Alan Parks’ WW2 trilogy curtain-opener GUNNER longlisted 2025 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year

Ahead of its debut later this month, plaudits are already ringing out for Alan Parks’ new novel GUNNER – the first in a new World War Two-set trilogy – which has made the longlist for this year’s prestigious McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The book will be out in hardback, eBook and audio from Baskerville from 17 July 2025, supported by an array of events in both Scotland and England.

Already a winner of the prize, having scooped the 2022 award for his acclaimed Harry McCoy novel MAY GOD FORGIVE, this year’s longlist recognises Alan’s first foray into wartime Glasgow with wounded cop Joseph Gunner, as he is drawn into an investigation which threatens to bring the frontline much, much closer to home. He is nominated alongside fellow writers Lin Anderson, Tariq Ashkanani, Daniel Aubrey, D.V. Bishop, Heather Critchlow, Allan Gaw, Liam McIlvanney, Callum McSorley, Denise Mina, Ambrose Parry, Ian Rankin and Douglas Skelton.

The shortlist will be revealed in September, with the overall winner to be announced at the opening ceremony of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling, on Friday 12 September. Other recent winners of the prize include Chris Brookmyre, Callum McSorley, Craig Russell and Francine Toon.

Yassine Belkacemi, Editorial Director at John Murray and Baskerville, acquired UK and Commonwealth Rights (excluding Canada) for the trilogy last year, with translation rights quickly snapped up in France (Editions Payot & Rivages), Italy (Bompiani), Spain (Tusquets) and the Netherlands (House of Books). The multi-award winning Harry McCoy series – including McIlvanney winner MAY GOD FORGIVE – is published by Canongate in the UK and in the US by Europa, with translations available in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden, and the Film/TV rights under option.

Congratulations Alan!

About GUNNER

March, 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.

Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to keep his head down as the Luftwaffe begin bombing Glasgow.

But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When the body turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.

As Gunner begins to hunt for the truth he runs into old flames, bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.

Partly inspired by the true story of Rudolph Hess's secret mission to broker appeasement with Britain during WWII, GUNNER is an atmospheric and addictive new thriller from one of Britain's best-loved writers.

Credit: Kevin Thomson

About Alan Parks

Alan Parks worked in the music industry for over twenty years before turning to crime writing.

His debut BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, the Prix Mystère de la Critique in the foreign fiction category, and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel and THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The fifth Harry McCoy book, MAY GOD FORGIVE, was published in April 2022 and won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2022. It was shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. TO DIE IN JUNE, the sixth entry in the series, was published by Canongate in 2023, and longlisted for the 2025 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Harry McCoy series is optioned for television.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city as well as spending time in London.

Praise for GUNNER

‘Great storytelling… I loved it’ – Peter James

‘Great stuff… a vivid sense of place and time and what a main character!’ – Ian Rankin

‘A lean, mean and ruthlessly readable thriller.’ – Vaseem Khan

‘A brilliant milieu, fantastic characters, an exciting story – in other words another typically great Alan Parks novel.’ – Adrian McKinty

‘A superb thriller with a gripping, constantly surprising plot.’ – Andrew Taylor

‘Transports you to the streets of war-torn Glasgow. A gritty, immersive, genuine page-turner.’ – Bridget Walsh, author of the Variety Palace Mystery Series

‘Pulls the reader in from page one. Wonderful, gutsy writing.’ – David Gilman

Praise for Alan Parks

‘One of the great Scottish crime writers’ – The Times

‘Tipped to become an enduring classic of tartan noir.’ – Sunday Post

‘Dark and gritty… Gripping.’ – Crime Monthly

‘A brilliant series’ – Sunday Times Crime Club

‘Bloody and brilliant’ – Louise Welsh (on BLOODY JANUARY)

‘Pitch-black Tartan noir: bleak, but with an emotional heart that's hard to ignore.’ – Daily Mail (on FEBRUARY’S SON)

‘Manoeuvring through the mean streets of Glasgow, the morally ambiguous, deeply flawed McCoy makes an ideal antihero.’ – Publishers Weekly (on BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, Edgar Prize Winner 2022)

‘Altogether one of the best police thrillers of the last few years.’ – Morning Star (on THE APRIL DEAD)

Visit Alan’s website

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THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O’Connor shortlisted for the 2025 Kerry Group Novel of The Year award

THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O’Connor has been shortlisted for the esteemed 2025 Kerry Group Novel of The Year award.

The prize is the largest monetary prize for fiction available solely to an Irish author, with €20,000 awarded to the winner, and €500 to each of the shortlisted writers. Previous winners include SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan, MY NAME IS LEON by Kit de Waal and A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING by Eimear McBride.

The other shortlisted titles for this year’s prize are OUR LONDON LIVES by Christine Dwyer Hickey, HEART, BE AT PEACE by Donal Ryan, LONG ISLAND by Colm Tóibín and TIME OF THE CHILD by Niall Williams. The winner will be announced at the opening ceremony of the Listowel Writers’ Week in County Kerry on Wednesday 28th May.

Ned O’Sullivan, Chairperson of the Board of Listowel Writers’ Week, said, ‘Congratulations to the five shortlisted authors, your novels reflect the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish fiction, and we’re proud to honour your work here in Listowel.’

THE GHOSTS OF ROME is the second in Joseph O’Connor’s riveting Escape Line trilogy and was first published in hardback by Harvill Secker and Europa Editions in January 2025 to great acclaim. It immediately went to Number One in the Irish bestseller chart, and remains in the Irish Original Fiction Top Ten chart now.

The first novel in the trilogy, MY FATHER’S HOUSE, was also an Irish Number One bestseller and has now sold more than 100,000 copies in the English language. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Eason An Post Irish Novel of the year 2023, and also longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award. Film rights are optioned and translation rights are also sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

About THE GHOSTS OF ROME:

February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann.

During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk.

Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal.

Joe is currently working on the next novel in the trilogy, to be published in the UK and the US in early 2027.

Photo credit: Urszula Soltys

About Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin, where he still lives. THE GHOSTS OF ROME is his eleventh novel: he is also the author of film scripts, radio and stage plays, two collections of short stories, and several bestselling works of non-fiction.

2022 was the 20th anniversary of Joseph O’Connor’s novel STAR OF THE SEA which was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies in the UK alone and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

His novel GHOST LIGHT was chosen as Dublin’s One City Book novel for 2011. Published in 2019, SHADOWPLAY, has won him extraordinary praise, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Dalkey Novel Prize, the Costa Novel Prize, among others, and won him Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. The French edition was shortlisted for the Jean Monnet Prize and the Vintage paperback was a Richard and Judy Winter 2020 pick.

He holds an honorary Doctorate in Literature from University College Dublin and received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012. He is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

Praise for THE GHOSTS OF ROME

‘THE GHOSTS OF ROME, Joseph O’Connor’s second novel in his projected trilogy about Rome under Nazi occupation, blazes with the imaginative flair and narrative energy that won its predecessor, MY FATHER’S HOUSE, high acclaim… There’s no slackening of tension, though, in the gripping account of wartime heroism, risk and resourcefulness this book continues. Jeopardy quivers through it… . The ugly stratum of Nazi oppression O’Connor’s novel graphically resurrects is packed with sensuously evoked reminders of Rome's rich past in this haunted and haunting novel.’ – Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times

‘O’Connor’s prose creates an extraordinary picture of Rome under Nazi control; brutal, chaotic, treacherous, decaying, wrecked and crumbling, and yet sometimes still bathed in glorious and unexpected light, literally and metaphorically. THE GHOSTS OF ROME is described as a sequel to MY FATHER’S HOUSE. The term is inadequate. Each can be read without reference to the other, but together they make a whole greater than the parts. An epic of war… O’Connor’s theme is not the world war in its widest sense, nor even the moral discomfort that is Vatican neutrality. Yet THE GHOSTS OF ROME make its own statement about these things. Focusing on people whose response to evil is only to act, he opens us to a humanity too urgent for debate and analysis.’ – Michael Russell, The Irish Times

‘The Choir’s attempts to rescue a grievously wounded Polish airman right under the nose of Gestapo commander Paul Hauptmann, who has been warned of the Fuhrer’s “intense displeasure” at his failure to eradicate the Escape Line, have a nail-bitingly tense “real time” feel to them. BBC interviews from the 1960s with former Choir members and fragments of an unpublished memoir give historical perspective and added pathos to this vivid and moving story, with O’Connor seamlessly combining real characters with imagined ones.’ – Laura Wilson, The Guardian, ‘The best recent crime and thrillers’

‘The power of THE GHOSTS OF ROME comes from the dazzling variety of voices employed, the sense of a world constructed in the multiple dimensions…  O’Connor has often been likened to the great Irish modernists for the lyricism of his voice-driven novels. But THE GHOSTS OF ROME also situates him within a broader European tradition of memory and moral reckoning, one that returns again and again to World War II. O’Connor embraces this legacy while transcending its cliches. His Rome is not merely a setting but a crucible, a city where the sacred and the profane collide, where resilience is forged in the shadow of ruins. By crafting a chorus of voices, he ensures that no single narrative dominates, reflecting the messy, multifaceted truths of history – the way it is lived and how it is constructed in retrospect. What emerges in not just a wartime thriller, though it is that, but a mediation on how we remember, how we resist and how, even in the darkest times, humanity endures.’ – Alex Preston, The New York Times

‘O’Connor has done his research with care, drawing on O’Flaherty’s unpublished letters, diaries and journalism. With his real people in place, the author spins a new tale of derring-do, recounted with the help of imagined interviews conducted many years later… O’Connor paints a lively picture of a city filled with Fascist police and German soldiers, some on furlough from the North, everyone watchful and hungry, the streets filthy, the black-market prices rising every day… THE GHOSTS OF ROME is both a tribute to the imagination and courage of his remarkable team and a riveting thriller.’ – Caroline Moorehead, The Times Literary Supplement

 Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website.

THE MEMORY OF US by Dani Atkins and FELICITY’S WAR by Jean Fullerton shortlisted for the RNA’s 2025 Romantic Novel Awards

THE MEMORY OF US by Dani Atkins and FELICITY’S WAR by Jean Fullerton have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s 2025 Romantic Novel Awards – the former made The Romantic Thriller Award shortlist, while the latter was shortlisted for The Romantic Saga Award.

The RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year Awards are presented annually, recognising and celebrating the very best in romantic fiction.  This year’s winners will be announced during the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year Awards ceremony at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City on 19th May.

Seána Talbot, the RNA chair, says: ‘This year’s shortlist is a tremendous testament to romantic fiction’s diversity and strength. We are proud to celebrate these outstanding books and this exciting mix of new and established writers. They make a vital contribution to this popular, much-loved genre.’

Sharon Ibbotson, the RNA Awards Coordinator, says: ‘Our reader-judges have once again chosen wonderful love stories as this year’s favourites, and their authors deserve their praise. Congratulations to all our finalists and thanks once again to our reader-judges – these awards wouldn’t happen without them.’

In THE MEMORY OF US (Head of Zeus) an accident leaves Amelia with memories of a love story that never existed. Lexi and Nick recreate them in the hopes of triggering the truth – but soon they start to fall for one another…

FELICITY’S WAR (Corvus) follows the recently heartbroken Fliss in wartime London. On a journalistic assignment she crosses paths with Detective Inspector Timothy Wallace – a man who shares her passion for truth and justice, though not her political beliefs. Despite their differences, an instant spark ignites between them. Can their blossoming romance endure the perils ahead?

Dani is already a recipient of three RNA Romantic Novel Awards, with THIS LOVE winning the Goldsboro Romantic Book of the Year Award 2018 and the Epic Novel of the Year Award 2018, A SKY FULL OF STARS winning the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award in 2022 and SIX DAYS winning the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award in 2023.

Dani’s most recent novel, ALWAYS YOU AND ME, was published by Amazon Publishing earlier this month, and Jean’s next novel, THE EAST END GIRLS, is the start of an exciting new series with Bookouture and will be published in June.

Photo credit: Hannah Couzens

About Dani Atkins

Dani Atkins was born in London, and grew up in Cockfosters, Hertfordshire. She now lives in a 350-year-old cottage with her husband, one Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie.

Dani has been writing for fun all her life but, following the 2013 publication of her novel FRACTURED (Head of Zeus), she has made writing her full-time career. FRACTURED has since been published in sixteen languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK.

Praise for THE MEMORY OF US

‘A love story to get lost in – a beautifully written, gripping and moving novel about the lengths we will go to for the people who mean the most to us. Lexi and Nick's story felt timeless and unique all at once, and I was utterly captivated, from start to finish.’ – Holly Miller

‘Gripping, devastating and romantic – this book has it all. A tale of mystery, intrigue, despair and hope – but above all, of love.’ – Gillian Harvey

‘Wow. Atkins really understands her craft. This book has everything, heartache, passion and twists galore. She’s one of my favourite writers. Always delivers.’ – Jenny O’Brien

Follow Dani on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram

 About Jean Fullerton

Jean was born and bred in the overcrowded streets surrounding London Docks where her family have lived since 1825. Being born within the sound of Bow Bells, she’s a true cockney who grew up in what was then the working-class dockland community in Wapping and Stepney, East London. All her published books are set in the streets and alleyways she roamed as a child.

Jean worked for 30 years as a community nurse in East London, starting as a staff nurse and finishing as a university lecturer in Health Studies at London South Bank University.

Praise for Jean Fullerton

‘The queen of East End sagas’ – Elaine Everest

‘Warmth, humour and characters readers care about are Fullerton’s hallmarks.’ – Peterborough Evening Telegraph

‘A brilliant author who is not afraid of the truth’ – Geoffrey Harfield, Historical Novels Society

Visit Jean’s website

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Deon Meyer’s LEO awarded Best Adult Fiction and Book of the Year at the SA Book Awards

UPDATE: we are thrilled to announce that, following the announcement of the SA Book Award winners yesterday (18 December 2024), Deon has been awarded not only the prize for Best Adult Fiction, but also the overall Book of the Year honour – as voted for by booksellers from across South Africa. Congratulations to Deon and LEO!

Upon receiving the award Deon said: ‘I am deeply honoured and grateful to receive the two awards bestowed by the South African booksellers. This recognition means the world to me, and I extend my heartfelt thanks to the association’s members who have supported my journey as an author over the past thirty years. Their acknowledgment inspires me to keep telling stories that connect and resonate.’

***

Bestselling crime sensation Deon Meyer has been shortlisted for the 2024 SA Book Awards in the Fiction category with LEO. Celebrating the best books written and published in South Africa, and voted for by booksellers from across South Africa, the nomination comes as the latest honour for Deon’s newest hit book, following the awarding of the ATKV-Woordveertjies Prize for best Afrikaans Thriller, and its domination of the bestseller lists in both its English and Afrikaans editions. The winners of the awards will be announced once voting closes on 8 December 2024.

Meanwhile, in the UK, LEO has also been named one of the Best Thrillers of 2024 by The Sunday Times, with critic James Owen describing the book as ‘a masterly portrait of a nation in deep crisis’. ‘Despite his unsentimental eye, Meyer makes you care for his characters’ fates,’ wrote Owen in his initial review for the paper; ‘LEO may be his best yet.’ While in the UK last month, Deon also gave an exclusive feature interview with Matt Nixson for the Daily Express, reflecting on South Africa and the writing of LEO. In praise of Deon’s works, Nixson said that ‘Meyer’s books… are as entertaining as they are thought-provoking’, adding that LEO, with its daring heist plot strand, ‘has already been described as “the African Job”, in a nod to the classic Turin-set Michael Caine movie’.

LEO was first published in South Africa, in Afrikaans, by Human and Rousseau in October 2023, with the English-language edition (translated by K.L. Seegers) from Hodder and Stoughton, in partnership with Jonathan Ball Publishers, launched in October this year. Grove Atlantic will publish in the US and Canada on 18 February 2025, and LEO is already out in France (Editions Gallimard), the Netherlands (A W Bruna) and Germany (Aufbau), where Deon recently completed a multi-city author tour.

LEO picks up the story of Meyer’s heroes Detectives Benny Griessel – now the star of M-Net (South Africa) and Tubi (US) series DEVIL’S PEAK – and Vaughn Cupido. Following the explosive events of THE DARK FLOOD, the detectives are now languishing in Stellenbosch. Run-of-the-mill police work in the leafy university town is a far cry from their previous life in Cape Town fighting crime and government corruption at the highest level. Then a student is found dead on a mountain trail, and the key suspect, a local businessman, is found murdered in what looks like a professional hit delivering a message – suffocated by fast-action filler foam sprayed down his throat.

On the other side of the country, a beautiful wildlife guide is recruited by a group of special forces soldiers to act as a honeytrap, part of a dangerous multi-million-dollar heist that goes tragically wrong. A single link connects the murdered businessman to the special forces, making Benny and Vaughn’s case all the more mysterious. Another former soldier is soon killed, as is an agent of the country’s disgraced former president; and then the heist crew reorganizes with an even more audacious theft in mind.

Following leads as they fly at them, not sure exactly who to trust and struggling to connect the dots as the motives don’t seem to add up, Benny and Vaughn find their case increasingly points to the corruption polluting the country. They know the clock is ticking – and Benny also has to be at the altar on time for his very anxiously-anticipated wedding day…

About Deon Meyer

Deon Meyer lives in Stellenbosch. His books are sold in 31 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, the Martin Beck Award in Sweden and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger, THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune’s ‘10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004’. THE DARK FLOOD was longlisted for the 2023 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation. His latest novel LEO, a new Benny Griessel thriller, enjoyed ten weeks at the top of the South African bestseller lists, Number One in all categories.

Adaptations of Deon’s novels have recently had great success on screen: in April 2024, HEART OF THE HUNTER topped the global Netflix film charts, becoming the first African film to do so, with over 11 million views in its first two days alone. DEVIL’S PEAK was also adapted for a miniseries by Lookout Point and Expanded Media Productions, premiering on M-Net in South Africa in 2023 before reaching audiences in the USA, New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. In 2020, TRACKERS, produced by Three River Fiction and Scene 23, aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK and HBO in the USA, as well as Australia and New Zealand, and across the Nordic countries and Europe.

Praise for LEO

‘Deon Meyer, who is not just the finest crime writer in South Africa but one of the best anywhere, juggles labyrinthine plot strands with a mass of local detail and sociopolitical commentary… with Meyer supplying the usual panoramic canvas of post-apartheid South Africa. The plotting is nonpareil, but it’s the two bloody-minded detectives who grip our attention.’ – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

‘Meyer expertly interlaces his main narrative threads in shrewd and unpredictable ways, remaining one step ahead of readers as he ushers the plot to a rollicking conclusion. This intelligent page-turner confirms Meyer’s reputation as a master of the police procedural." – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

‘Despite his unsentimental eye, Meyer makes you care for his characters’ fates as they face ambushes and double-crosses before an Italian Job-style climax in the bush. His thrillers are portraits of a country in deep crisis and LEO may be his best yet.’ – James Owen, The Times

‘When a new Deon Meyer lands on the shelves, I feel like WH Auden: “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone / Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.” All 490 pages of such a book have to be devoured in one sitting. Keep it for the holidays, or for a weekend when you have nothing planned… You’ll be on the edge of your seat, chewing your nails… Modern-day Afrikaans struts its stuff in all its different dresses. Our language has excellent crime writers. Meyer is the best, if you ask me... Buy LEO and take a day or two off work.’ – Deborah Steinmair, Vrye Weekblad

‘With blistering set pieces, a keen eye for dialogue – Meyer weaves a dramatic and powerful narrative with a vivid [and colourfully ‘alien’] backdrop that is literary escapism at its absolute zenith. To miss the return of our South African detectives would be a crime.’ – Ali Karim, Shots Mag

Praise for Deon Meyer

‘He’s up there with the best in the world.’ – Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘I love Deon Meyer novels. It’s global storytelling at its best, with the undeniable hallmarks of gritty realism and deep character building.’ – Michael Connelly

‘Deon Meyer's name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best.’ – Tess Gerritsen

‘Deon Meyer is one of the giants of crime fiction.’ – El Mundo

‘One of the best crime writers on the planet.’ – Mail on Sunday

Visit Deon’s website

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RECIPES TO LIVE FOR by Sally Andrew shortlisted for the 2024 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Sally Andrew’s mouth-watering cookbook, RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR, has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2024 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in two categories – the Acknowledgements Award and Local Regions Award.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau. Every year, they honour the best food and wine books, printed or digital, as well as food-focused television. This year there are participants from 221 countries and regions, with 1250 nominations. The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony in June 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal.

The other titles that made the Acknowledgements Award shortlist are: DOOR73 by Eric Ivanidis and Marcelo Ballardin (Belgium); QUININE REMAINS by Townsend Middleton (India); LOS FERMENTOS DEL BOSQUE by Andrea Martin (Spain); NOODLES, RICE & EVERYTHING SPICE by Christina de Witte and Mallika Kruppinen (Thailand). The other titles nominated for the Local Regions Award are: DEL GARUM AL LIMONCELLO by Enzio Falcone (Italy); COMERES RAJANOS, COCINAS RAYANAS edited by Confraria Gastronómica do Alentejo (Portugal); LAGOM SVENSK by Louise Bondebjer (Sweden); EAT LOCAL: BUENGKAN by Suthipong Suriya (Thailand) and REGIONAL COOKING OF ENGLAND by Carol Wilson (UK).

RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR features recipes from Sally Andrew’s beloved Tannie Maria murder mystery series, as well as some tantalising new additions, all seasoned with beautiful photographs of the food and the South African landscape. Spiced with enjoyable sayings from the four bestselling novels, as well as letters written to ‘Tannie Maria’s Love Advice and Recipe Column’, RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR is as warm and witty as Tannie Maria herself, guaranteed to delight fans and newcomers to the series.

Many of the dishes are slow foods and traditional South African recipes, but there are also quick meals and new inventions, from nachos to spekboom ice cream. Whether you are craving a Karoo lamb pie or sweet melktert or a syrupy koeksister, you’ll find something to discover and savour among Tannie Maria’s culinary delights.

The Tannie Maria murder mystery series was recently adapted into an acclaimed television series, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER. Season Two will be released in 2025.  Amongst other accolades, it was shortlisted in the Comedy Drama and Sitcom category at the Rose d’Or Awards and is now available to watch on terrestrial television in the UK.

Sally is currently working on the next novel in the Tannie Maria series.

About Sally Andrew

Sally Andrew divides her time between Muizenberg on the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, where she lives with her artist partner and various wildlife (including a giant eland and a secretive leopard). Sally has published a number of non-fiction books on adult and environmental education.

Her first novel, RECIPES FOR LOVE & MURDER: A Tannie Maria Mystery was a Kirkus Best Book of 2015, A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book 2015, The Bookseller Fiction editor’s Choice 2015 and A Good Housekeeping Book of the Month. She is now writing the fifth book in the bestselling series.

Praise for Sally Andrew’s Tannie Maria mystery series

‘If you want a vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable read about detection (and cooking) in an intriguing part of southern Africa, then this is the book for you. A triumph.’ – Alexander McCall Smith

‘Utterly delicious, to the very last morsel.’ – Deon Meyer

‘Chock full of good food and interesting characters.’ – Kerry Greenwood, author of the PHRYNE FISHER and CORINNA CHAPMAN series

‘Murder mysteries, good food, and South African anecdotes make the perfect recipe for a murder mystery series. These books follow Tannie Maria, a recipe writer turned true crime fighter, as she solves mysteries. With an average of 4/5 stars on Goodreads, you can bet that these funny and charming books are well worth adding to your TBR.’ – Jade McGee, Woman & Home

 Visit Sally’s website.

 Follow Sally on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.