Marion Pauw has won the 2009 Gouden Strop (golden noose) award for her book Daglicht (daylight) at a ceremony marking the start of June’s celebration of the thriller genre.

A record 81 Dutch-language thrillers and crime fiction novels were entered for the award, which carries €10,000 in prize money.

Daglicht is about Iris, a young, successful lawyer who combines her career with caring for her difficult son and Ray, held in a psychiatric prison for murdering his next door neighbour, but who says he is innocent.