International honourees were Peter Temple (Truth), Don Winslow (Savages) and Kate Atkinson (Started Early, Took my Dog). The award does not entail any prize money and is awarded for literary excellence and achievement of new impulses for the genre.
None of these books have already been translated into english yet.
First Prize : Wer das Schweigen bricht (The one who breaks the silence) by Mechtild Borrmann, 224 pages, published by Pendragon, Feb 2011.
After the death of his father, Robert Lubisch finds at his father’s house, a box containing a picture of a woman he never met and identity papers of an SS named Wilhelm Peters. What connection does this have with Friedhelm Lubisch, his father, an honourable business man?
Intrigued, Robert Lubisch starts to investigate and discovers the identity of the lady, a woman named Therese. He meets the journalist Rita Albers, who actually tracks Therese. Therese knows the truth about a dark history that took place during World War II: In 1939, six young men and women had promised each other to always stay friends. But nazism and war have undermined this friendship: betrayal, murder … and at the end resentment.
Robert Lubisch is far, very far from suspecting the truth with Therese.
2nd prize : Süden by Friedrich Ani, Droemer mars 2011
Friederich Ani was born in 1959 and lives in Munich. Four of his novels featuring Dectective Tabor Süden won the German Crime Novel of the Year award. His first novel featuring Polonius Fischer (Idylle der Hyänen, Zsolnay, 2006) received the prestigious Tukan Prize of the City of Munich for Best Novel of the Year and prompted critic Tobias Gohlis of Die Zeit to hail Ani as ‘one of the best crime writers of today.’
3rd prize : Zeugin der Toten (The Cleaner) by Elisabeth Herrmann, List Hardcover, March 2011
Elisabeth Herrmann is one the most exciting voices of our time. Lively, dark and atmospheric, her writing style has been delighting readers of crime fiction since the publication of The Sitter in 2005, which is currently being filmed. The author lives in Berlin.
Judith Kepler is a ‘cleaner’ – the person who removes all traces of death once the police have completed their work at a crime scene. A clean-up job after a particularly drawnout and bloody murder plunges Judith into the dark world of international espionage, when she discovers that the murdered woman – Christina Borg – had Judith’s own files from the children’s home that they once apparently shared. Judith’s quest to discover her link to Borg attracts the attention of the CIA, of German intelligence agencies and of unknown rogue agents who are trying to find a ‘lost’ microfilm uncovered by Borg and which contains details of top East German spies in senior positions in the West.
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