CWA DAGGER LONGLISTS 2021

The 2021 longlists for the CWA Dagger awards, which honor the very best in the crime writing genre, have been announced.

The  Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre, and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

The CWA Dagger shortlist will be announced in May with the awards ceremony taking place at the start of July. 

The 2021 Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement, the highest honour in British crime writing, has already been announced, awarded to Martina Cole.

LONGLISTS

GOLD DAGGER

Amer Anwar: Stone Cold Trouble (Dialogue Books, Little, Brown Book Group)

S A Cosby: Blacktop Wasteland (Headline, Headline Publishing Group)

M W Craven: The Curator (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)

Ben Creed: City of Ghosts (Welbeck Fiction, Welbeck Publishing Group)

Garry Disher: Peace (Viper, Profile Books)

Mick Finlay: Arrowood and the Thames Corpses (HQ, HarperCollins)

Nicci French: House of Correction (Simon & Schuster)

Robert Galbraith: Troubled Blood (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)

Elly Griffiths: The Postscript Murders (Quercus)

Antonia Hodgson: The Silver Collar (Hodder & Stoughton)

S G Maclean: The House of Lamentations (Quercus Fiction, Quercus)

C D Major: The Other Girl (Thomas & Mercer)

Thomas Mullen: Midnight Atlanta (Little, Brown, Little, Brown Book Group)

S J Parris: Execution (Harper Fiction, HarperCollins)

Tade Thompson: Making Wolf (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)

Nicola Upson: The Dead of Winter (Faber)

Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End (Zaffre, Bonnier)

Rebecca Whitney: The Hidden Girls (Mantle, Pan Macmillan)

 

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Charles Cumming: Box 88 (HarperFiction, HarperCollins)

Robert Galbraith: Troubled Blood (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)

Ryan Gattis: The System (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

Ian Rankin: Song for the Dark Times (Orion Fiction, The Orion Publishing Group)

Rod Reynolds: Blood Red City (Orenda Books)

Craig Robertson: Watch Him Die (Simon & Schuster)

Michael Robotham: When She Was Good (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)

Catherine Ryan Howard: The Nothing Man (Atlantic Books)

Stuart Turton: The Devil and the Dark Water (Raven Books, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Ruth Ware: One by One (Harvill Secker, Vintage)

Holly Watt: The Dead Line (Raven Books, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End (Zaffre, Bonnier)

 

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir: The Creak on the Stairs (Orenda)

Susan Allott: The Silence (Borough, HarperCollins)

Emma Christie: The Silent Daughter (Welbeck Publishing)

Catherine Cooper: The Chalet (HarperFiction, HarperCollins)

Ben Creed: City of Ghosts (Welbeck Publishing)

Judi Daykin: Under Violent Skies (Joffe Books)

Egan Hughes: The One That Got Away (Little Brown, Sphere)

S W Kane: The Bone Jar (Thomas & Mercer)

Rob McInroy: Cuddies Strip (Ringwood Press)

Stephanie Scott: What’s Left of Me Is Yours (Orion, Weidenfeld)

Stephen Spotswood: Fortune Favours the Dead (Headline, Wildfire)

John Vercher: Three-Fifths (Pushkin Press)

S R White: Hermit (Headline)

 

SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER

J M Alvey: Justice for Athena (Canelo Digital Publishing Limited)

John Banville: Snow (Faber)

Vaseem Khan: Midnight at Malabar House (Hodder & Stoughton)

Laurie R. King: Riviera Gold (Allison & Busby)

Chris Lloyd: The Unwanted Dead (Orion Fiction, The Orion Publishing Group)

S J Parris: Execution (HarperFiction, HarperCollins)

Ben Pastor: The Night of Shooting Stars (Bitter Lemon Press)

Michael Russell: The City Under Siege (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)

David S. Stafford: Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons (Allison & Busby)

A D Swanston: Chaos (Bantam Press, Transworld)

Nicola Upson: The Dead of Winter (Faber)

Ovidia Yu: The Mimosa Tree Mystery (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Fredrik Backman: Anxious People, translated by Neil Smith (Michael Joseph, Penguin)

Roxanne Bouchard: The Coral Bride, translated by David Warriner (Orenda Books)

Marc Elsberg: Greed, translated by Simon Pare (Black Swan, Penguin)

Yun Ko-eun: The Disaster Tourist, translated by Lizzie Buehler (Serpent’s Tail)

Volker Kutscher: The March Fallen, translated by Niall Sellar (Sandstone Press)

D A Mishani: Three, translated by Jessica Cohen (Riverrun, Hachette Book Group)

Jo Nesbo: The Kingdom, translated by Robert Ferguson (Harvill Secker, Penguin)

Håkan Nesser: The Secret Life of Mr. Roos, translated by Sarah Death (Mantle, Pan Macmillan)

Mikael Niemi: To Cook a Bear, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press, Quercus)

Agnes Ravatn:  The Seven Doors, translated by Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books)

Maike Wetzel: Elly, translated by Lyn Marven (Scribe UK)

 

SHORT STORY DAGGER

Robert Scragg: ‘A Dog is for Life, Not Just for Christmas’ in Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Elle Croft: ‘Deathbed’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Dominic Nolan: ‘Daddy Dearest’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Adam Southward:  ‘Especially at Christmas’ in Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Christopher Fowler: ‘Head Count’ in First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books (The Dome Press)

Victoria Selman: ‘Hunted’ in Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Clare Mackintosh: ‘Monsters’ in First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books (The Dome Press)

Stuart Turton: ‘Murder Most Vial’ in First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books (The Dome Press)

Livia Llewelyn: ‘One of These Nights’ in Cutting Edge: Noir Stories by Women, edited by Joyce Carol Oates (Pushkin Press, Pushkin Vertigo)

James Delargy: ‘Planting Nan’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg (Robert Scragg)

Simpson Grears: ‘The Foot of the Walk Murders’ in The Foot of the Walk Murders, edited by Simpson Grears (Rymour Books)

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Sue Black: Written in Bone (Doubleday, Penguin)

Amanda Brown: The Prison Doctor; Women Inside (HQ, HarperCollins)

Becky Cooper: We Keep the Dead Close (William Heinemann, Penguin)

Martin Edwards: Howdunit (Collins Crime Club, HarperCollins)

Andrew Harding: These Are Not Gentle People (MacLehose, Quercus)

Debora Harding: Dancing with the Octopus (Profile Books Limited)

Nick Hayes: The Book of Trespass (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Ben MacIntyre: Agent Sonya (Viking, Penguin)

Jax Miller: Hell in the Heartland (HarperCollins)

Daniel Smith: The Peer and the Gangster (The History Press)

Ravi Somaiya: Operation Morthor (Viking, Penguin)

Kate Summerscale: The Haunting of Alma Fielding (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Mark Townsend: No Return (Guardian, Faber & Faber)

 

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Lin Anderson

Nicci French

Lisa Jewell

Erin Kelly

Peter May

Denise Mina

Margaret Murphy

James Oswald

L J Ross

C L Taylor

               

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Bitter Lemon Press

Faber & Faber

Harper Fiction

Head of Zeus

Michael Joseph

No Exit Press

Orenda Books

Pushkin Vertigo

Raven

Sphere

Viper

 

CWA Dagger Longlists

The CWA (Crime Writers Association) Dagger Longlists were announced Friday night at CrimeFest. Congratulations to all! Lots of great reading!

CWA Gold Dagger: 
• Head Case, by Ross Armstrong (HQ)
• The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• London Rules, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Little, Brown)
• Sunburn, by Laura Lippman (Faber and Faber)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
• You Don’t Know Me, by Imran Mahmood (Michael Joseph)
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• The Spy’s Daughter, by Adam Brookes (Sphere)
• The Switch, by Joseph Finder (Head of Zeus)
• London Rules, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• If I Die Before I Wake, by Emily Koch (Harvill Secker)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
• An Act of Silence, by Colette McBeth (Wildfire)
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Fierce Kingdom, by Gin Phillips (Doubleday)
• The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor (Michael Joseph)
• The Force, by Don Winslow (HarperFiction)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: 
• Gravesend, by William Boyle (No Exit Press)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Soho Dead, by Greg Keen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka (Picador)
• Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Point Blank)
• East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
• Ravenhill, by John Steele (Silvertail)
• My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent (Fourth Estate)
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

 CWA International Dagger: 
• Zen and the Art of Murder, by Oliver Bottini, translated by Jamie Bulloch (MacLehose Press)
• The Shadow District, by Arnaldur Indridason, translated by Victoria Cribb (Harvill Secker)
• Three Days and a Life, by Pierre Lemaitre, translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose Press)
• After the Fire, by Henning Mankell, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Harvill Secker)
• The Frozen Woman, by Jon Michelet, translated by Don Bartlett (No Exit Press)
• Offering to the Storm, by Dolores Redondo, translated by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garzía (HarperCollins)
• Three Minutes, by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström, translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Quercus/Riverrun)
• Snare, by Lilja Sigurdardóttir, translated by Quentin Bates (Orenda)
• The Accordionist, by Fred Vargas, translated by Sian Reynolds (Harvill Secker)
• Can You Hear Me? by Elena Varvello, translated by Alex Valente (Two Roads/John Murray) CWA

Historical Dagger: 
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Death in the Stars, by Frances Brody (Piatkus)
• Fire, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)
• Lightning Men, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)
• Merlin at War, by Mark Ellis (London Wall)
• Money in the Morgue, by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)
• Nine Lessons, by Nicola Upson (Faber and Faber)
• Nucleus, by Rory Clements (Zaffre)
• Prussian Blue, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)
• The Mitford Murders, by Jessica Fellows (Sphere)

CWA Short Story Dagger: 
• “The Corpse on the Copse,” by Sharon Bolton (from Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2: The Body, edited by Susan Opie; Killer Women)
• “The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle,” by Chris Brookmyre (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
• “Too Much Time,” by Lee Child (from No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories, by Lee Child; Bantam Press)
• “Second Son,” by Lee Child (from No Middle Name)
• “Authentic Carbon Steel Forged,” by Elizabeth Haynes (from Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women, edited by Sophie Hannah; Head of Zeus)
• “Smoking Kills,” by Erin Kelly (from Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2)
• “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” by Denise Mina (from Bloody Scotland)
• “Accounting for Murder,” by Christine Poulson (from Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Martin Edwards; Orenda)
• “Faking a Murder,” by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child (from Match Up, edited by Lee Child; Sphere)
• “Trouble Is a Lonesome Town,” by Cathi Unsworth (from Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women)

CWA Dagger in the Library: (Selected by nominations from libraries)
• Simon Beckett
• Martina Cole
• Martin Edwards
• Nicci French
• Sophie Hannah
• Simon Kernick
• Edward Marston
• Peter May
• Rebecca Tope

Shortlists in all of these categories will be announced in July. Winners will be announced during the CWA Dagger Awards dinner in London on Thursday, October 25.

HT: J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet

CWA Dagger Award Longlists

The CWA (Crime Writers Association) 2016 Dagger Award Longlists were announced at Crimefest tonight.

CWA GOLDSBORO GOLD DAGGER
Dodgers, Bill Beverly, No Exit Press
Black Widow, Christopher Brookmyre, Little Brown
After You Die, Eve Dolan, Harvill Secker
Real Tigers, Mick Herron, John Murray
Finders Keepers, Stephen King, Hodder & Stoughton
Dead Pretty, David Mark, Mulholland books/Hodder & Stoughton
Blood Salt Water, Denise Mina, Orion
She Died Young, Elizabeth Wilson, Serpent’s Tail

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 
The Cartel, Don Winslow, William Heinemann
The English Spy, Daniel Silva, HarperCollins
Bone by Bone, Sanjida Kay, Corvus
Rain Dogs, Adrian McKinty, Serpent’s Tail
Real Tigers, Mick Herron, John Murray
The Hot Countries, Timothy Hallinan, Soho Crime
Black Eyed Susans, Julia Hearberlin, Michael Joseph
Make Me, Lee Child, Bantam Press
Spy Games, Adam Brookes, Sphere
The American, Nadia Dalbuono, Scribe UK

CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER
Title,  Author,  Translated by,  Publisher

The Truth and Other Lies, Sascha Arango, Imogen Taylor, Simon & Schuster
The Great Swindle, Pierre Lemaître, Frank WynnE, Quercus/Maclehose
Icarus, Deon Meyer, K L Seegers, Hodder & Stoughton
The Sword of Justice, Leif G.W. Persson, Neil Smith, Doubleday
The Murderer in Ruins, Cay Rademacher, Peter Millar, Arcadia
The Father, Anton Svensson, Translation not credited, Sphere
The Voices Beyond, Johan Theorin, Marlaine Delargy, Transworld
Six Four, Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davis, Quercus

CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER

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

CWA NON FICTION DAGGER

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

CWA DEBUT DAGGER
For 15 years the CWA has been encouraging new writing with its Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers. The submissions are judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents, and the short listed entries are sent to publishers and agents.

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

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 

Fever City, Tim Baker, Faber&Faber
Dodgers, Bill Beverly, No Exit Press
Mr Miller, Charles Den, Tex World Editions
The Teacher, Katerina Diamond, Avon
Wicked Game, Matt Johnson, Orenda Books
Freedom’s Child, Jax Miller, HarperCollins
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jonathan Cape
The Dark Inside, Rod Reynolds, Faber&Faber
The Good Liar, Nicholas Searle, Viking

CWA ENDEAVOR HISTORICAL DAGGER

The House at Baker Street Michelle Birkby Pan Books
A Death in the Dales Frances Brody Piatkus
A Man of Some Repute, A Question of Inheritance Elizabeth Edmondson Thomas & Mercer
Smoke and Mirrors Elly Griffiths Quercus
The Last Confessions of Thomas Hawkins Antonia Hodgson Hodder & Stoughton
The Other Side of Silence Philip Kerr Quercus
A Book of Scars William Shaw Quercus
The Jazz Files Fiona Veitch Smith Lion Fiction
Striking Murder A. J. Wright Allison & Busby
Stasi Child David Young Twenty7Books

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY
Crime fans everywhere can nominate their favourite authors online and the ten authors with the most votes will make up the longlist. The response received last year was staggering, with 1,384 crime fans voting for 636 different authors, highlighting the extraordinary quality and variety in crime writing.
Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library is awarded not for an individual book but for an author’s entire body of work and is one of six highly prized CWA Dagger Awards awarded to crime writers since 1955.

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