The winners of the 2025 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced, celebrating four outstanding works of crime fiction and true crime writing.
The Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing are among Australia’s oldest literary awards and each year they recognise and celebrate the achievements of Australian authors and publishing.
If you missed the announcement of the winners live at our Hawthorn shop, read on to learn about this year's incredible winners!
Best Crime Fiction
The Creeper
Margaret Hickey
For the last decade, the small mountain town of Edenville in Victoria's high country has been haunted by the horrific murders of five hikers up on Jagged Ridge.
Also found dead near the scene was Bill 'Creeper' Durant, a bushland loner, expert deer-hunter, and a man with a known reputation for stalking campers …
Conclusion: murder-suicide. Case closed.
But as the ten-year anniversary of the massacre draws near, Detective Constable Sally White – the only officer at Edenville's modest police station – finds herself drawn into the dark world of the notorious Durant family. Lex Durant, in particular, has started to publicly protest his brother's innocence and accuse the police of persecution.
As Sally combs the investigation to prove him wrong, it becomes all too clear that each murdered hiker had skeletons in their closet – and possible enemies in their past …
Best International Crime Fiction (published in Australia)
A Case of Matricide
Graeme Macrae Burnet
In the unremarkable French town of Saint-Louis, a mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her; a prominent manufacturer drops dead. Between visits to the town's bars, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski mulls over the connections, if any, between these events, while all the time grappling with his own domestic and existential demons.
Graeme Macrae Burnet pierces the respectable bourgeois facade of small-town life in this deeply human story. He draws a wry humour from the tiniest of details and delves into the darkest recesses of his characters' minds to present a fascinating puzzle that blurs the boundaries between suspect, investigator and reader in an entertaining, profound and moving novel.
Best Debut Crime Fiction
All You Took From Me
Lisa Kenway
Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident. So why is a stranger following her? After questioning patients about their dreams, she becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug might help her access her missing memories. But there's no way to be certain without jeopardising her career or her life.
As unexplained threats escalate, Clare realises she must take matters into her own hands to learn the uncomfortable truth about her secretive husband, his connection to a mysterious club and what she did to trigger a stranger's crusade for vengeance.
But how far will she go?
Best True Crime
A Thousand Miles From Care
Steve Johnson
At the entrance of Sydney Harbor, the cliffs rise fourteen stories above the Pacific, like a gigantic skirt made of sandstone. North Head, one of the most memorable cliffs, is a gorgeous place to watch the sunrise. But it's an unforgiving place to lose your footing. When Steve Johnson's younger brother Scott went over the edge in 1988, he hit an outcrop on the way down and exploded on the rocks below.
The police deemed it a suicide. But Steve Johnson never believed his brother would take his own life, and over the course of three decades he embarked on an arduous quest to find out what really happened to Scott. This profoundly impactful book traces the steps Steve and his family and friends took to solve the mystery, including navigating an openly hostile police force and a maze of dead ends, unreliable informants, teenage gangs, a faked confession, and setbacks at every turn. And yet their quest ended with an extraordinary outcome: a stunning turnaround by police who apprehended a suspect, 32 years after Scott's death.
Revisit the 2025 shortlists here!
