Blacklands

Gold Dagger Award · 2010 · Winner

Black SwanFebruary 5, 2009mystery-crimeISBN 9780552775175

Award History

Award	Year	Status	Citation
Gold Dagger Award	2010	Winner	“Belinda Bauer's debut won the Gold Dagger for its extraordinary psychological tension, its empathetic rendering of a child's obsession, and the raw emotional daring of its premise.”

About This Book

Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb believes a serial killer buried his uncle's body on Exmoor, and begins a terrifying correspondence with the killer in prison in an effort to find closure for his grandmother and his community.

About the Author

Belinda BauerGB

Belinda Bauer is a British crime fiction author who won the CWA Gold Dagger for her debut novel Blacklands in 2010, a remarkable achievement for a first novel. Her work is known for its dark humor, rural English settings, and psychologically complex characters, particularly in her Somerset-set series featuring Detective Jack Randall. Born in England and raised partly in South Africa, Bauer worked as a journalist and screenwriter before turning to fiction. Read more →