SITE CONTENTS
 |
|
THE BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR |
Judging the John Creasey Memorial Dagger of the
Crime Writers' Association |
by Andrew Taylor |
First novels are special, for authors as well as
readers. Writing a first novel is a form of liberation. For the
author, the experience is by bare-knuckle ride, because as a writer
you don't yet have the technique to control your effects. You don't
even know if you have it in you to finish your book.
This year, as usual, thirty-odd novels were submitted for the CWA's
John Creasey Memorial Dagger. Each was by an unknown author, each a
potential source of unknown pleasure. As a bonus, taken as a whole
they provide an intriguing cross-section of the genre as it moves
into the new century.
The Crime Writers' Association has always encouraged new crime
writing, so it is not surprising that the award goes back to 1973.
Its long-term sponsor is Chivers Press.
A glance at the list of previous winners shows that the Creasey
judges have often found what they were looking for. Among the names
in one recent six-year period are Patricia Cornwell, Walter Mosley,
Minette Walters and Janet Evanovich. Earlier winners include authors
of the calibre of Liza Cody, Jonathan Gash and Paula Gosling.
In recent years the judges have been established crime writers
whose work has won CWA awards - in other words, people who know just
how important the Creasey can be to the career and morale of a
budding writer. The judges for 2001 were myself, Val McDermid and
Denise Mina.
 |
One
interesting trend is that there is an increasing crossover
between crime and "literary" fiction. Some fine
examples include John Colapinto's About the Author (4th Estate),
a witty American novel about literary plagiarism, the bizarre
world of publishing and the price you pay for getting exactly
what you want. |
Another is John Fusco's Paradise Salvage (Scribner), written
from the viewpoint of an Italo-American boy working in a
Connecticut scrapyard. It is a mob-and-civic corruption novel
which also gives a wonderfully realised picture of immigrant
life. |
 |
 |
Susanna Jones' first novel, The Earthquake Bird
(Picador), is set in Tokyo and records the catastrophe-strewn
life of its British translator protagonist, a woman who attracts
earthquakes and bizarre lovers. Less appealing are the literary
novels whose authors toy with elements of crime fiction in a
knowing manner, rather like pretentious chefs adding a modish
dash of tomato ketchup to their latest recipes.
|
One welcome tendency is the emergence in
print of a crop of writers who in previous years have done well in
the CWA's New Writing competition, designed to foster new crime
writing and put talented newcomers in touch with leading publishers
of crime fiction.
 |
Caroline Carver, the 1999 winner, is the author of
Blood Junction (Orion), a shocking tale of murder and racial
prejudice in the Australian outback. Working Girls (Flambard) is
by Maureen Carter, who reached the final shortlist of the
competition. It's a grimly compassionate crime novel centring on
the exploitation of young prostitutes in the Midlands. Another
of the competition's shortlisted writers was Barbara Cleverly,
whose first novel, The Last Kashmiri Rose (Constable) is a
classically-shaped murder mystery set in the British Raj during
the 1920s. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This
year's entries also reveal the continuing appeal of the Men
Behaving Badly urban school of crime fiction for male writers,
usually the younger ones. Such novels are Boy's Own fairy tales
in a modern setting, typically involving a good deal of sex,
shooting and often the consumption of awesome quantities of
alcohol and illegal drugs.
A memorable example is Kevin Wignall's People Die (Hodder and
Stoughton), which concerns the exploits of an amiable history
graduate with a flourishing career as a contract killer.
A distinguished American variant is Scott Phillips' The Ice
Harvest (Picador), a wry noir crime novel set in Wichita on
Christmas Eve in 1979. It follows the last evening in town of an
engaging lawyer, as crooked as a double helix, who has pressing
reasons to leave.
The psychological thriller continues to flourish, testifying to
the fact that readers are often as interested in whydunit as
whodunit. Mark Billingham's Sleepyhead (Little, Brown) focuses
on locked-in syndrome: the psychopathic killer at the heart of
the novel kills by mistake: he really wants to put his victims
to sleep for the rest of their natural lives. |
|
The intelligent police procedural is also a
sub-genre that continues to interest talented new authors. Among
the best British examples is Iain McDowall's A Study In Death
(Piatkus), the first of series set in the fictional town of
Crowby, as much a state of mind as a place. The amateur
detective is still alive and well. Elizabeth Woodcraft's Good
Bad Woman (HarperCollins) features Frankie, a London-based woman
barrister with a sense of humour as well as a sense of
compassion, in a novel billed as "murder with a dash of
Motown". |
 |
First novels are rarely perfect, but often their
strength lies in their very imperfections, in those quirks and
eccentricities where originality lurks. That is what the Creasey
judges are looking for - the sense that here is an author whose
work contains the exhilarating possibility of unique
development, together with a good story, well told. The winner
of the 2001 John Creasey Dagger was announced at the Dead on
Deansgate crime fiction convention in Manchester on 20 October.
(For more information about the Dagger awards, see the CWA's web
site at www.thecwa.co.uk.)
The Creasey Dagger shortlist for 2001 was:
JOHN FUSCO for Paradise Salvage (Scribner)
SUSANNA JONES for The Earthquake Bird (Picador)
SCOTT PHILLIPS for The Ice Harvest (Picador)
KARIN SLAUGHTER for Blindsighted (Century)
ELIZABETH WOODCRAFT for Good Bad Woman (HarperCollins)
And the winner was:
SUSANNA JONES for The Earthquake Bird (Picador)
Andrew Taylor, the present convenor of the Creasey judges, won
the award himself in 1982. He has recently won the 2001 Ellis
Peters Historical Dagger for The Office of the Dead
(HarperCollins). He has also been shortlisted for the Gold
Dagger and the MWA's Edgar. His latest crime novel is Death's
Own Door (Hodder & Stoughton). His website is at
www.andrew-taylor.co.uk
A version of this article appeared in New BOOKS.mag
issue 4 |
|
|
