And Still More Daggers

There is still more news coming out of this week’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England: “three key book shortlists” for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards--“celebrating the very best of British and international crime thriller fiction in the UK and beyond”--were announced today. These awards represent a partnership between the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), Specsavers, Cactus TV, and ITV3.

CWA Gold Dagger 2010:
• Blacklands, by Belinda Bauer (Corgi)
• Blood Harvest, by S.J. Bolton (Bantam Press)
• Conman, by Richard Asplin (No Exit Press)
• Rain Gods, by James Lee Burke (Orion)
• Shadowplay, by Karen Campbell (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge,
by Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
• Still Midnight, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• The Way Home, by George Pelecanos (Orion)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2010 (sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.):
• 61 Hours, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• A Loyal Spy, by Simon Conway (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Gone, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)
• Slow Horses, by Mick Herron (Robinson)
• The Dying Light, by Henry Porter (Orion)
• Innocent, by Scott Turow (Macmillan)
• The Gentlemen’s Hour, by Don Winslow (Heinemann)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2010:
• Acts of Violence, by Ryan David Jahn (Pan)
• Cut Short, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
• Martyr, by Rory Clements (John Murray)
• Random, by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)
• Stop Me, by Richard Jay Parker (Allison & Busby)
• Rupture, by Simon Lelic (Picador)
• The Holy Thief, by William Ryan (Mantle)
• The Pull of the Moon, by Diane Janes (Robinson)

The finalists in each category will be announced on Monday, August 9. Announcements of the winners will be made during a special event at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Friday, October 8. The presentation ceremony will be televised on ITV3 the following week.