Saturday, July 18, 2015

Sarah Hilary's debut wins crime novel of the year award

Someone Else’s Skin acclaimed for ‘astounding’ mix of subtle storytelling and bloody subject matter

Sarah Hilary.
‘I do have a dark mind’ ... Sarah Hilary. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
One of the UK’s top crime-writing awards has gone to a debut, after Sarah Hilary won the Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year award with Someone Else’s Skin.

Featuring a detective inspector whose parents have been murdered by her foster brother, a murky mystery involving domestic violence and a hair-raising torture scene, the novel saw off shortlisted titles by major writers including Peter James and Belinda Bauer to win the £3,000 prize on Thursday.

“For a debut novel it was astounding,” said novelist and judge Ann Cleeves. “Although the subject matter is really quite bloody and violent, there are no gratuitous descriptions – instead she has this dreadful sense of horror, but it is done delicately and subtly. It always stops just as your imagination takes over.”
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