The Petrona Award 2025 - Longlist

 From the press release which was embargoed until 8.00am today:

Petrona Award 2025 - Longlist

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2025 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

They are:

Samuel Bjørk - Dead Island tr. Charlotte Barslund (Norway, Bantam)

Stella Blómkvist - Murder Under the Midnight Sun tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Pascal Engman - The Widows tr. Neil Smith (Sweden, Legend Press)

Malin Persson Giolito - Deliver Me tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Simon & Schuster)

Óskar Guðmundsson - The Dancer tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger - Victim tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books)

Jo Nesbo - Blood Ties tr. Robert Ferguson (Norway, Harvill Secker)

Aslak Nore - The Sea Cemetery tr. Deborah Dawkin (Norway, MacLehose Press)

Sólveig Pálsdóttir - Shrouded tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Satu Rämö - The Clues in the Fjord tr. Kristian London (Finland, Zaffre)

Max Seeck - Ghost Island tr. Kristian London (Finland, Mountain Leopard Press)

Gunnar Staalesen - Pursued by Death tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

The longlist contains a mix of newer and more established authors including previous Petrona Award winners Pascal Engman, Malin Persson Giolito, Jørn Lier Horst, and Gunnar Staalesen.

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Corylus Books having an impressive three entries. The breakdown by country is Norway (5), Iceland (3), Finland (2) and Sweden (2).

The shortlist will be announced on 18 September 2025.

The Petrona Award 2025 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller for a major book chain in the UK, Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, and Sonja van der Westhuizen, a book critic for print and online publications in the UK and South Africa, as well as a blogger at WEST WORDS REVIEWS. 

The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his continuing support of the Petrona Award.

The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries. 

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website.

CWA Dagger: Crime Fiction in Translation 2025 - Longlist

The longlists for the CWA Daggers 2025 were announced on Wednesday and the following have made the longlist for the 'In Translation' Dagger:

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Claire Berest: Artifice (Mountain Leopard) tr. Sophie Lewis

Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini: The Lover of No Fixed Abode (Bitter Lemon Press) tr. Gregory Dowling

Anne Mette Hancock: Ruthless (Swift Press) tr. Tara Chase

Kotaro Isaka: Hotel Lucky Seven (Harvill Secker) tr. Brian Bergstrom

Andrey Kurkov: The Silver Bone (Maclehose Press) tr. Boris Dralyuk

Hervé Le Corre: Dogs and Wolves (Europa Editions UK) tr. Howard Curtis

Pierre Lemaitre: Going to the Dogs (Maclehose Press) tr. Frank Wynne

Patrícia Melo: The Simple Art of Killing a Woman (The Indigo Press) tr. Sophie Lewis

Akira Otani: The Night of Baby Yaga (Faber & Faber) tr. Sam Bett

Satu Rämö: The Clues in the Fjord (Zaffre) tr.  Kristian London 

Asako Yuziki: Butter (4th Estate) tr. Polly Barton

Alia Trabucco Zerán: Clean (4th Estate) tr. Sophie Hughes

A list of eligible titles (in translation) published in 2024 can be found on the Euro Crime website.

The Petrona Award 2024 - Longlist

From the press release which was embargoed until 8.00am today:

Petrona Award 2024 - Longlist 

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM DENMARK, ICELAND, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 PETRONA AWARD 

Ten crime novels from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2024 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. 

They are:

Tove Alsterdal - You Will Never Be Found tr. Alice Menzies (Sweden, Faber & Faber)

Anne Mette Hancock - The Collector tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)

Jørn Lier Horst - Snow Fall tr. Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph)

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger - Stigma tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books) 

Arnaldur Indriðason - The Girl by the Bridge tr. Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker) 

Jógvan Isaksen - Dead Men Dancing tr. Marita Thomsen (Faroe Islands (Denmark), Norvik Press)

Åsa Larsson - The Sins of our Fathers tr. Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press) 

Lilja Sigurðardottir - White as Snow tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)

Yrsa Sigurðardottir - The Prey tr. Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton) 

Karin Smirnoff - The Girl in the Eagle's Talons tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, MacLehose Press)

The longlist contains a mix of newer and more established authors including previous Petrona Award winners, Jørn Lier Horst and Yrsa Sigurðardottir. 

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books and MacLehose Press both having two entries, and the breakdown by country is Iceland (3), Sweden (3), Denmark (2) and Norway (2). 

The shortlist will be announced on 10 October 2024.

The Petrona Award 2024 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller/Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, with additional help from Sarah Ward, author, former Petrona Award judge and current CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger judge.

The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website. 

The Petrona team would like to thank both our sponsor, David Hicks, for his continuing support of the Petrona Award and the CWA, in particular Maxim Jakubowski, for allowing Sarah to step in following the very unexpected death of our much missed judge and friend Miriam Owen.

The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries.

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year. More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website.

The Petrona Award 2023 - Longlist

 From the press release which was embargoed until 8.00am today:

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM DENMARK, FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, SWEDEN AND SWITZERLAND LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have made the longlist for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

They are:

Jussi Adler-Olsen - The Shadow Murders tr. William Frost (Denmark, Quercus)
Lina Areklew - Death in Summer tr. Tara F Chace (Sweden, Canelo Crime)
Kjell Ola Dahl - Little Drummer tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)
Pascal Engman - Femicide tr. Michael Gallagher (Sweden, Legend Press)
Anne Mette Hancock - The Corpse Flower tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)
Susanne Jansson - Winter Water tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Hodder & Stoughton)
Håkan Nesser - The Axe Woman tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, Mantle)
Petra Rautiainen - Land of Snow and Ashes tr. David Hackston (Finland, Pushkin Press)
Joachim B Schmidt - Kalmann tr. Jamie Lee Searle (Switzerland, Bitter Lemon Press)
Lilja Sigurðardóttir - Red as Blood tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)
Gustaf Skördeman - Codename Faust tr. Ian Giles (Sweden, Zaffre)
Gunnar Staalesen - Bitter Flowers tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

The significantly increased number of entries for this year’s Petrona Award illustrates the continuing popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction in translation. The longlist contains a mix of new and established authors including previous Petrona Award winner, Gunnar Staalesen.

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books leading with three entries, and the breakdown by country is Sweden (5), Denmark (2), Norway (2), Finland (1), Iceland (1) and Switzerland (1), with translators Don Bartlett and Tara F Chace having translated two entries each.

The shortlist will be announced on 7 September 2023.

The Petrona Award 2023 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller/Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK; Miriam Owen, founder of the NORDIC NOIR blog, passionate about the arts, she moderates author panels and provides support at crime fiction festivals, and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE. The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries.

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website (https://www.petronaaward.co.uk/).

The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his generous support of the 2023 Petrona Award.

The Petrona Award 2022 - Longlist

 From the press release which was embargoed until 8.00am today:

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM DENMARK, FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY AND SWEDEN LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve outstanding crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2022 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

 

 

They are:

Maria Adolfsson - Fatal Isles tr. Agnes Broomé (Sweden, Zaffre)

Kjell Ola Dahl - The Assistant tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

Katrine Engberg - The Butterfly House tr. Tara Chace (Denmark, Hodder & Stoughton)

Helene Flood - The Therapist tr. Alison McCullough (Norway, MacLehose Press)

Óskar Guðmundsson - The Commandments tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books Ltd)

Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger - Smoke Screen tr. Megan Turney (Norway, Orenda Books)

Ruth Lillegraven - Everything Is Mine tr. Diane Oatley (Norway, AmazonCrossing)

Sólveig Pálsdóttir - Silenced tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books Ltd)

Anders Roslund - Knock Knock tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Sweden, Harvill Secker)

Lilja Sigurðardóttir - Cold as Hell tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)

Gustaf Skördeman - Geiger tr. Ian Giles (Sweden, Zaffre)

Antti Tuomainen - The Rabbit Factor tr. David Hackston (Finland, Orenda Books)

The quality of the entries for the Petrona Award, now in its tenth year, remains consistently high, so much so that for the first time, the judges have decided to release a longlist. These twelve titles will be whittled down to a shortlist, to be announced on 16 November 2022.

The longlist contains a number of new faces as well as Petrona Award-winning authors, Jørn Lier Horst and Antti Tuomanen and the previously shortlisted Kjell Ola Dahl and Thomas Enger.

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books leading with four entries, and the breakdown by country is Norway (4), Iceland (3), Sweden (3), Denmark (1) and Finland (1) with translator Quentin Bates being longlisted for all three Icelandic titles.

The Petrona Award 2022 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller/Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK; Miriam Owen, founder of the NORDIC NOIR blog and creator of content for communities, and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE. The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

Notes to editors

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website (https://www.petronaaward.co.uk/).

The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his generous support of the 2022 Petrona Award.

Awards News: Harrogate Crime Novel of the Year 2022 - Longlist

Please find below the official press release announcing the longlist for the Harrogate Crime Novel of the Year. Eighteen authors have been listed (7 Female, 11 Male).

Until the 26 May you can vote for your favourite book on the longlist here.

Abigail Dean | Anna Bailey | Ann Cleeves | Brian McGilloway | Chris Brookmyre | Denise Mina

Elly Griffiths | Erin Kelly | Imran Mahmood | Joseph Knox

Laura Shepherd Robinson | Mark Billingham | Mick Herron | M.W. Craven
Stuart Turton | Vaseem Khan| Will Dean | William Shaw

 

The longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022 has been announced, with debut authors and literary icons vying for the UK and Ireland’s most coveted crime fiction writing award.

 

The award, now in its eighteenth year, is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and recognises the best crime novels published in the UK and Ireland in paperback over the past year. This year’s longlist takes readers from the decks of a haunted galleon to the claustrophobia of a psychiatric ward, from a small American town shaken by the disappearance of a young girl to the hedonism and danger of London’s Georgian pleasure gardens.

 

The longlist sees a number of previous winners hoping to take home the prize once again. Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2022 Programming Chair Denise Mina will look to snatch her third win for The Less Dead, as will Rabbit Hole author Mark Billingham, who took home the inaugural award in 2005 and again in 2009. Chris Brookmyre, who won the 2017 prize, is in the running again with The Cut while Blood Ties author Brian McGilloway, who was highly commended at last year’s prize, is also longlisted. Other prize alumni on the 2022 longlist include four-time shortlistees Elly Griffiths with The Night Hawks and Mick Herron with Slough House, as well as previous longlistees Ann Cleeves with The Heron’s Cry, Erin Kelly with Watch Her Fall, Imran Mahmood with I Know What I Saw, Joseph Knox for True Crime Story, Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Georgian detective novel Daughters of Night, Stuart Turton with genre-bending whodunnit The Devil and the Dark Water, and William Shaw for The Trawlerman.

 

While some familiar names have returned again this year to compete, the longlist features a number of authors receiving their first chance at the prize. M.W. Craven receives a nod for Dead Ground, while Vaseem Khan is featured for his novel Midnight at Malabar House, set in the turbulent streets of Bombay in 1950. Incredible debut authors in the running for the award include 2021 New Blood panellist Anna Bailey with her taut novel Tall Bones, and Abigail Dean with bestselling debut Girl A.

 

The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022 longlist is comprised of:

 

• Girl A by Abigail Dean (HarperFiction)
• Tall Bones by Anna Bailey (Doubleday)
• The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan)
• Blood Ties by Brian McGilloway (Constable)
• The Cut by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Less Dead by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)
• The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Fiction)
• Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• I Know What I Saw by Imran Mahmood (Raven Books)
• True Crime Story by Joseph Knox (Doubleday)
• Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd Robinson (Mantle/Pan)
• Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Slough House by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
• Dead Ground by M. W. Craven (Constable)
• The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton (Raven Books)
• Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Trawlerman by William Shaw (riverrun)

 

Simon Theakston, Executive Director of Theakston, added: “Crime fiction seems to have an enduring popularity with readers, and this year’s longlist is a clear indication as to why. Books from iconic writers and impressive debuts demonstrate the wonderful talent working in the genre today – the public have got a hard job ahead of them voting for a shortlist of only six! We raise a glass of Old Peculier to all the authors on the longlist, and look forward to a celebratory drink with our Award winner in July.”

 

Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, Sharon Canavar, commented: “We are thrilled to announce the 2022 longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, championing the very best crime fiction being published in the UK and Ireland. With a mix of nail-biting psychological thrillers, tense police procedurals and gripping mysteries, this year’s longlist demonstrates the incredible breadth of modern crime fiction. We can’t wait to see which books the public side with during voting, and look forward to revealing the winner at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in July.”

 

The longlist was selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, along with media partners the Express. The award is run by Harrogate International Festivals sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and the Express, and is open to full length crime novels published in paperback 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022 by UK and Irish authors.

 

The public are now invited to vote for a shortlist of six titles at www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com. Voting closes on 26^th May, with the shortlist announced and winner voting opening on 14^th June. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday 21^st July, receiving £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd .