The 2025 winners of Sister's in Crime's Davitt Awards have been announced, celebrating exceptional crime writing from Australian women.
This year marks the 25th year of the prize, as Judges Coordinator Ruth Wykes reflected:
'The Davitt Awards have transformed the literary landscape over the past three decades. Twenty-five years ago, when the Davitts were launched at SheKilda, Sisters in Crime’s 10th anniversary convention, seven books were in contention. This year, there were 150.
'It’s not just the quantity, but the quality – the complex layers of the characters, the realism of the settings, and above all else, the magic of beautifully told stories. The themes are contemporary – environmental destruction, the nature of justice, queer romance, girl power, and, of course, sexual exploitation and violence against women. Now more than ever, we need a strong, vibrant writing community of Australian women storytellers, and we need them to be fearless.'
Best Adult Novel
To the River
Vikki Wakefield
The Kelly family has always been trouble. When a fire in a remote caravan community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly's mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody and disappears.
Recently made redundant from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weirdermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river – now, twelve years after the 'Caravan Murders', she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year.
Rachel's ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes.
Best Non-Fiction Book
The Lasting Harm
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
In December 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and now faces 20 years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of four girls. The trial was meticulously covered by journalist and legal reporter Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of only four reporters allowed into the courtroom every day.
The Lasting Harm is her account of that trial, a gripping true crime drama and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome.
Centring the stories of four women and their testimonies, and supplemented by extra material to which Osborne-Crowley has exclusive access, The Lasting Harm brings this incendiary trial to life, questions our age-old appetite for crime and punishment, and offers a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.
Best Young Adult Novel
Into the Mouth of the Wolf
Erin Gough
Iris lives on the run with her mother, Rohan. They’re travelling to escape the earthquakes, though of course that’s impossible. And they’re being followed. One day, Rohan insists Iris repeat the phrase in bocca al lupo: into the mouth of the wolf. The next day, Rohan's vanished, leaving no clues about where she’s gone besides a contact in an unknown town. Entirely alone and fearing the worst, Iris reaches out to a stranger for help.
When Lena gets Iris's message, she's busy panic-studying for year 12 and helping run her family’s hostel. She’s intrigued by Iris, and can’t deny there’s a spark between them – but she’s also worried. A dead body has just washed up at the beach in Glassy Bay. And Lena’s old best friend – who's just returned after an unexplained absence – seems to know something about it.
Missing people. Mysterious deaths. A growing attraction between two girls caught up in the search for the truth. Somehow, they’re all connected. But in order to find out how – and in order to even meet each other – Iris and Lena will have to go into the mouth of the wolf …
Best Children’s Novel
The Midwatch
Judith Rossell
Banished to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways and Unwanted Girls, Maggie Fishbone is sure she’s in for a life of drudgery. But she quickly discovers there’s more to the Midwatch than meets the eye …
The city shimmers with jewels and secrets, and soon Maggie is thrust into an adventure that takes her deep underground, high above the clouds and face to face with danger itself.
Turn the page and prepare to be drawn into a lavishly illustrated world, brimming with mystery, unlikely heroines and an adventure as big as the sky.
Best Debut Book
What I Would Do to You
Georgia Harper
In a near-future Australia, the death penalty is back. But if the victim's family wants the perpetrator to die, they have to do it themselves. Twenty-four hours alone in a room with the condemned. No cameras. No microphones. Just whatever punishment they decide befits the crime.
Ten-year-old Lucy was murdered in bushland adjoining her family farm. Through counselling sessions with their court-appointed psychologist we learn the stories of her family members – Lucy's two mothers – Stella and Matisse, her much older brother and her bookish teenage sister, who is too young to participate in the execution, but who has plans of her own …
Tensions build as the family discover secrets about each other that threaten to drive them further apart than grief already has.
Kerry Greenwood Readers’ Choice
What Happened to Nina?
Dervla McTiernan
Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family's cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.
Nobody knows what happened to Nina. Simon's explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn't add up. Nina's parents push the police for answers, and Simon's parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign. Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fuelled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories.
Nina's family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters – finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon's wealthy, powerful family, Nina's parents recognize that if playing by the rules won't get them anywhere, it's time to break them.
You can find more information on the Davitt Awards here, or revisit this year's shortlists!
