The Crime Fiction Lover Awards are back for the third year running. We want to celebrate the best in crime fiction, and we are going to involve the people who really matter when we do so. For us, the people who really matter to this fine genre are its readers – that’s YOU!
We want you to nominate your favourite books, authors and shows across our six main categories (see below). This is what makes our awards different from the rest. It also makes them fun and relevant.
In addition to the six main categories, which will be nominated and voted on by readers, this year we’re introducing a new award, the winner of which will be chosen by the editorial team. It’s called the Life of Crime Award and it will go to an author who we believe, over their career, has made an outstanding contribution to the genre. Since 2011, our contributors have reviewed more than 2,800 books and it’s their knowledge and good taste that will power this particular accolade.
You can see last year’s shortlists here, and the final winners of 2022 here.
How it works…
Nominations for the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2023 have opened and you can nominate across six categories:
Book of the Year
Best Debut
Best in Translation
Best Indie Novel
Best Author
Best Crime Show
To qualify for the shortlist, nominated books need to have been published in English between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023. In the Best Author category, the author needs to have published crime fiction during this period.
It can be hard to define what an ‘indie’ crime novel is. Some independent publishers are actually very big, very well resourced companies. That’s not what we have in mind – we’re looking for novels published by small, independent companies with under £1 million turnover. This is our chance to champion the little guy as times are tougher than ever.
You’re not obliged to nominate in every category. If you haven’t read anything in a particular area, just move on to the next category. Our form lets you do that.
So, think about the crime novels you’ve read over the last year, and the shows you’ve watched, and tell us which you think are the best of the best. We can’t wait to see what people will nominate. You’ll find the nomination form here.
Voting on the winners
Nominations will close at noon UK time on Monday 6 November 2023. After that, we’ll assemble shortlists for all the voting categories and open a new online form for you to vote for the winners.
As well as a Winner in each category, our team will select an Editor’s Choice award from the shortlist.
Let’s run this fairly
We are very aware that when awards are opened up to online nominations and voting, it’s possible the shortlists and winners may not reflect the best of the best. Events like this get spammed all the time. For example, last year and in 2021, we had people voting for the same book in multiple categories including Best Crime Show. We’d ask that you nominate sensibly and that you only nominate books you’ve read and shows you’ve watched. We have measures in place to detect and eliminate spam nominations and votes.
These awards are being run in good faith. Please respect that. We will do our utmost to ensure that – one, they’re driven by our community; and two, everything is conducted fairly for all involved.
That being said, the Crime Fiction Lover team all enjoy conducting these awards, we’re fascinated by who you will nominate and vote for, and we love sending out the prizes. You can see from the evidence in the photos below that authors love the awards too!
*** CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE ***
