Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer: Winner 2004

Judges report

Thai Died by Angela Savage

Jayne is a 30-something Australian expatriate working as a private detective in Bangkok. Over the years she has formed an intense friendship with Didier, a gay French-Canadian health worker. Within 24 hours, Didier’s boyfriend is brutally murdered, and Didier dies at the hands of the police. The police say that he was shot escaping capture, when accused of his lover’s murder. In Jayne’s attempt to clear Didier’s name, she embarks on a dangerous journey of deception, guile and courage, uncovering a trail of police corruption and a child sex racket that comes straight out of today’s headlines. Thai Died is both an engrossing crime thriller and an exploration of skewed notions of love, social responsibility and cultural superiority.