forced to guard his daughter, Shoko, against the dangers the man’s lifestyle brings to his family. A superb revenge thriller led by powerful female characters. Time for you to check it out.

Best Indie Winner: A Killer of Influence by JD Kirk

The hugely popular Scottish crime author JD Kirk takes us to the Highlands in the 20th outing for DCI Jack Logan. The set-up is rather wonderful and oh so contemporary. Eight social media influencers attending a conference for their profession have gone missing. Things have become all too real for them, it seems, as they are now part of a deadly live-streaming reality event where, if you don’t get enough likes, you die. While plenty are a little sick of hearing from influencers, this is two steps too far, but Logan is two steps behind whoever’s responsible and has the vastness and dangers of the terrain to face, not to mention a sadistic killer. Readers loved it, voting for it in huge numbers, and our congratulations go out to JD Kirk. Try it for yourself and see.

Best Indie Editor’s Choice: The Corpse with the Pearly Smile by Cathy Ace

The corpse always has something made of a precious substance in this series from Cathy Ace, which features Welsh-Canadian criminal psychologist Cait Morgan and her retired cop husband, Bud. In their latest outing, a champion pearl diver is found floating in the lagoon at the new Tahitian resort where Cait and Bud are staying. It’s just opened and its reputation is on the line, and Cait is sure the death was no accident. A prodigious swimmer wouldn’t drown like that, would they? Whether Cait and Bud are at home or abroad in some luxury location, you can always be sure that a cosy mystery will follow them. Perfect escapism from Cathy Ace. See our review here and/or order your copy here.

Best Crime Show Winner: Ludwig

Peep Show star David Mitchell is a comedy genius, and there’s a hint of genius about this superb BBC mystery show, which has been well received around the world. No wonder it topped the reader vote in our Best Crime Show category. All at once, this is a big fat puzzle mystery, a family drama and a comedy, and it’s very character-led. John Taylor (Mitchell) is a reclusive – possibly neurodivergent – newspaper puzzle setter. His twin brother, James, is a police detective in Cambridge who has gone missing. But nobody knows James is missing aside from his wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin, superb), so she recruits John to assume James’s role in CID and find out where he’s gone. It all has to do with a case he was working on. Of course, the fish-out-of-water results are hilarious and, using his puzzle mastery, John is soon solving local murders. But something very dark is going on in the background… This is watchable no matter what mood you’re in. Brilliant.

Best Crime Show Editor’s Choice: Slow Horses S4

It’s a pity Slow Horses season four (and seasons one to three) is only available on Apple TV+. We think everyone should have access to Mick Herron‘s wonderfully tense storytelling and extremely wry take on the world of espionage, which focuses on the agents spat out by MI5, the rejects and losers who work at Slough House for Jackson Lamb. Season four, based on the novel Spook Street, begins with that authorial power move wherein a main character is killed in the first episode, plus there’s been a terrorist bombing of a London shopping mall. The pace and tension remain high throughout as the Slow Horses try to fathom what’s happened to their colleague and face a deadly unit of espionage freelancers based in France.

Best Author Winner: Ian Rankin

Alongside his Book of the Year Award, Ian Rankin scoops up Best Author as well. The return of Rebus in Midnight and Blue was a triumph, but let’s not forget the new incarnation of Rebus on television. Originally intended for Viaplay, which decided not to set up in the UK, the production moved to the BBC, with Ian Rankin among its executive producers. It’s set in the here and now, but the Rebus here is younger than the one in the books. To our minds, this is the best rendition of the character to appear on screen. Combine Ian Rankin’s wonderful creation on the page with a strong new television series based on his work and it’s not hard to see why crime fiction lovers have chosen the Scot for Author of the Year. Congratulations, Sir Ian!

Best Author Editor’s Choice: Janice Hallett

Since her debut with The Appeal in 2021, London-based author Janice Hallett has established herself as one of England’s most popular crime authors, and her appeal reaches far beyond this fair isle – to America, Japan, Germany and more. In 2024, she has picked up our Editor’s Choice Award in the Best Author category for The Examiner, which takes place in the same milieu as her previous standalone novels and follows a similar epistolary format, with the story told through various documents rather than a straightforward third-person narrative. We’re solving the case by reading notes and letters, instant messages, emails, diary entries and coursework submitted via a university’s networking platform. At Royal Hastings University, the MA students on a multimedia art course are meant to have collaborated on their year-end project, but the truth is each has their own ambitions and they might even hate each other. The external examiner suspects someone has died over the course of the project… The way Hallett writes and plots is like an iron fist in a velvet glove, so clever and yet beneath it all is something raw and tragic. Try it here.

See the winners of our previous awards in 2023, 2022 and 2021…