It’s been a while – let’s hope I can remember how to do this blogging thing…
After what seemed to be a change to the format last year for announcing the CWA Daggers they now seem to have settled on a process. Two Daggers have already been confirmed and the shortlists for the remainder were announced earlier this week. The winners of all the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards Dinner to be held on 26 October, when Ann Cleeves will be awarded the Diamond Dagger and Mari Hannah will be presented with the Dagger in the Library award.
Each year I think ‘this year I’ll read whole longlist shortlist’ but each year I seem to have read fewer and fewer of the books that find their way onto the lists. I am also always surprised about the proportion of books that I have never heard of – great coverage for these authors to get onto the long or short lists. But there are only two shortlisted books that I’ve read thus far and I’ve only reviewed one of these. So wishing William Ryan all the best with The Constant Soldier!
There are currently ten daggers awarded annually by the Crime Writer’s Association.
The Diamond Dagger – selected from nominations provided by CWA members – 2017 winner is Anne Cleeves and the award will be presented at the CWA Dagger Awards Dinner on 26 October.
The longlists for the following daggers (except the Dagger in the Library I believe) were announced during Crimefest and the shortlists (titles in bold) announced on 26 July.
Update: you can see a list of the winners here.
- Gold Dagger (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- Debut (unpublished writers)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
Gold Dagger
The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer
Dead Man’s Blues by Ray Celestin
The Girl Before by J P Delaney
Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith
Little Deaths by Emma Flint
The Dry by Jane Harper
Spook Street by Mick Herron
Sirens by Joseph Knox
Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin
The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
Darktown by Thomas Mullen
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
Kill the Next One by Frederico Axat
The Twenty Three by Linwood Barclay
The Killing Game by J S Carol
The Heat by Garry Disher
A Hero in France by Alan Furst
We Go Around in the Night Consumed By Fire by Jules Grant
Moskva by Jack Grimwood
The One Man by Andrew Gross
Redemption Road by John Hart
Spook Street by Mick Herron
Dark Asset by Adrian Magson
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty
The Constant Soldier by William Ryan
The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong
Jericho’s War by Gerald Seymour
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
Broken Heart by Tim Weaver
John Creasey (New Blood)
The Watcher by Ross Armstrong
The Pictures by Guy Bolton
What You Don’t Know by JoAnn Chaney
Ragdoll by Daniel Cole
Sunset City by Melissa Ginsburg
Epiphany Jones by Michael Grothaus
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard
Himself by Jess Kidd
Sirens by Joseph Knox
Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land
The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker
International Dagger
A Cold Death by Antonio Manzini, Tr Antony Shugaar
A Fine Line by Gianrico Carofiglio, Tr Howard Curtis
A Voice In The Night by Andrea Camilleri, Tr Stephen Sartarelli
Blackout by Marc Elsberg, Tr Marshall Yarbrough
Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre, Tr Frank Wynne
Climate Of Fear by Fred Vargas, Tr Siân Reynolds
Death In The Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi, Tr Stephen Sartarelli
The Bastards Of Pizzofalcone by Maurizio De Giovanni, Tr Antony Shugaar
The Dying Detective by Leif G W Persson, Tr Neil Smith
The Legacy Of The Bones by Dolores Redondo, Tr Nick Caister & Lorenza Garcia
When It Grows Dark by Jorn Lier Horst Tr Anne Bruce
Non-Fiction Dagger
A Dangerous Place by Simon Farquhar
Close But No Cigar: A True Story of Prison Life in Castro’s Cuba by Stephen Purvis
The Scholl Case: The Deadly End of a Marriage by Anja Reich-Osang
Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes by Michael Sims
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale
A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II by A. T. Williams
The Ice Age: A Journey into Crystal-Meth Addiction by Luke Williams
Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
CWA Short Story Dagger
The Assassination by Leye Adenle in Sunshine Noir Edited by AnnaMaria Alfieri & Michael Stanley
Murder and its Motives by Martin Edwards in Motives for Murder Edited by Martin Edwards
Alive or Dead by Michael Jecks in Motives for Murder Edited by Martin Edwards
The Super Recogniser of Vik by Michael Ridpath in Motives for Murder Edited by Martin Edwards
What You Were Fighting For by James Sallis in The Highway Kind Edited by Patrick Millikin
The Trials of Margaret by LC Tyler in Motives for Murder Edited by Martin Edwards
Snakeskin by Ovidia Yu in Sunshine Noir Edited by AnnaMaria Alfieri & Michael Stanley
Debut Dagger (unpublished writers)
Camera Obscura by Richard McDowell
Strange Fire by Sherry Rankin
The Reincarnation of Himmat Gupte by Neeraj Shah
The Swankeeper’s Wife by Augusta Dwyer
Hardways by Catherine Hendricks
Lost Boys by Spike Dawkins
Victorianoir by Kat Clay
Red Haven by Mette McLeod
In the Shadow of the Tower by Clive Edwards
Broken by Victoria Slotover
Endeavour Historical Dagger
The Devil’s Feast by M.J. Carter
The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes
The Black Friar by S.G. MacLean
The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin
The Long Drop by Denise Mina
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
Darktown by Thomas Mullen
By Gaslight by Steven Price
The City in Darkness by Michael Russell
Dark Asylum by E.S. Thomson
Dagger in the Library longlist
Andrew Taylor
C J Sansom
James Oswald
Kate Ellis
Mari Hannah – Mari was announced as the winner in June 2017
Tana French
So how’s your reading going – will you have read enough to judge a category for yourself?
Novel Heights 
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