The winners for the 2023 Danger Awards were announced at the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. Novelist Chris Hammer has won for the second time, having jointly won the award in 2021.
Entering their sixth year, the Danger Awards recognise books featuring Australia as a setting for stories about crime and justice. For the first time in 2023, the Danger Awards included not just Crime Fiction and True Crime, but also introduced the Libby App People’s Choice Award and for the first time the judges will present an award for the Best Crime Fiction Debut.
WINNERS
BEST CRIME FICTION:
The Tilt by Chris Hammer
READ AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS HAMMER
READ AN INTERVIEW ABOUT TREASURE AND DIRT
LISTEN TO A PODCAST ABOUT SILVER BY CHRIS HAMMER
BEST CRIME FICTION DEBUT:
Black River by Matthew Spencer
READ A BOOK REVIEW AND LISTEN TO A PODCAST ABOUT BLACK RIVER
READ AN EXTRACT OF BLACK RIVER
BEST TRUE CRIME:
The Boy in the Dress by Jonathan Butler
READ A BOOK REVEIW OF THE BOY IN THE DRESS
LIBBY APP PEOPLE’S CHOICE:
An Uncommon Hangman by Rachel Franks
As BAD Chair Professor Sue Turnbull observed, “There are just so many excellent crime novels being written at the moment that choosing a winner has become an increasingly hard task. All the short-listed crime novels were outstanding, demonstrating the range and quality of the crime fiction currently being published in Australia.”
“Overall, the judges were extremely impressed by quality of all the entries that clearly illustrate the central theme of this year’s awards, that there is a place for every crime story and a crime story for every place.”
The winners were announced and interviewed during this year’s BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival, at the State Library of NSW. They were each presented with the Danger Award trophy and $1000 in prize money. Past winners include Margaret Hickey for her debut novel Cutters End, Gary Jubelin for his chilling autobiography I Catch Killers (joint winner with Chris Hammer in 2021) as well as John Ibrahim, Hedley Thomas and Tanya Bretherton.
