The winners of the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards, sponsored by the Australian Crime Writers Association and celebrating the best in Australian crime writing, have been named. This year's winners are:
Crime fiction: Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Debut crime fiction: Murder in the Pacific--Ilfira Point by Matt Francis
True crime: Crossing the Line by Nick McKenzie
International crime fiction: The Only Suspect by Louise Candlish
The judges praised Hepworth’s novel as "cleverly written and exquisitely plotted"; Francis's book as "complex and well written with a great sense of place and community"; McKenzie's work as " an explosive investigation"; and Candlish as being "at her best, a deserved international bestselling author."
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Three finalists have been selected for the $75,000 2024 Cundill History Prize, which is administered by McGill University and honors "the book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and diverse appeal." The winner will be announced October 30.
The finalists:
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass (Vintage). "A landmark history of the post-World War II trials of Japan's leaders as war criminals, which has shaped relationships throughout modern Asia."
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal (Random House). "A sweeping 1,000-year history of the power of Indigenous North America, from ancient cities to fights for sovereignty that continue today."
Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth (Liveright). "Stretching from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system, to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life."