The shortlist for the Crime Writers’ Association’s prestigious Dagger awards has been announced.
Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century. This year’s shortlists showcase the range and depth of the genre, from historical fiction, to thrillers and classic whodunnits. As well as championing established authors of the genre, it also provides a platform for debut and emerging talent.
The Dagger shortlists in full:
CWA KAA Gold Dagger
S. A. Cosby King of Ashes (Headline)
Abigail Dean The Death of Us (HarperCollins/Hemlock Press)
Holly Jackson Not Quite Dead Yet (Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph)
Vaseem Khan The Girl in Cell A (Hodder Fiction).
Ariel Lawhon The Frozen (River Swift Press)
Laura Shepherd-Robinson The Art of a Lie (Pan Macmillan/Mantle)
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
Tariq Ashkanani The Midnight King (Profile Books/Viper)
S. A. Cosby King of Ashes (Headline)
Robert Crais The Big Empty (Simon & Schuster UK)
Mark Ezra A Sting in her Tale (Bedford Square Publishers/ No Exit Press)
Noelle W Ihli Such Quiet Girls (Pan Macmillan/ Pan)
Liam McIlvanney The Good Father (Bonnier Books UK/Zaffre)
Karin Slaughter We Are All Guilty Here (HarperCollins Publishers)
ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction
Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee Shadow of The Bridge: The Delphi Murders and The Dark Side of The American Heartland (Pegasus Books/Pegasus Crime)
Gordon Corera The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB (HarperCollins/ William Collins)
John Curran The Murder Game (HarperCollins/Collins Crime Club)
Caroline Fraser Murderland (Little, Brown Book Group/Fleet)
Susannah Stapleton That Dark Spring (Pan Macmillan/Picador)
Shaun Walker The Illegals (Profile Books)
Historical Dagger
Nina Allan A Granite Silence (Quercus/riverrun)
Rob McInroy Barvick Falls (Tippermuir Books)
Donna Moore The Devil’s Draper (Fly on the Wall Press)
Alan Parks Gunner (John Murray Press/Baskerville)
Laura Shepherd-Robinson The Art of a Lie (Pan Macmillan/Mangle)
Sally Smith A Case of Life and Limb (Bloomsbury Publishing/Raven Books)
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger
Karsten Dusse Murder Mindfully (Faber) translated by Florian Duijsens
Jørn Lier Horst The Lake (Penguin Random House) translated by Anne Bruce
Jurica Pavicic Red Water (Bitter Lemon Press) translated by Matt Robinson
Leonie Swann Big Bad Wool (Allison & Busby) translated by Amy Bojang
Antti Tuomainen The Winter Job (Orenda Books) translated by David Hackston
Uketsu Strange Pictures (Pushkin Press) translated by Jim Rion
Whodunnit Dagger
Alexandra Benedict The Christmas Cracker Killer (Simon & Schuster UK)
Victoria Goldman Little Secrets (Three Crowns Publishing UK/self-published)
Anna Fitzgerald Healy Etiquette for Lovers & Killers (Little, Brown Book Group/Fleet)
Robert Holtom A Queer Case (Titan Books)
Mel Pennant A Murder for Miss Hortense (John Murray Press/Baskerville)
CJ Wray Bad Influence (Orion Fiction)
Twisted Dagger
Kia Abdullah What Happens in the Dark (HarperCollins/HQ Ficiton)
Nicci Cloke Her Many Faces (Penguin Random House UK/Harvill)
Fiona Cummins Some of Us are Liars (Pan Macmillan/Macmillan)
Carole Hailey Scenes From A Tragedy (Atlantic Books/Corvus)
Sam Lloyd The Bodies (Transworld/Bantam)
Sarah Pinborough We Live Here Now (Orion Fiction)
ILP John Creasey (First Novel) Dagger
Sam Guthrie The Peak (HarperCollins Publishers)
Elspeth Latimer The Lost Detective (Story Machine)
Laura McCluskey The Wolf Tree (HarperCollins/Hemlock Press)
Zoë Rankin The Vanishing Place (Profile Books/Viper)
Bailey Seybolt Coram House (Bloomsbury Publishing/Raven Books)
Henry Wise Holy City (Bedford Square Publishers/No Exit Press)
Short Story Dagger
SA Cosby ‘Split Your Silver Tongue’ in Birds, Strangers and Psychos (No Exit Press)
Denise Mina ‘The Karpman Drama Triangle’ in Birds, Strangers and Psychos (No Exit Press)
Abir Mukherjee ‘Full Circle’ in Playing Dead: Short Stories by Members of the Detection Club (Severn House)
Ambrose Perry ‘The Apple Falls Not Far’ (Canongate)
Peter Swanson ‘Strangers on a School Bus’ in Birds, Strangers and Psychos (No Exit Press)
Michael Wood ‘Waiting’ in Criminal Pursuits: This Is Me (Telos Publishing)
Emerging Author
Rod Cookson, Ill Met By Murder
Sophia Georghiou, The Man Who Fit the Case
Kate Koester, Just a Simple Wedding
Lorna Mathew, The Fixer
Rebecca McFarland, The Madam of Morningside
Michael Nikitin, Blind Side of the Sun
Melisssa Smith, The Pattern of Absence
Dagger in the Library
Paula Hawkins
JD Kirk
Clare Mackintosh
Freida McFadden
Abir Mukherjee
Tim Sullivan
Best Crime & Mystery Publisher
Bitter Lemon Press
Faber & Faber
No Exit Press (Bedford Square)
Pan Macmillan
Simon & Schuster
Viper (Profile Books)
See here for more posts on the Writing.ie Crime Scene blog.
