Finalists uncloaked in Three Book Categories of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2010

News: The finalists in the three book categories of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2010 on ITV3, have been announced:

CWA GOLD DAGGER 2010
Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (Corgi/Transworld)
Blood Harvest by S J Bolton (Bantam Press/Transworld)
Shadowplay by Karen Campbell (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Way Home by George Pelecanos (Orion)

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 2010, SPONSORED BY IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS LTD
A Loyal Spy by Simon Conway (Hodder & Stoughton)
Innocent by Scott Turow (Mantle)
The Dying Light by Henry Porter (Orion)
The Gentlemen's Hour by Don Winslow (Heinemann/Random House)

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2010
Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn (Macmillan New Writing)
Rupture by Simon Lelic (Picador)
The Holy Thief by William Ryan (Mantle)
The Pull of the Moon by Diane Janes (Constable & Robinson)

The announcement of these finalists coincides with the launch of the completely integrated Crime Thriller promotional period which will see posters and stickered books in shops and supermarkets, coverage in the press, and trailers on ITV1 and ITV3. The initiative has the support of leading publishers and highstreet retailers and is now well established as a major industry-wide event.

Forming the basis of the official Specsavers Crime Thriller Season, ITV3 will start a six-week run of brand new crime and thriller documentaries on Tuesday 31st August. These hour-long documentaries will focus on TV’s greatest detectives and showcase the shortlisted novels in the book award categories.

In this major new TV campaign, in the six weeks leading up to The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2010, the British public will get the chance to vote for their favourite TV detective of all time. Over the six-week season of documentaries on ITV3, twelve different fictional detectives will be profiled - each of them a nominee for ‘The People’s Detective’ Dagger, which will be presented at The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.

Drawing extensively on archive from ITV’s impressive crime thriller back catalogue, each profile show will feature two of the nation’s best-loved TV detectives. The series examines the detectives’ quirks and foibles, meets their sidekicks, re-visits their most challenging cases and re-lives their greatest triumphs, in addition to revealing behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes. Linking these memorable on-screen moments, will be newly filmed interviews with the stars of the nation’s favourite crime thriller dramas, the creators of TV’s biggest screen sleuths, and their famous fans.

The 2010 Awards - the third annual event produced by Cactus TV for ITV3, and the second annual event sponsored by Specsavers and in conjunction with the Crime Writers' Association - will take place on the evening of Friday 8th October in The Ballroom of the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London. The Awards will be screened on ITV3 the following week.