Staunch Book Prize: a reward for the best thriller that doesn't use women as victims

If there is blood to be spilt on the pages of a thriller, it very often belongs to a poor unfortunate female victim. Or multiple victims in the case of best-selling serial killer novels such as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

However, a new literary prize for the thriller genre is hoping to disrupt this disturbing norm.

Open to all authors over the age of 18, the Staunch Book Prize wants to break away from such clichés. Instead, it will reward a great thriller that doesn’t feature a woman being “beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered”.

Bridget Lawless, a British author and screenwriter who founded the prize, credits the #MeToo movement against the sexual abuse and harassment of women in Hollywood and beyond as catalyst for launching the prize. She wanted to do her part to keep the conversation going.

“This is a critical point in time, and the prize, in its small way, is getting...