''The Killing Jar'' (

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

) is the

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

Nicola Monaghan Nicola Monaghan is an English novelist and author of ''The Killing Jar'', ''Starfishing'' and ''The Okinawa Dragon''. She grew up in Nottingham, England, and gave up a career in finance to pursue an MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent Uni ...

, published in March 2006. It tells the story of Kerrie Ann Hill, a young girl growing up on a drug-ridden housing estate in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. Kerrie Ann meets an elderly neighbour when she's young, Mrs Ivanovich, an entomologist who teaches Kerrie about life, death, the Amazon rainforest and the miniature, alien world of insects. "Kez" struggles to look after her brother Jon, and hold things together as she's brought up by her junkie mum, Sue, and later, living with her boyfriend Mark as he becomes more and more involved with heroin and crack cocaine. The book explores themes of metamorphosis, the highs and lows of drugs, and how people become trapped by poisoned environments, and what it takes to escape them. Monaghan was included in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

s New Year list of "Rising Talent of 2006" and ''The Killing Jar'' made their 50 Hot Books for summer and Books of Year features. It went on to win a

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...

The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, and the

Waverton Good Read Award The Waverton Good Read Award was founded in 2003 by villagers in Waverton, Cheshire, Waverton, Chester, England, and is based on ''Le Prix de la Cadière d'Azur'', a literary prize awarded by a Provence, Provençal village. Adult debut novels writ ...

Footnotes

External links

US Trade Reviews
* ttp://writtennerd.blogspot.com/2006/11/book-reviews-39-40-41-42-43.html The Written Nerdbr>East London and West Essex GuardianThe Independent

The Killing Jar website

The Betty Trask Awards

Independent: Rising Stars of 2006

The Waverton Good Read
2006 novels Novels set in Nottingham Chatto & Windus books 2006 debut novels {{2000s-novel-stub