Alan Parks has been awarded the Prix Mystère De La Critique for BOBBY MARS FOREVER – the French title of BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, the third book in Parks’s critically acclaimed Harry McCoy series. The much-loved series has won awards in several countries – this follows the Edgar Prize win for the same title in the US and the McIlvanney Prize for MAY GOD FORGIVE, presented at the Bloody Scotland festival last year.
Alan was presented with this latest prize in person at the Un Aller Retour Dans Le Noir festival in Pau on Sunday (1 October 2023). The award, one of the longest-running crime novel prizes in France, is given by Georges Rieben and his colleagues from the Mystère Magazine, with one prize for the best French crime novel, and another for international crime writing in translation.
Alan was also awarded, for the second year running, the Prix Rivages des Libraires – an honour bestowed by a panel of 100 participating booksellers from across France – following on from his 2022 victory for his previous Harry McCoy novel, L'ENFANT DE FÉVRIER (FEBRUARY’S SON).
All of the Harry McCoy novels by Alan Parks are published in France by Editions Payots-Rivages, with their next translation, THE APRIL DEAD, out in Spring 2024. The 6th McCoy title TO DIE IN JUNE, was published by Canongate in the UK in June 2023 and will be out in the US from Europa in June 2024. The Harry McCoy series is published further in translation in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden. Film/TV rights are also under option.
Congratulations Alan!
About BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER
Glasgow. August 1973. A city on fire. Who is to blame when no one is innocent ? The papers want blood. The force wants results. The law must be served, whatever the cost.
July 1973. The Glasgow drugs trade is booming and Bobby March, the city's own rock-star hero, has just overdosed in a central hotel. Alice Kelly is twelve years old, lonely. And missing. Meanwhile the niece of McCoy's boss has fallen in with a bad crowd and when she goes AWOL, McCoy is asked — off the books — to find her. McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time?
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. Most recently, TO DIE IN JUNE, the sixth entry in the series, was published by Canongate in 2023. 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 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)
‘Manoeuvering 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)
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