And the winners are... 2012 Davitt Awards

Guest Blogger Bernadette announces the winners of the 2012 Davitt Awards for Australian women's crime writing. This post is a slightly edited version of one first posted at Fair Dinkum Crime.
 
The Davitt Awards are sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia and are named in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) who wrote Australia’s first full length mystery novel, FORCE AND FRAUD in 1865. Awards are given annually to celebrate the best Australian crime writing by women.
This year's winners were announced at a gala dinner last night (1 September) in Melbourne. Special guest for the evening was one of Sweden's most highly respected crime writers, Åsa Larsson, who was, according to the interview carried out on the night by Sue Turnbull, inspired to take the Sisters in Crime concept home to Sweden!


The first award of the night was for Best True Crime and it went to journalist and author Liz Porter for COLD CASE FILES in which old cases from Australia, the UK and the US are re-opened in the light of new forensic techniques.

Next came the award for Best Young Fiction book which was apparently fiercely contested. Ursula Dubosarsky's THE GOLDEN DAY was highly commended by the judges but the winner of this category was Meg McKinlay for SURFACE TENSION
 
The next award was for Best Adult Novel. Carolyn Morwood's DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY was highly commended by judges but the award went to Sulari Gentill for A DECLINE IN PROPHETS. It is historical crime fiction set in 1930's Australia (and beyond) and it is a delight to read, combining thoughtfully drawn characters, a wonderful sense of time and place and a ripper of a story.

The new category for this year of Best Debut Novel went to Jaye Ford for her novel BEYOND FEAR. Ford is yet another journalist-turned-crime-writer and penned a book with loads of strong female characters and snappy pace which I liked a lot.

The final award of the night was the Reader's Choice Award. All the books in all the other categories are eligible for this award and all members of Sisters in Crime Australia are able to vote for it (and apparently 550 of us did). This year the award was shared by Jaye Ford's BEYOND FEAR and Y.A. Erskine's THE BROTHERHOOD!. Both great books.

Congratulations to all the winners and all the writers of the eligible books. Even from my limited reading of the books in these categories I can attest to the fact that Australian women's crime writing is in great form and it is especially pleasing to see that even within the constraints of the crime genre there is such a wide variety of stories being told with many of these titles crossing over into historical, romance, speculative fiction and other genres.

(This post has also been cross-posted at the AWW draft website on WordPress)

2012 Davitt Awards: How well do you know your crime?

The 2012 Davitt Awards will be announced tonight at a dinner in Melbourne. The Davitts are a national crime writing award sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia. They are awarded each year for the best crime books by Australian women. The categories are best Adult Fiction, Children's/YA, True Crime, Debut and Reader's Choice.

"Sisters in Crime Australia named the award The Davitt in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) who wrote Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud  in 1865. Her achievement is extraordinary when it is considered that Wilke’s Collins’ The Woman in White, generally regarded as the first full-length mystery novel, was published only in 1860. Force and Fraud was serialised in the Australian Journal, starting with its very first issue. It begins with a murder and ends with its solution, with red herrings, blackmail, and a dramatic court scene in between." (From the Sisters in Crime website.)

The short- and long-listed books are given below, along with links to AWW reviews. What is noticeable is how few of the long-listed books have been reviewed for the challenge. Notable exceptions are when the book is cross-genre, especially with Speculative Fiction. One reason for this may be that these are 2011 titles, rather than new releases. Current AWW crime reviews may be of books that qualify for next year's awards. However this could also indicate that Australian women's crime writing is not as well known in Australia as, for example, romance, or at least not among challenge participants.

How many of the following books have you read?

(If your AWW review of one of the following has been overlooked, or if you reviewed one or more of these books in previous years, please mention your review in the comments below.)

Adult Crime Fiction
Shortlist

• Jaye Ford, Beyond Fear (Bantam/Random) Kevin Rennie,
• Sulari Gentill, Decline in Prophets (Pantera Press) Caroline Sully
• Carolyn Morwood, Death and the Spanish Lady (Pulp Fiction) Crime Pieces, Naturally Dotty#
• Jennifer Rowe, Love Honour & O'Brien (Allen & Unwin)
• Kim Westwood, The Courier’s New Bicycle (Harper Voyager), Mark Webb, David Golding, Annabel Smith, Jason Nahrung, Bookonaut
• Helene Young, Shattered Sky (Hachette Australia), Bookdout, 1girl2manybooks,  

Longlist

• Sydney Bauer, The 3rd Victim (PanMacmillan)
• A.A. Bell, Hindsight  (HarperCollins)
• Claire Corbett, When We Have Wings (Allen & Unwin) Tsana, CAR Torres V, Annabel Smith, Angela @ Literary Minded, Mark Webb, Ann-Marie Sjoberg, Bookonaut
• Sandy Curtis, Fatal Flaw (Clan Destine Press)
• Miranda Darling, The Siren’s Sting (Allen & Unwin)
• Virginia Duigan, The Precipice (Random House), Librarians Adrift, Bernadette,
• Y A Erskine, The Brotherhood (Bantam/Random House): 1girl2manybooks, Brenda, Crime Pieces, Bookdout, Oanh,
• Helen Fitzgerald, The Donor (Allen & Unwin)
• Carol Gibson, Click Click, You’re Dead (Zeus Publications)
• H.M. Goltz, Death by Sugar (Atlas Productions Publishing Company)
• Kerry Greenwood (interviewed by Tara Moss), Cooking the Books (Allen & Unwin) Tenna Miller,
• Judy Johnson, The Secret Fate of Mary Watson (HarperCollins)
• Sylvia Johnson, Watch Out for Me (Allen & Unwin), Helen McKenna, Bernadette,
• Adriana Koulias, The Sixth Key (Random House)
• Phyllis King, ed., Scarlet Stiletto: The Second Cut (Clan Destine Press) [Readers Choice vote by SinC members only] Narelle Harris
• Nicole Watson, The Boundary (University of Queensland Press) Bookdout,
• Tracey O’Hara, Death’s Sweet Embrace (Harper Voyager)

Young Adult/Children’s
Shortlist

• Ursula Dubosarsky, The Golden Day (Allen & Unwin) Suburban Sonnet,
• Nansi Kunze, Dangerously Placed (Random House)
• Meg McKinlay, Surface Tension (Walker Books) Michelle

Longlist

• J.C Burke, Pig Boy (Random House)
• Susan Green, The Truth about Verity Sparks (Walker Books)
• Jacqueline Harvey, Alice-Miranda at Sea (Random House)
• H J Harper, Star League series Book 1: Lights, Camera, Action Hero!; Book 2: Curse of the Werewolf; Book 3: Raising the Dead; Book 4: The Ninja Code (Random House)
• Karen Healey, The Shattering (Allen & Unwin)
• Gabrielle Lord, Conspiracy 365 (Scholastic Australia)
• Sophie Masson, The Understudy’s Revenge (Scholastic Australia)
• Tara Moss, The Spider Goddess (PanMacmillan Australia), Phillip A Ellis, Duke,
• Belinda Murrell, The Ivory Rose (Random House)
• Joanne Van Os, The Secret of the Lonely Isles (Random House)
• Lili Wilkinson, A Pocketful of Eyes (Allen & Unwin)

True Crime  
Shortlist

• Wendy Lewis, The Australian Book of Family Murders (Pier 9/Murdoch Books)
• Liz Porter, Cold Case Files: Past crimes solved by new forensic science (PanMacmillan)

Longlist

• Carol Baxter, Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady: The true story of bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg (Allen & Unwin)
• Jo Chandler and Christine Nixon, Fair Cop: Christine Nixon (Melbourne University Press)
• Rachael Jane Chin, Nice Girl: Whatever Happened To Baby Tegan Lane? (Simon & Schuster)
• Helen Cummings, Blood Vows: a haunting memoir of marriage and murder (The Five Mile Press)
• Nichola Garvey, Beating the Odds (Harper Collins)
• Fiona Harari, A Tragedy in Two Acts: Marcus Einfeld and Teresa Brennan (Victory Books)
• Vikki Petraitis, The Frankston Serial Killer (Clan Destine Press)

 NB: This post will be cross-posted with the new, AWW test site on WordPress.
# Inadvertently left off original post (thanks Alex Adsett for noticing)

2012 releases reviewed for AWW: What's in a genre?

In the past week, this blog has posted several lists of reviews written by participants in the Australian Women Writers challenge of books released this year (2012). These lists have been organised as follows:

• Literary works (including some nonfiction)
• Crime
• Speculative Fiction/Fantasy/Horror/Paranormal/Sci-Fi
• Historical Fiction
• Memoir/Biography/History
• Romance/novels with "romantic elements"
• Contemporary/Popular/Mainstream/Women's Fiction

The intention wasn't to exclude books from the "literary" category. Rather it was to organise titles so readers could find reviews of books that were likely to interest them, and to invite challenge participants to identify books of literary merit which deserve to be regarded as possible future prize winners, despite having "generic" qualities. (This is in keeping with The Stella Prize's aim of including a wider net than what some might deem purely "literary".)

Bookbloggers and publishers were approached for their views on which books they consider literary; invitations for readers and authors to comment were posted on Twitter, Facebook and in the list posts themselves. The aim was to try to identify and include many more books than those published by recognisable literary imprints.

Despite these efforts, some books slipped through the net and at least one author expressed dismay at having her book connected to the label "women's fiction".

My apologies. It's an imperfect system, but it's by far from being prescriptive. It's open to correction and relies on community input. If there are any other titles that should go on the "literary" page, please let me know.

On another point of contention: an author of Young Adult (YA) fiction commented a while ago on the blog, expressing bemusement as to why YA books appear on a separate tab on this website. Many YA books have more in common with the various genres listed above than with each other, and appeal to adult as well as young adult audiences. With this in mind, rather than compiling a separate list of YA books, I ask YA authors and readers to nominate which tally recent (2012) YA releases should appear on. If you can help, please add your comment.

Just for the record. Paddy O'Reilly has accepted an invitation to write a blog post for AWW explaining why she objects to the label "women's fiction". I'll keep you posted.

• O'Reilly, PA - The Fine Colour of Rust (HarperCollins), Literary-commercial.
  
  Reviewed for AWW by: Maree K, Helene Young, Angela@LiteraryMinded, Lisa Walker, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out, Jenny Schwarz

Romance 2012: What's being reviewed?

Romances are reputedly the most widely read novels, but are they the most reviewed?

How do you define a "romance"?

One way is to say the story is predominantly about courtship: the tale of a relationship between two beings which either ends "happily ever after" or "happily for now". The sex of the beings isn't important: they may be male/female, female/female, male/male, non-binary gender (or any other variation you can think of - fans of Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness will know what I mean). Their nature isn't important either - human, alien, angel, demon, vampire or werewolf. The world and time they inhabit may be equally fluid: contemporary, past or imaginary. Books which have courtship as a subplot, however, are perhaps better described as having "romantic elements".

If books with "romantic elements" are included among the tally of romances, the number of 2012 releases reviewed for the AWW challenge during January to June is marginally more than for other genres tallied so far. If the popular genre of "rural fiction" - or "chook lit" as Twitter wags have dubbed it - is included, the number swells even further.

When canvassed on Twitter, some authors of "rural fiction" objected to having their books labelled as romance, preferring instead to be included among a broader category of "popular", "contemporary" or "women's fiction". With that in mind, only rural fiction books which appear to solely focus on courtship, or were identified by the reviewer(s) as being a romance, have been tallied here.

Otherwise, both straight - or "category" - romances and cross-genre books with "romantic elements", including historical romances, have been listed. (If mistakes have been made - and books have been included which shouldn't have been, or haven't been included and should - please let me know.)

What of Young Adult (YA) and Speculative Fiction titles? Are any of those also courtship stories or books with romantic elements? Should erotica - like Lexxie Couper's Love's Rhythm - be included?*

Have there been romances - or novels with romantic elements - of literary merit published in 2012 that are not listed here?

Tally: 23 books, 16 reviewers, 44 reviews

2012 Romance: Contemporary, Historical, Erotica, Crime, Fantasy, Romantic Comedy

• Andersen, Maggi - Murder In Devon. (Self-published via Black Opal Books) Crime
     AustBookhelf 
• Brooke, Christina - Mad About The Earl. (Macmillan/St Martin’s Press) Historical Fiction
      Kate Cuthbert 
• Couper, Lexxie - Love's Rhythm (Samhain Publishing) Erotica
     Kylie
• Dingli, Roseanne - Camera Obscura. (BeWrite Books) Crime
     AustBookshelf  
• Ellis, Lucy - Innocent In The Ivory Tower. (Mills & Boon 2012)
     Kat @ Book Thingo 
• Freeman, Kimberly - Wildflower Hill. (Allen & Unwin) Historical Fiction
     Denise 
• Gracie, Anne - Bride by Mistake. (Penguin/Berkley) Historical Fiction
     Kate Cuthbert 
• Griffin, Kylie - Vengeance Born. (Penguin/Berkley) Fantasy
     Jenny , Kyle Scott author
• Hein, Cathryn - Heart Of The Valley (Penguin) Rural
     Bree @1girl2manybooks
• Hunter, Kelly - Single Girl Abroad (Mills & Boon)
     Stephanie @ RIASS 
• Husk, Shona - Kiss of the Goblin Prince. (Sourcebooks Cassablanca) Fantasy/Romance
     Kylie Scott author  
• Johns, Rachael – Jilted (Harlequin)
     @austbookshelf, Kylie Scott, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out, Bree @1girl2manybooks, Jenny, Kat @ Book Thingo 
• Magro, Mandy – Jacaranda. (Penguin)
     AustBookshelf, @Book'd Out 
• Marinelli, Carol - Putting Alice Back Together (Harlequin) Marg, Shelleyrae@Book'dOut, R Johns 
• Mayberry, Sarah - Her Best Worst Mistake. (Self published via Small Cow Productions 2012, eBook)
     Bree @1girl2manybooks
• Moriarty, Nicola – Free Falling (Random House) Romantic Comedy
     Bree: review and interview, Stephanie @RIAS, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out  
• Murphy, Nicole R - The Right Connection. (Smashwords self-published) Fantasy
     Holly Kench 
• Osborn, Margareta - Bella's Run Random House Rural Fiction
     Lisa Chappel, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out, RIASS, Brenda, Rachael Johns, Kate Rizzetti 
• Parry, Bronwyn. Dead Heat. (Hachette) Crime
     Aussie Book Reviews, Brenda, Bree @1girl2manybooks, AustBookshelf, Stephanie @RIASS, Book'd Out, Jenny, Kate Cuthbert 
• Patricio, Anna - Asenath. (Imagin Books) Historical Fiction (debut)
     Michelle Dennis Evans, Jayne @Austbookshelf 
• Resce, Mer H - Cora Villa. (Golden Grain Publishing) Historical Fiction
     Michelle Dennis Evans 
• Teshco, Mel - Galactic Inferno. (Elora's Cave) Erotic Romance
• Young, Helen - Burning Lies. (Penguin) Crime
     Brenda, Bree @1girl2manybooks

* As Kylie Scott points out in the comments below, Love's Rhythm is more Erotic Romance than Erotica. Are there other 2012 releases in this genre that have yet to be reviewed for the challenge?

Crime 2012 releases: What's being reviewed?

Last weekend the tally of reviews for newly released literary works was posted on this blog, and the question was posed whether "genre" books should have been included. The response from speculative fiction authors on Twitter was a resounding, "Yes!" Of course "genre" books should be included.
But which genres? And what do we mean by "literary" anyway?

The question is timely because, as author P.A. O'Reilly tweeted yesterday, new prizes - including  The Stella Prize - are more open to "judging the work, not the 'genre'." So how do we identify the literary?
 
According to O'Reilly, literary books "reward a second reading with another layer of meaning". Author Claire Corbett goes further: "A literary book doesn't give you what you demand but what you never knew you wanted." Quality writing has subtext, according to Corbett, including non-fiction; too much writing has no subtext, she says, because such craft takes time.

Is it all a matter of craft and layers of meaning? Or are some genres more likely to be considered literary than others?

Clearly some Speculative Fiction titles have no trouble attracting the attention of major literary awards - Corbett's 2011 release, When We Have Wings, for one, was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis award, while Meg Mundell's Black Glass was Highly Commended by the judges of the same award.

But what of other genres, such as crime?

When crime writer Peter Temple won the 2010 Miles Franklin Award for his crime novel Truth, an expectation was set up that well-crafted crime novels would attract the attention of literary judges. Last year's inclusion of Kirsten Tranter's psychological suspense novel, The Legacy, and this year's inclusion of Virginia Duigan's The Precipice on the Miles Franklin longlists appear to support this view. Yet PM Newton's 2010 - in my opinion, equally brilliant - The Old School, didn't make the grade. Was it perhaps - being a detective novel - considered too generic?

Which crime novels released in 2012 - including detective, paranormal, YA, historical fiction, crime-romance and nonfiction titles - deserve to be considered "literary" in your view? 

Crime: 2012 releases

The following books released in 2012* and reviewed for the AWW challenge between January and June this year have been divided into subgenres:

• general/thriller/psychological suspense
• historical fiction 
• crime/romance (sometimes referred to as "romantic suspense")
• crime/paranormal
• YA/Children's and 
• True Crime.

*Disclaimer: The release dates on publishers' website don't always accurately reflect the year when the book was first published. If there are any errors, please let me know. EL


Tally: 18 books, 25 reviewers, 43 reviews, 10 publishers.

Publishers: Penguin: 4 books, 10 reviews; Random House: 3 book 7 reviews; ClanDestine Press: 3 books, 3 reviews; HarperCollins: 2 books, 5 reviews; Hachette: 1 book 6 reviews; Pan MacMillan: 1 book, 4 reviews; Pantera Press: 1 book, 3 reviews; Black Opal: 1 book, 1 review; EgmontUSA: 1 book, 1 review; Walker Books: 1 book, 1 review.

General/Thriller/Psychological Suspense

• Erskine, YA  – The Betrayal. (Random House/Bantam)
     @ Book'd Out
• Ford, Jaye  – Scared Yet. (Random House)
     Helen, Rachael Johns, Brenda, Shelleyrae @Book'dOut 
• Foster, Sara – Beneath The Shadows. (Random House/Bantam)
     Helen, Michelle Dennis Evans 
• Howell, Katherine – Silent Fear. (Pan Macmillan)
     Brenda, Helene Young, Shambolic Living, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out 
• James, Wendy – The Mistake (Penguin/Michael Joseph)
     Lizzy, Bree @AllTheBooksICanRead, Brenda, Bernadetteinoz, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out, Angela Savage 
• Parry, Bronwyn – Dead Heat. (Hachette)
     Aussie Book Reviews, Brenda, Bree @1girl2manybooks, AustBookshelf, Stephanie & RIASS, Book'd Out
• Parry, Bronwyn. Dead Heat. (Hachette 2012) Aussie Book Reviews, Brenda, Bree @1girl2manybooks, AustBookshelf, Stephanie @RIASS, Book'd Out, Jenny, Kate Cuthbert 
   

Historical Fiction

• Gentill, Sulari – Miles off Course. (Pantera Press)
     Bernadette, Caroline Sully, Jacquie Underdown
•  Young, Felicity – A Dissection of Murder. (HarperCollins)
     Tseen Khoo, Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

Romance

• Andersen, Maggi – Murder In Devon. (Black Opal Books)
     AustBookhelf 
• Young, Helene – Burning Lies. (Penguin)
     Brenda, Bree @1girl2manybooks

Paranormal

• Harris, Narrelle M – Walking Shadows. (ClanDestine Press)
     @tansyrr

YA/Children's

• Bailey, Em – Shift. (EgmontUSA)
     Nicola Marsh
• Calder, Charlotte – The Ghost at the Point. (Walker Books)
     Stephanie @ RIASS
• Foster, Rose – The Industry. (HarperCollins)
     Book'd Out, Bree @1girl2manybooks, Mandee VYAN
• Giarratano, Leah – Disharmony: The Telling. (Penguin 2012)
     Bree @1girl2manybooks

True Crime

• Bonney, Hillary – The Double Life of Herman Rockefeller. (Penguin 2012)
     Simone, (Michelle - link broken) True Crime
• Petraitis, Vikki – The Frankston Serial Killer. (Clandestine Press 2012)
     Amra Pajalic True Crime

Short Stories

• Scarlet Stiletto: The Second Cut. (Clandestine Press 2011 or 2012?)
     N M Harris Crime/Short Stories

~ ~ ~

Guest author reviews

Of the above authors, Jaye Ford, Katherine Howell, YA Erskine and Helene Young have all reviewed for the challenge (that's why the covers of their recent releases are featured here).

Helene has written multiple reviews, including:

• Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn 
• Silent Fear by Katherine Howell and  
• The Fine Colour of Rust by PA O'Reilly.

Do you think any of the above books deserves to be regarded as "literary"? Do you know of any other crime books released this year that haven't been reviewed for the challenge so far?

Other crime titles (some not reviewed during January-June period of tally):

• Jackson, Rochell - Partners and Crime (Allen & Unwin 2012) - true crime
• Moss, Tara - Assassin (HarperCollins 2012)
• Nunn, Malla - The Silent Valley (Pan Macmillan 2012)
• Tranter, Kirsten - A Common Loss (HarperCollins 2012); reviews posted on "Literary" page.
• Trope, Nicole - The Boy Under The Table (Allen & Unwin 2012)