BOOKER JOY FOR CRIME WRITER
ASOUTH Wales crime author has bagged a spot on the longlist for the country’s most prestigious literary award.
Sunday Times bestselling author Belinda Bauer is a former journalist and screenwriter who worked as a sub-editor for the Western Mail in the late 1990s.
Her eighth novel Snap is the only crime novel to make the Man Booker longlist of 13 novels that are now in contention for the coveted 2018 prize.
Snap, published in May, follows a trio of siblings in the aftermath of their mother’s death, and has received outstanding reviews from critics.
Belinda, 55, who lives near Barry, said: “It’s brilliant. I am so chuffed about it. There are three achievements on my bucket list: The Nobel Prize for Physics, winning the Grand National, and the Man Booker Prize.
“I was beginning to think I’d overreached myself. I’m delighted to be part of the history of the Man Booker Prize – and especially proud to have made the list with a crime novel. I still can’t quite believe it though.”
Belinda worked as a journalist in Cardiff during the 1990s but after winning a screenwriting prize she decided to study the craft.
“I only had one film made and it was Happy Now,” Belinda said.
“It is a terrible film. After I failed at being a screenwriter my mum said I should write books because then you don’t have to rely on other people.”
Belinda won the CWA gold dagger in 2010 with her first novel Blacklands. In 2014, her book Rubbernecker won the Theakston prize.
Her latest thriller returns to 1998 and is set in motion when a mother disappears on the M5, leaving her three children to find out the truth.
“Most of my books are from the victim’s point of view,” she said.
“For me it that has always been the most interesting perspective.”
Man Booker judges have described the book as an “acute, stylish, intelligent novel about how we survive trauma”.
Snap is Belinda’s biggest hardback to date, selling almost 8,000 copies so far.
Judge Val McDermid said: “I’d read it even before I knew I would be a Booker judge and it seemed to me to be an outstanding novel. My fellow judges read it and one said this transcends genre, and someone else said this shows what genre can do at its best.
“It is an extremely clever piece of storytelling with characters you care about, and that’s what we were looking for – something well written that engages with mind and heart.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker prize. The shortlist of books will be released in September before the final winner is announced in October.