Thriller author René Appel will receive the Master Prize on Saturday 18 September from the board of the Authors' Association's Crime Authors. Appel is the fourth winner of this prize for authors who have made a significant contribution to the development of the thriller genre in the Dutch language area. Appie Baantjer (2003), Saskia Noort (2013) and Tomas Ross (2018) preceded him.
High and consistent quality
The board of the Misdaadauteurs praises René Appel for the high and consistent quality of his crime novels, his crisp style, his real-life dialogues and his relevant stories. Michael Berg (chairman of the Misdaadauteurs of Authors Association): 'René Appel is the true master of the psychological thriller in the Netherlands. He is still an inspiration for many crime authors and for his readers, it is to be hoped that he is far from having written his last book.'
Photo René Appel by Danny Schwarz
Multiple winner Golden Noose
René Appel (Hoogkarspel, 1945) worked as an associate professor of acquisition and didactics of Dutch as a second language at the University of Amsterdam. As a student, he wrote short stories for a.o. Propria Cures, Dutch Monthly and Measure. From 1976 to 1986, he reviewed crime novels for NRC. He made his debut as a thriller author in 1987. Appel won with The third person and Senseless violence twice the Gouden Strop, the award for the best exciting original Dutch-language book of the year. His 32e thriller Surplus made it to the shortlist this year.
Authors' Association
The Netherlands has over 200 active crime authors who are published by a publishing house. The Misdaadauteurs van de Auteursbond stand up for their interests, whether the author has one book or an entire oeuvre to his or her name. In addition, the Authors' Association strives to make the exciting book more widely known. Every year, it awards the Gouden Strop (the prize for the best exciting book) and the Schaduwprijs (the prize for the best exciting debut).
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