<p><span class="full-image-float-right ssNonEditable"><span><img alt="" src="/storage/images/saul-portrait1.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1228750888832" /></span><span class="thumbnail-caption" style="width:180px;"></span></span>The fifth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em>, has won the new Audible Sounds of Crime prize for the unabridged crime audiobook of the year. The award, which was based on votes from readers, was announced at the Bristol CrimeFest conference at the weekend.</p>
<p>I’m really honoured and flattered to get such a plaudit for the work, and delighted too that I quite rightly share it with <a href="http://www.saulreichlin.biz/" target="_blank">Saul Reichlin</a>, right, the series narrator, whose astonishing performance of the books is surely one of the main reasons for their popularity in audio.</p>
<p>Saul does an astonishing job, as many readers tell me by email. And thanks, too, to the hard-working people at <a href="http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/" target="_blank">WF Howes</a>, my audio publisher, who perform the magical process of transforming a book into the living, breathing, talking medium of an audio work. I’m very grateful for the wonderful job you do.</p>
<p>You can get my audio books in a variety of forms from Howes’ own audio store, <a href="http://www.wholestoryaudio.co.uk%20" target="_blank">Whole Story Audio</a>, and by download from&#160;<a href="http://www.audible.co.uk">Audible</a> who sponsored the award. Coming after <a href="http://www.davidhewson.com/2008/05/31/chopin-wins-the-worlds-top-audiobook-prize/">the amazing success of <em>The Chopin Manuscript</em> </a>in winning the top audiobook of the year award - I was lucky enough to be one of the fifteen writers - this is a great compliment, and really brings home to this writer how important audio is becoming in the publishing world.</p>