The 2016 CWA Daggers

I have to say that I find the CWA Daggers process to be a little confusing. There are currently ten daggers awarded annually by the Crime Writer’s Association but the timings of the long and shortlists for the awards and the presentation seems to be unclear. Last year shortlists were announced in early June and the awards presented at their dinner at the end of June. This year the dinner will be at the end of September…

UPDATE: There was an update on the Daggers process  in an email circulated by the CRA (the Crime Readers Association) to say that, with the exception for the Diamond Daggers, shortlists will be announced on the CWA website on July 28.

The email continued to say that:

And this year you can be present when the winners are announced! The event, which will take place on 11 October 2016 at the Grange City Hotel in London, will be open to everyone. A glittering do attended by publishers, agents and of course hopeful authors, all ten of the CWA’s prestigious Dagger Awards will in 2016 be awarded at the one must-attend event.

The speaker will be James Runcie, author of The Grantchester Mysteries, as seen on TV.

Tickets are £99 for non-CWA members. Apply to admin@thecwa.co.uk for more information and see details which will shortly be up on both the CRA and CWA websites.

Nevertheless – the ten Daggers are:

The Diamond Dagger – selected from nominations provided by CWA members – 2016 winner is Peter James and the award was presented during Crimefest this May.

The longlists for the following daggers were announced during Crimefest.

• ‘Goldsboro’ Gold (best crime novel)
• Ian Fleming Steel (best thriller)
• John Creasey (New Blood)
• International
• Non-Fiction
• Short Story
• Debut (unpublished writers)
• Endeavour Historical
• Dagger in the Library (awarded for the author’s body of work and the authors are nominated by crime fans who also vote for their favourites to get to a shortlist of ten – the winner is then chosen by a panel of librarians)

In the early days of my blog I had some hopes of reading all the titles in one of the CWA Dagger lists but unless I already have read a few when the lists are announced I stand very little chance of getting through them in time. I have also found in previous years that some of the books are actually quite difficult to get hold of! Looking at the lists below I’m unlikely to get a whole one read. Maybe next year…

Goldsboro Gold longlist

Dodgers by Bill Beverly
Black Widow by Christopher Brookmyre
After You Die by Eva Dolan
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Dead Pretty by David Mark
Blood Salt Water by Denise Mina
She Died Young by Elizabeth Wilson

Ian Fleming Steel longlist

The Cartel by Don Winslow
The English Spy by Daniel Silva
Bone by Bone Sanjida Kay
Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
The Hot Countries by Timothy Hallinan
Black Eyed Susans by Julia Hearberlin
Make Me by Lee Child
Spy Games by Adam Brookes
The American by Nadia Dalbuono

 John Creasey (New Blood) longlist

Fever City by Tim Baker
Dodgers by Bill Beverly
Mr Miller by Charles Den Tex
The Teacher by Katerina Diamond
Wicked Game by Matt Johnson
Freedom’s Child by Jax Miller
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Dark Inside by Rod Reynolds
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle 

International longlist

The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango translated by Imogen Taylor
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaître translated by Frank Wynne
Icarus by Deon Meyer translated by K L Seegers
The Sword of Justice by Leif G.W. Person translated by Neil Smith
The Murderer in Ruins by Cay Rademacher translated by Peter Millar
The Father by Anton Svensson translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin translated by Marlaine Delargy
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davis

Non-Fiction longlist

The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards
Sexy Beasts: The Hatton Garden Mob by Wensley Clarkson
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) by Andrew Hankinson
A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding
Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories by Thomas Grant
John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman

Short Story longlist

As Alice Did by Andrea Camilleri from Montalbano’s First Cases
On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier by John Connolly from Nocturnes 2: Night Music
Holmes on the Range: A Tale of the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository by John Connolly from Nocturnes 2: Night Music
Bryant & May and the Nameless Woman by Christopher Fowler from London’s Glory Bantam
Stray Bullets by Alberto Barrera from Tyszka Crimes
Rosenlaui by Conrad Williams  from The Adventures of Moriarty: The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes’s Nemesis edited by Maxim Jakubowski 

Debut (unpublished writers) longlist

Dark Valley by John Kennedy
Death by Dangerous by Oliver Jarvis
The Devil’s Dice by Roz Watkins
Hard ways by Catherine Hendricks
Let’s Pretend by Sue Williams
Misconception Jack Burns
A Reconstructed Man by Graham Brack
A State of Grace by Rita Catching
The Tattoo Killer  by Joe West
Wimmera by Mark Brandi 

Endeavour Historical longlist

The House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby
A Death in the Dales by Frances Brody
A Man of Some Repute and A Question of Inheritance by Elizabeth Edmondson
Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
The Last Confessions of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson
The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr
A Book of Scars by William Shaw
The Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith
Striking Murder by A. J. Wright
Stasi Child by David Young

Dagger in the Library longlist

RC Bridgestock
Tony Black
Alison Bruce
Angela Clarke
Charlie Flowers
Elly Griffiths
Keith Houghton
Quintin Jardine
Louise Phillips
Joe Stein

So how’s your reading going – will you have read enough to judge a category?