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Last week, we had a criminally good time helping to announce the 2020 CRIMEFEST Awards. The 2020 CRIMEFEST Awards were due to be presented at a Gala Dinner during the…
Last week, we had a criminally good time helping to announce the 2020 CRIMEFEST Awards.
The 2020 CRIMEFEST Awards were due to be presented at a Gala Dinner during the convention at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel this June. In light of Covid-19, the winners were announced online at www.crimefest.com and via its social media pages on Tuesday 7 July.
Working with Free@LastTV, the production company behind the huge TV show, Agatha Raisin, we helped script a virtual awards ceremony, which was hosted by actor Matt McCooey, who plays Inspector Bill Wong in the hit series.
Cause UK then issued the awards announcement to The Bookseller, Writers Online and a plethora of crime reading bloggers, such as The Rap Sheet, Crimespree magazine and Shots Mag.
With online engagement being more important than ever in lockdown, we liaised with publicists at the winning author’s publishing houses to ensure a buzz on Twitter.
In the first two hours of announcing the winners, it created 552.9k impressions for @CrimeFest with over 100 tweets. #CrimeFestAwards also generated 717.5k impressions in the first two hours.
Winning authors included Lee Child, Holly Watt, and Laura Shepherd-Robinson who all recorded acceptance speeches with CrimeFest organisers, Adrian Muller and Donna Moore.
The CRIMEFEST awards, hosted by one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, are in their 13th year and celebrate the best crime books released in 2019 in the UK.
Dame Mary Perkins, Specsavers’ founder also recorded a speech, as the convention’s headline sponsor and sponsor of the inaugural Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award. Dame Mary said: “I’m so glad that CRIMEFEST is still happening, albeit online. We’re proud to sponsor the debut crime novel award. Reading and the importance of good vision makes for a very close connection for Specsavers.”
The convention has grown to become not only one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, but also one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar.
If you’re looking for some criminally good reads for the summer, check out the winning authors below…
2020 CRIMEFEST Awards
SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD: Laura Shepherd-Robinson for Blood & Sugar (Mantle)
AUDIBLE SOUND OF CRIME AWARD: Lee Child and Jeff Harding for Blue Moon (Penguin Random House Audio)
eDUNNIT AWARD: Holly Watt for To the Lions (Raven Books)
LAST LAUGH AWARD: Helen FitzGerald for Worst Case Scenario (Orenda Books)
H.R.F. KEATING AWARD: John Curran for The Hooded Gunman (HarperCollins Crime Club)
BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS: Kathryn Evans for Beauty Sleep (Usborne Publishing)
BEST CRIME FICTION NOVEL FOR CHILDREN: Thomas Taylor for Malamander (Walker Books)