British Crime Writer Association

Lucinda Epperson

How would you like to be a member of Britain's only "club" for crime writers? If you are a published crime writer, reviewer, editor, or publisher, you can join The British Crime Writer Association, a fifty year old club with 450 members who help support crime writers. One of your obligations would be to read and select the most prestigious awards for crime writing, like the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award. The Diamond Dagger, awarded for “sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing,” was given to Sue Grafton in 2008.

If you do not think you are going to be able to join the “club,” you might be interested in finding a list of the award winning authors and titles. Simply go to The British Crime Writer Association link in the green box on the Rowan Public Library homepage. This year I have found and enjoyed several authors with books translated into English.

Donna Leon is an American author who has lived and taught in Venice for twenty years. She offers us a series of crime novels set in Venice featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guideo Brunetti. Her novel, Friends in High Places won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger in 2000, and it has been translated into many foreign languages although not Italian. A word of advice: If you choose one of Leon’s novels do not read it when you are hungry, she has a great gift for describing what her characters have for meals and it all sounds delicious.

Ann Cleeves’ book, The Raven Black, won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime fiction of 2006. It is the first in The Shetland Quartet series, set on the Island of Shetland, one of the large groups of small islands in the North of Scotland. It is a small isolated place, where strangers are noticed, hierarchies are unacknowledged, and open secrets are never spoken. I thought it was a great mystery set in an isolated and intriguing location.

Karen Fossum is a Scandinavian writer of potent psychological thrillers. Her Indian Bride is very different from American thrillers. The characters and plot are excellent, action is slow but steady, there are no guns or shootouts, and the suspense is powerful.

Even if you are not a member of the British Crime Writer Association, you can enjoy reading the many prestigious award winning titles available at Rowan Public Library.