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Temple wins top prize at CWA awards

06.07.07 Anna Richardson

Quercus' Peter Temple has won the top prize at this year's CWA Duncan Lawrie Awards for Crime Writing. His The Broken Shore picked up the £20,000 award for the best crime novel of the year last night (5th July), beating five fellow shortlisted authors, including C J Sansom and Craig Russell.

This was the first year the Australian Temple had appeared on the shortlist, and the judges said of his book: "This is a well written crime novel with excellent characterisation mingled with a subtle exploration of contemporary Australian landscape and mores. This is a first class read with a sympathetic engrossing police protagonist."

Other prizes awarded on the night included the £5,000 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger, which went to Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas (Harvill Secker), who shares the prize with her translator Sîan Reynolds; and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, awarded to Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld), which also won the New Blood Dagger.

The Dagger in the Library, awarded for an author's body of work, went to Stuart MacBride, with C J Sansom very highly commended.

Canadian Alan Bradley won the Debut Dagger for unpublished novels by unpublished authors for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Anna Richardson Prize CWA

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