Critically-Acclaimed Maltese Author Ends The Year On A High Note With An Awards Hat-Trick
Since releasing his debut novel The Sheriff’s Catch last year, Maltese author James Vella-Bardon has been breaking international barriers, claiming award after award including his most recent hat trick at 2019’s Royal Dragonfly Book Awards.
The action-packed crime fiction was met with great success at the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, placing first in the categories of Best Novel, Best Historical Fiction and Best Cover Design.
The Sheriff’s Catch is the first instalment in a five-novel series entitled The Sassana Stone. It follows the story of a Maltese-born sharpshooter who finds himself shipwrecked in 16th Century Ireland and hunted across Connacht by a brutal English Sheriff.
Vella-Bardon also released a trailer along with the book which featured at the award and which came second in the category of Book Trailer.
The Sheriff’s Catch is ending the year on a high note but 2019 has proved to be full of international critical acclaim for the Maltese author, who has been nominated for several awards, including The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards, the Eric Hoffer Awards in the US and the ‘Outstanding Historical’ category at the UK’s Independent Author Network (IAN) Book Of The Year Award.
It also won the eBook Cover Design Award with its design conceived by Vella-Bardon and acclaimed cover designer Mark Ecob
“It’s really interesting to observe how Maltese fiction in English is received by critics and readers both in Malta and internationally,” said Vella-Bardon.
The Sheriff’s Catch is just the beginning of what is set to be a thrilling series and the bar is set high for its sequel. The best thing is that The Sheriff’s Catch is locally available for sale from Agenda Bookshop, Merlin Library, BDL Books and WHSmith.
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