Shortlist introduced for prize recognising novels which don’t function violence towards girls

The shortlist for a controversial new prize which recognises thriller novels by which no girls are crushed, stalked, sexually exploited, raped, or murdered has been introduced.

The Staunch Book Prize was based by Bridget Lawless – a author who has written for TV collection The Invoice – so as to create a substitute for the “overload of violence in direction of girls in fiction”.

Lawless, who judges the prize, argued thriller writers ought to have the ability to pen web page turners which maintain the reader on tenterhooks with out resorting to overused cliches which contain feminine violence.

“Whereas girls in the true world are combating sexual abuse and violence, being disbelieved once they report rape or assault, or being murdered as a result of they’re girls, the informal and limitless depiction of girls as victims or prey sits uneasily alongside their battle,” explains the prize’s web site.

“Whereas actual rape survivors wrestle to be heard and counted, fictional rape victims take the stage – normally as two-dimensional characters – in tales that commemorate the crafty (usually, charming sexiness/astonishing brutality) of serial rapists and the dogged brilliance of detectives.

“We needed to point out not solely to readers however producers, administrators and actors that there are superb, complicated tales being written in the present day by authors with really recent concepts, nice creativeness and sensible plotting talent.”

The worldwide shortlist contains titles from Penguin Random Home, HarperCollins, and various impartial publishers from the world over, in addition to one unpublished manuscript.

The six nominations embody Anna Porter’s The Appraisal, If I Die Tonight by A L Gaylin, East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rhamen, On the Java Ridge by Jock Serong, The Kennedy Moment by Peter Adamson, and Cops and Queens by Joyce Thompson, who’s presently looking for a publisher.