Nick Cutter has been declared the winner of the first James Herbert Award for Horror Writing.

Craig Davidson, who writes under the penname of Cutter, received £2,000 and a commemorative statuette at the ceremony on April 1, after his book The Troop was judged the winner.

Kerry Herbert, Herbert’s oldest daughter and one of the judges of this year’s prize, said: “This is the darkest of tales where human evil meets an insatiable force of nature to wreak havoc on kids, a scout troop, no less. What could be better? My father would have chuckled in his chair; his fans will love it. And you’ll never go camping again. The Troop is a brilliant and terrifying classic that I am proud to champion as the first winner of the James Herbert Award for Horror Writing – it’s now one of my favourite books.”

Chair of judges, Tom Hunter, director of the Serendip Foundation, said: “The first winner of a new prize can set expectations for years to come, and the judges selected a fantastic shortlist that celebrated all the glitteringly dark shades of modern Horror writing.

“The Troop is a perfect first winner, and the judges loved its tense plotting, detailed characterisation and above all the driving sense of fear that compels you to keep turning every horror-soaked page until the end. This is a book that fans of horror will love and I believe James Herbert would have celebrated.”

The other shortlisted books were The Girl with All the Gifts by M R Carey, Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, Bird Box by Josh Malerman, The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley and An English Ghost Story by Kim Newman. The other judges were Ramsey Campbell, author, editor and critic; Rosie Fletcher, acting editor of Total Film magazine and a horror expert and reviewer for SFX magazine; Sarah Pinborough, author and screenwriter; and Dr Tony Venezia, researcher and visiting lecturer in literary and cultural studies at Birkbeck, University of London and Middlesex University.