The Davitt Award winners 2020
Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.
Adult crime novels
The Trespassers by Meg Mundell
Fleeing their pandemic-stricken homelands, a shipload of migrant workers departs the UK, dreaming of a fresh start in prosperous Australia. Among them is nine-year-old Cleary Sullivan, Glaswegian songstress Billie Galloway, and impoverished English schoolteacher Tom Garnett. When a crew member is found murdered and passengers start falling gravely ill, the Steadfast is plunged into chaos and – thrown together by chance – the three must join forces to survive the journey and its aftermath.
“This is literary speculative fiction at its absolute best.” – Ellen Cregan, Marketing Coordinator
Young adult crime novels
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
Keralie Corrington is one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves – but when she steals an unexpectedly valuable package from a messenger she is soon entangled in a conspiracy that leads to all four of Quadara’s queens being murdered. With no other choices and on the run from her former employer, Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the Eonist messenger she stole from, and together they race to discover who has killed the queens.
Four Dead Queens is a fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences.
Children’s crime novels
The Girl in the Mirror by Jenny Blackford
Maddy is picked on by bullies at her new school and terrified by ghosts in the old house her family has moved to – but she soon becomes friends with Clarissa, who slept in that same room and used the same mirror more than 100 years earlier. Then Maddy’s baby brother nearly dies of whooping cough, and Clarissa discovers that her poisonous Aunt Lily is even more evil than she seems…
The Girl in the Mirror is an enthralling middle-grade novel.
Non-fiction crime books
Banking Bad by Adele Ferguson
Few people were more instrumental in bringing about the banking royal commission than journalist and author Adele Ferguson. Now, in Banking Bad, she tells the full story of the events that led to the royal commission with insight. She also looks to the future and asks: ‘Now what?’ With the government that resisted the commission re-elected, will it be business as usual now, or will those financial executives in their ivory towers have learnt that their wealth cannot come at the expense of ordinary Australians?
Banking Bad is a book for every person with a bank account.
Debut titles
Eight Lives by Susan Hurley
Former refugee David Tran becomes the Golden Boy of Australian medical research when he invents a drug that could transform immunology. Eight volunteers are recruited for the first human trial – a crucial step on the path to global fame for David and windfall gains for his investors. But when David dies in baffling circumstances, motives are put under the microscope.
“This simmering blockbuster will keep you guessing, pull the rug out from under you, make you gasp –- and it won’t let up until the very end.” – Fiona Hardy, bookseller at Readings Doncaster
