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Many congratulations to Laura Cannock (Year 2) from King Edward’s School, Bath, whose story of two ginger cats found guilty of sausage skullduggery was voted the winner of the B&NES Young Crime Writers’ Competition 2017.

Around 50 people gathered at Keynsham Library and One Stop Shop during the Easter holidays to hear the results of this year’s Library Service Young Crime Writers’ Competition.

Approximately 100 submissions had been whittled down to a shortlist of eight, and all shortlisted authors were invited to the award ceremony where prizes and certificates were presented.

The audience was captivated by stories of cats who stooped at nothing to win a prestigious sausage competition, Roman coins stolen in an attempt to save the life of a rabbit, blood and a body in the attic, menacing notes foretelling death, murder in a school library, the theft of the Crown Jewels, drug smuggling at a Cornish lighthouse and the corpse of a young woman lying on the twilit streets of 19th Century London.

The winner was KES Year 2 pupil, Laura Cannock, whose story, ‘The Great British Sausage Off Competition Scandal’ featured a wolf detective endeavouring to solve a crime committed by two ginger cats intent on winning a sausage making competition by sabotaging the efforts of fellow competitors.

All the shortlisted stories were read out at the award ceremony by the judging panel which was made up of June Wentland, B&NES Libraries Community Development Officer, Sandy Osborne, writer and serving member of Bath and Avon Constabulary, crime writers David Lassman and Jeff Dowson, and children’s author Nigel Smith, who also represented Bath Spa University’s Creative Writing department.