Reprint of the Year Awards 2021 – The Results

11 days ago I opened the 2021 poll for the fourth Reprint of the Year awards. I challenged you all to see if we could beat last year’s total number of votes and I am pleased to say that this goal was accomplished within a matter of days and by the end of the voting period an additional 131 votes were cast. So everyone can give themselves a pat on the back! Votes were submitted from 19 different countries: USA, UK, Canada, India, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Argentina, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Russia, Australia, Italy and Portugal. (I have ordered this list beginning with the country with the most votes submitted first.) Regarding the USA, votes came from 23 different states and California and Illinois provided the most votes.

Like last year I made notes on how the voting was going, as the poll ran. However, I think it is fair to say that whilst ultimately the titles which were in the first four held on to their positions, all these positions were very much hard won. Never have I seen such a dog fight, especially over first place! I know it was felt that first place was a foregone conclusion, but you will have to see if the favourite to win managed to pull it off…

But you all know that the results go in ascending order, so to begin with, in 18^th and last place is…

Then in 17^th place, a firm favourite of mine, (I assume everyone else’s votes got lost in the post), is…

Sharing 16^th place is…

Odor of Violets is my book group’s choice for next month, so I look forward to reading this title soon.

Meanwhile in 15^th place we have two authors new to the ROY awards…

Following on from that 14^th place is held by three titles…

All three titles had 8 votes each which seemed quite fitting for the John Dickson Carr novel.

In 13^th place we have…

Next, 12^th place is jointly shared by…

11^th place is held by two titles which were slow bloomers in the polls, with the short story collection gaining crucial votes within the last 24 hours of the voting period...

We have now reached the Top 10 of the results and these next two titles share 10^th place, having scraped an additional two votes each…

I was quite surprised that Nap Lombard’s Murder’s a Swine only just made it into the Top 10. This was another favourite read of mine, this year. It was briefly in 4^th place on the first day, but swiftly slipped down the list and only then limped its way back up to 10^th place.

In 9^th place we have the seasonally apt…

This was another title which was slow to gain votes, although I assumed that due to it only being released in November, many readers might not have had a chance to read it before the voting began.

Then in 8^th place we have…

One vote ahead each in joint 7^th place we have…

Seven Clues in Search of a Crime by Bruce Graeme, my first nominee for the ROY award this year, was another late bloomer, with a sudden burst of votes during the middle of the voting period.

Following on from that in 6^th place we have…

This title was one of the many which briefly held 4^th place in the early days of the voting, but it just couldn’t quite hold on to it.

So far the difference between votes has been very small, only one or two votes between titles.

However, as we enter the Top 5, the gaps between titles jumps, with our next title, in 5^th place having an extra 8 votes…

In 4^th place we have…

This was one of the bigger surprises of this year’s results as despite doing well within the first day of voting, A Case for Solomon soon fell to the bottom of the pile. However, at the same time as the other Bruce Graeme title, it too had a flurry of votes. Its flurry was much bigger though, pushing it back into the Top 5, with 33 votes. It had a short tussle with the title in 3^rd place, but it just couldn’t quite manage to overtake it.

So without further ado, in 3^rd place we have…

Now we have reached the Top 2! The battling between these next two titles was fierce, with a lot of tit for tat voting, before one of them finally manage to surge ahead, leaving the runner up in its dust.

So in 2^nd place we have…

Yes I can imagine this might have surprised some of you!

That means that in *drum roll please* 1^st place with a 16 vote lead is…

Well done Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning! Another ROY victory for the Dean Street Press too! I think they might be the first publisher to manage this feat. This was by no means an inevitable win. During the first day of voting The Invisible Host took first place, but Till Death Do Us Part was close on its heels and snatched first place away from it. Then over the next three days, Carr’s title pushed ahead, but Bristow and Manning were not giving up and clawed back victory by the end of day 4 of the voting. I was wondering if Till Death Do Us Part might reclaim first place once more, but despite coming close a few times, it didn’t happen and instead in the final days of the voting, The Invisible Host consolidated its lead.

Nevertheless, this year’s list of titles was a strong one, which I think is evidenced by the close voting, as well as the reduced difference between first and second place, as last year the winner had a 32 vote lead.

So I hope everyone has enjoyed following this year’s awards and thank you to everyone who voted and/or took part in the nomination process.

Here’s hoping we have another strong year of reprints in 2022. Which titles are you looking forwarding to reading?