Martin Beck Award Winners List
- R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British-Zimbabwean writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues. He has since become internationally known as a writer of fiction, with sales of English-language versions exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is most widely known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. "McCall" is not a middle name: his two-part surname is "McCall Smith".
- Anders Bodelsen (born 1937) is a prolific Danish writer primarily associated with the 1960 new-realism wave in Danish literature, along with Christian Kampmann and Henrik Stangerup. Bodelsen prefers the social-realistic style of writing, often thrillers about middle-class people who face the consequences of materialism, which often clashes with their human values. His thrillers also experiment with ordinary persons tempted by e.g. theft and border-morale issues. Most famous is his ingenious novel Think of a Number (Tænk på et tal, 1968) filmed as The Silent Partner in 1978. Also widely known is his cooperation with Danish National Television (Danmarks Radio) on the filming of some of his children's thrillers, e.g. Guldregn ("Golden Shower", 1986). Furthermore, he has also made some lesser known radio plays. He has a very brief cameo in the second of the Olsen-banden series of films, Olsen-banden på spanden.
- Andrea Maria Schenkel (born 21 March 1962 in Regensburg, West Germany) is a German writer. She published her debut novel Tannöd in 2006. Based on the Hinterkaifeck murder in the 1920s, Schenkel’s fictional account takes place in the 1950s. She describes, in ghastly and suspenseful detail, how a small Bavarian village, called Tannöd, became the unlikely site of a horrific crime. In her novel, a whole family – the farmer, his wife and children, the maidservants and farm laborers – are all killed in one night. Nobody had liked the family: they had been unfriendly, greedy and crabby. But now after the outrage, fear dominates life in the village. Nobody knows the murderer. Slowly, anxious and shocked every witness gives his statement. Speculation and assumptions about the case are described in a direct, merciless and impressive manner. With her debut novel, Andrea Schenkel presents not only thrilling crime and fiction. She also draws the pitiless portraits of a bigoted and unromantic rural society influenced by traumatic relations that finally lead to death. More than one million copies were sold in Germany. The work has been published in more than 20 languages, with foreign rights sold to France (Actes Sud), Italy (Riuniti), the Netherlands (Signature), Sweden (Ersatz), Norway and Denmark. In 2009, Constantin Film released Tannöd, starring Julia Jentsch and Volker Bruch. Her first novel won the Deutscher Krimi Preis (German award for crime thrillers) in the category "Best National Crime Thriller 2007". In 2008, Tannöd won Sweden’s Martin Beck Award, which is given to the best detective story translated into Swedish. The English translation of the novel was released by Quercus Publishing on 5 June 2008. The title is The Murder Farm. Quercus released a paperback edition of "The Murder Farm" on 26 December 2008. In June 2014, Quercus published the work in the United States, which The New York Times announced in a profile of Schenkel. In August 2007, Schenkel published her second novel, Kalteis, which focuses on a serial killer in 1930s Germany. It is set in Munich where female bodies keep surfacing around the city and the circumstantial evidence points to the unassuming and married Joseph Kalteis. Kalteis also won the Deutscher Krimi Preis in the category "Best National Crime Thriller 2008" – the first time an author won the award for two consecutive years. Her third book, "Bunker," was published by Nautilus in 2009. Her novel, "Tauscher," was published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2013; it was preceded by "Finsterau," published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2012, and by Quercus, under the title "The Dark Meadow," in 2014. In June 2015, Quercus US published "Kalteis" under the title "Ice Cold," and in March 2016, Hoffman und Campe will publish her next work, "Als die Liebe endlich war" ("Where Love Ends"), which takes readers from 1930s Germany to World War II-era Shanghai to 21st-century America. Her most recent novel, Als die Liebe endlich war, was published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2016; the French version, Le bracelet, was published by Actes Sud in 2018. Andrea Maria Schenkel lives with her family near Regensburg.
- Andrew Taylor (born 14 October 1951) is a British author best known for his crime novels, which include the Lydmouth series, the Roth Trilogy and historical novels such as the best-selling The American Boy and The Ashes of London. His accolades include the Diamond Dagger, Britain's top crime-writing award.
- Anthony Berkeley Cox (5 July 1893 – 9 March 1971) was an English crime writer. He wrote under several pen-names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts.
Anthony Price
Alan Anthony Price (16 August 1928 – 30 May 2019) was an author of espionage thrillers. Price was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England. He attended The King's School, Canterbury and served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949, reaching the rank of Captain. He read History at Merton College, Oxford from 1949 to 1952, and was awarded an MA in 1956. Price was a journalist with the Westminster Press from 1952 to 1988, as well as the editor of the Oxford Times from 1972 to 1988. He was the author of nineteen novels in the Dr David Audley/Colonel Jack Butler series. These books focus on a group of counter-intelligence agents who work for an organization loosely based on the real MI5. Price died in Blackheath, London from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 30 May 2019, at the age of 90.- Arnaldur Indriðason (pronounced [ˈartnaltʏr ˈɪntrɪðasɔn]; born 8 January 1961) is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction; most of his books feature the protagonist Detective Erlendur.
- Barry Unsworth FRSL (10 August 1930 – 4 June 2012) was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel Sacred Hunger.
- A prolific figure in British comedy, Ben Elton is a multi-faceted creative juggernaut. Born on May 3, 1959, in Catford, South East London, he moved to Godalming, Surrey, where he attended the prestigious Godalming Grammar School. Elton furthered his studies at the University of Manchester where he honed his craft in drama. This was the incubator for his comedic genius, and it wasn't long before his talent was recognized and he started his journey into stardom. Elton's career took off in the early 1980s when he began writing for the iconic television show The Young Ones, quickly establishing himself as a formidable writer. His satirical style resonated with audiences, leading to successful collaborations with Richard Curtis for the historic sitcom Blackadder. The show, starring Rowan Atkinson, brought him two BAFTA awards and firmly cemented his reputation in the annals of British comedy. In addition to scriptwriting, Elton ventured onto stage comedy, becoming well-known for his politically charged stand-up routines. Not one to limit his creativity, Elton extended his writing prowess to the literary world. His debut novel, Stark, published in 1989, became an international bestseller, paving the way for a succession of successful novels like Gridlock, Popcorn, and Blast from the Past. Several of his books have been adapted into plays and films, showcasing his versatile storytelling ability. As well as his successes in television and literature, Elton also made significant contributions to the world of theater. His musical We Will Rock You, based on the music of Queen, debuted in 2002 and ran for an impressive twelve years in London's West End. Elton's unique blend of satire, humor, and keen social commentary have made him a master storyteller and an influential figure in the realm of entertainment.
- Brian Francis Wynne Garfield (January 26, 1939 – December 29, 2018) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of 18 and wrote many novels under such pen names as "Frank Wynne" and "'Brian Wynne" before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch (1975) won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel. He is best known for his 1972 novel Death Wish, which was adapted for the 1974 film of the same title, followed by four sequels, and the 2018 remake. His follow-up 1975 sequel to Death Wish, Death Sentence, was very loosely adapted into the 2007 film of the same name; it had an entirely different storyline, but with the novel's same look on vigilantism. Garfield is also the author of The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. Garfield's latest book, published in 2007, is Meinertzhagen, the biography of controversial British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen. Garfield was born in New York City, the son of Frances O'Brien, a portrait artist, and George Garfield. He was the nephew of chorus dancer and stage manager Chester O'Brien. Garfield died in Pasadena, California, in December 2018 at the age of 79.
- Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968) was an American novelist and short story writer who wrote using the name Cornell Woolrich, and sometimes the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich the fourth best crime writer of his day, behind Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler.
- David Guterson ( GUT-ər-sən; born May 4, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. He is best known as the author of the book Snow Falling on Cedars.
Doris Gercke
Doris Gercke (born 7 February 1937 in Greifswald) is an award-winning German writer of crime thrillers. She also works under the nom de plume Mary-Jo Morell.- Arguably one of the most popular and prolific genre writers of the 20th century, Elmore Leonard brought street smarts, honesty and an ear for genuine dialogue to the Western and crime novels for over five decades, including such works as Hombre (1967), The Big Bounce (1969), Glitz (1985), Get Shorty (1990) and Rum Punch (1992). Leonard's best work sparkled with a blend of dark humor and violence that elevated his characters - a roguish collection of criminals and cops whose moral codes often made them indistinguishable from each other - from their humble surroundings, usually his preferred settings of Detroit and Miami. A cult favorite in the 1960s and 1970s, his work had been fodder for Hollywood since the 1950s, but was never properly translated until the 1990s when Barry Sonnenfeld adapted "Get Shorty" (1995). Quentin Tarantino followed with a compelling take on Rum Punch that the director renamed "Jackie Brown" (1997), while Steven Soderbergh helmed arguably the best of the bunch, "Out of Sight" (1998). Still producing one novel a year up until his 2013 death, while remaining a hot commodity in Hollywood, Leonard was among the greatest genre writers of his time.
- Frederick McCarthy Forsyth, (born 25 August 1938) is an English author, journalist, spy, and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Kill List. Forsyth's works frequently appear on best-sellers lists and more than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. He has sold more than 70 million books in total.
Iain Pears
Iain George Pears (born 8 August 1955) is an English art historian, novelist and journalist.- John Franklin Bardin (November 30, 1916 – July 9, 1981) was an American crime writer, best known for three novels he wrote between 1946 and 1948.
- David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020), better known by the pen name John le Carré, was a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author. Several of his books have been adapted for film and television, including The Constant Gardener, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Night Manager. In 2011, he was awarded the Goethe Medal.
- Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons) (pronounced SIMM-ons; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London and died in the Dover district of Kent.
- Karin Fossum (born 6 November 1954) is a Norwegian author of crime fiction, often referred to as the "Norwegian queen of crime".
- Leonard Cyril Deighton (; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. Deighton is considered one of the top three spy novelists of his time (along with Ian Fleming and John le Carré). In addition he is a highly acclaimed military historian, cookery writer, and graphic artist. The IPCRESS File (1962), his first novel, was an instant bestseller and broke the mould of thriller writing. The Sunday Times called him "the poet of the spy story". Deighton’s first protagonist – a nameless spy christened Harry Palmer in the films – was made famous worldwide in 1960s films starring Michael Caine.
Leslie Thomas
Leslie Thomas, OBE (22 March 1931 – 6 May 2014) was a Welsh author best known for his comic novel The Virgin Soldiers.- Maarten 't Hart (born 25 November 1944 in Maassluis) is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the University of Leiden, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a novelist in 1971 under the name Martin Hart with Stenen voor een ransuil ("Stones for a Long-Eared Owl"). He is the author of many novels, including Het Woeden der Gehele Wereld and De kroongetuige. His books have been translated into a number of European languages, and he is especially popular in Germany. Three of his novels, Een vlucht regenwulpen (A Flight of Curlews, trans. 1986), De aansprekers (Bearers of Bad Tidings, trans. 1983), and De zonnewijzer (The Sundial, trans. 2004) have appeared in English, as have a few of his short stories. The themes of his novels, which often have an autobiographical component, include: the hometown of his youth, Maassluis the strict form of the Protestantism with which he was brought up, and his rebellion against it the love of a man for a woman the relationship between an elderly man and a young man (e.g. a father and his son, a teacher and a student) guilt.His writings are full of detailed descriptions of nature (e.g. the weather, insects, plants) and show his passionate love for classical music (especially the music of the composers Bach, Mozart and Schubert). Hart is supporter of the Party for Animals, and, in 2004, agreed with the party to underline that by becoming a candidate in the European elections. However, for this he needed an official identity document, and he has no driving licence, and had neither a passport nor another identity document (he had not been abroad for 10 years), and, for reasons of principle, did not want to get one for this purpose. He is also a prominent radio and television personality, and a regular contributor to daily newspapers. He currently lives in Warmond, close to Leiden, with his wife. His chief pastimes are music – he plays the piano and the organ – and reading. He says he reads six books a week, in Dutch, English, German, and French. He knows very little about films and rarely watches one. He does not want to be involved in films based on his books. He was, however, "rat consultant" to Werner Herzog for the film Nosferatu the Vampyre. This turned out to be a disagreeable experience about which he wrote a story, "Ongewenste zeereis", that appeared in 2004 in Granta under the title "Rats".
- Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (14 June 1939 in Barcelona – 18 October 2003 in Bangkok) was a prolific Spanish writer: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humorist, critic and political prisoner as well as a gastronome and a FC Barcelona supporter.
Margaret Yorke
Margaret Yorke (30 January 1924 – 17 November 2012), the pseudonym of Margaret Beda Nicholson (née Larminie), was an English crime fiction writer.Mary Willis Walker
Mary Willis Walker (born May 24, 1942, Fox Point, Wisconsin) is an American crime fiction author.- Matti Yrjänä Joensuu (31 October 1948, Helsinki, Finland – 4 December 2011, Valkeakoski, Finland) was a Finnish writer of crime fiction. He has been awarded the State's Literature Prize (1982), Vuoden johtolanka prize (1985, 1994, 2004), and he has been nominated for two Finlandias. He received the Martin Beck Award in 1987. Joensuu's Harjunpää stories have also been adapted for Film & TV. Joensuu's work has been translated into English, Bulgarian, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, French, Swedish, German, Slovak, Danish, Hungarian, Armenian, Russian and Estonian.
- Peter Robinson (born March 17, 1950) is an English-Canadian crime writer. He is best known for his crime novels set in Yorkshire featuring Inspector Alan Banks. He has also published a number of other novels and short stories as well as some poems and two articles on writing.
- Philippe Claudel (born 2 February 1962) is a French writer and film director.Claudel was born in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, Meurthe-et-Moselle. In addition to his writing, Claudel is a Professor of Literature at the University of Nancy.He directed the 2008 film I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime). Much admired, it won the 2009 BAFTA for the best film not in English.
Pierre Magnan
Pierre Magnan was a writer.Richard Neely
Richard Forlani Neely was a justice and chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from 1973 to 1995. When he took office, he became the youngest judge of a court of last resort in the English-speaking world in the 20th century.- Ross Thomas (February 19, 1926 in Oklahoma City – December 18, 1995 in Santa Monica, California) was an American writer of crime fiction. He is best known for his witty thrillers that expose the mechanisms of professional politics. He also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck about professional go-between Philip St. Ives. Thomas served with the infantry in the Philippines during World War II. He worked as a public relations specialist, correspondent with the Armed Forces Network, union spokesman, and political strategist in the USA, Bonn (Germany), and Nigeria before becoming a writer.His debut novel, The Cold War Swap, was written in only six weeks and won a 1967 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Briarpatch earned the 1985 Edgar for Best Novel. In 2002 he was honored with the inaugural Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award, one of only two authors to earn the award posthumously (the other was 87th Precinct author Ed McBain in 2006). In addition to his novels, Mr. Thomas also wrote an original screenplay for producer Robert Evans entitled Jimmy the Rumour. The project is the story of a man born without an identity who works as a thief stealing from other thieves. He died of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California two months before his 70th birthday.
- Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (née Grasemann; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015), was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.Rendell's best-known creation, Chief Inspector Wexford, was the hero of many popular police stories, some of them successfully adapted for TV. But Rendell also wrote a second type of crime novel that deeply explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims, many of them mentally afflicted or otherwise socially isolated. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.
Scott Smith
Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter, who has published two novels, A Simple Plan and The Ruins. His screen adaptation of A Simple Plan earned him an Academy Award nomination. The screenplay won a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and a National Board of Review Award. Smith was born in Summit, New Jersey in 1965 and moved to Toledo, Ohio as a child. After graduating from Dartmouth College and from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing, he took up writing full-time. His second novel, The Ruins, was also adapted into a film, released on April 4, 2008. Stephen King called it "the best horror novel of the new century." King had also called A Simple Plan "simply the best suspense novel of the year." In 2016 it was announced that TNT had greenlit a pilot for "Civil", a new TV series created by Smith about a second American Civil War following a hotly contested presidential election.- Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 11 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Films have been based on several of his books.
- Sébastien Japrisot (4 July 1931 – 4 March 2003) was a French author, screenwriter and film director, born in Marseille. His pseudonym was an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Rossi, his real name. Japrisot has been nicknamed "the Graham Greene of France". Famous in the Francophony, he is little known in the English-speaking world, though a number of his novels have been translated into English and have been made into films.
Thomas H. Cook
Thomas H. Cook (born September 19, 1947) is an American author, whose 1996 novel The Chatham School Affair received an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America.- Tim Krabbé (born 13 April 1943) is a Dutch journalist and novelist. Krabbé was born in Amsterdam. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the Netherlands. Once a competitive cyclist, he is known to Dutch readers for his novel De Renner (The Rider), first published in 1978 and translated into English in 2002, of which The Guardian's Matt Seaton wrote: "Nothing better is ever likely to be written on the subjective experience of cycle-racing". English readers know him primarily for The Vanishing (Dutch: Spoorloos, literally: "Traceless" or "Without a Trace"), the translation of his 1984 novel Het Gouden Ei (The Golden Egg), which was made into an acclaimed 1988 Dutch film for which Krabbé co-wrote a script. A poorly received American remake was made in 1993. In 1997 he published De grot, translated as The Cave and published in the U.S.in 2000. In 2009, he wrote the "Boekenweekgeschenk", called Een Tafel vol Vlinders. Also a former championship chess player, Krabbé maintains a chess website, and he is renowned for his writings on the subject, in particular on chess problems; for instance, one of his publications is devoted to the Babson task. Krabbé once authored a chess puzzle which featured a rook castling vertically (see joke chess problem), before this move was specifically disallowed. His FIDE rating is 2274.[1] His father was the painter Maarten Krabbé (1908–2005) and his mother the Jewish film translator Margreet Reiss. He is the brother of actor Jeroen Krabbé and the multimedia artist/designer Mirko Krabbé, and the uncle of Martijn Krabbé, a Dutch media personality.
