The Opening Daggers

Wouldn’t you know it? The morning I decide to break my usual pattern and actually sleep in late, the British Crime Writers’ Association decides to announce the first few of its 2009 Dagger Award shortlists. As a note posted to the organization’s Web site explains, “This year the Daggers are being announced in two stages, and the shortlists announced now are for the International, Short Story, Library, and Debut Daggers. The winners will be announced at a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15 (see here for tickets). At that event, the shortlists will also be announced for the Gold, John Creasey (New Blood) and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers. The winners in this second group will be announced in the autumn.”

Got all that? Then let’s get on to the first set of nominees.

The CWA International Dagger:
(“For crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication.”)

• Shadow, by Karin Alvtegen; translated by McKinley Burnett (Canongate)
• The Arctic Chill, by Arnaldur Indriðason; translated by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb (Harvill Secker)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson; translated by Reg Keeland (MacLehose/Quercus)
• The Redeemer, by Jo Nesbø; translated by Don Bartlett
(Harvill Secker)
• Echoes from the Dead, by Johan Theorin; translated by Marlaine Delargy (Doubleday)
• The Chalk Circle Man, by Fred Vargas; translated by Siân Reynolds (Harvill Secker)

The CWA Short Story Dagger:

• “Speaking of Lust,” by Lawrence Block (from Speaking of Lust; Five Leaves Publications)
• “One Serving of Bad Luck,” by Sean Chercover (from Killer Year, edited by Lee Child; Mira)
• “Cougar,” by Laura Lippman (from Two of the Deadliest, edited by Elizabeth George; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “The Price of Love,” by Peter Robinson (from The Blue Religion, edited by Michael Connelly; Back Bay Books)
• “Served Cold,” by Zoë Sharp (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Constable & Robinson)
• “Mother’s Milk,” by Chris Simms (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime)

The CWA Dagger in the Library:
(Awarded for an author’s full body of work, not an individual book.)

• Simon Beckett
• Colin Cotterill
• R.J. Ellory
• Ariana Franklin
• Peter James
• Michael Robotham

The CWA Debut Dagger:

• A View from the Clock Tower, by Frank Burkett (Australia)
• My First Big Book of Murder, by Aoife Clifford (Australia)
• Backdrop, by C.J. Harper (USA)
• The Land of Sun and Fun, by Madeleine Harris-Callway (Canada)
• Sex, Death, and Chocolate, by Renata Hill (Canada)
• The Sirius Patrol, by Mick Laing (UK)
• Forgotten Treasures, by Susan Lindgren (USA)
• The Pathologist, by Catherine O’Keefe (Canada)
• Paterfamilias, by Danielle Ramsay (UK)
• A Vine Time for Trouble, by Germaine Stafford (Italy)
• Idiot Wind, by Martin Ungless (UK)
• Murder at the Séance, by Alan Wright (UK)

I’m particularly impressed with the International Dagger list--strong contenders all--and am pleased to see that R.J. Ellory, who my wife and I were fortunate to meet during last fall’s Bouchercon in Baltimore, is in contention for the Dagger in the Library.

(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)