“Life or Death” Takes Home Gold

During a festive event held this evening in London, the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) presented three more of its 2015 Dagger Awards. Those included the Goldsboro Gold Dagger, which went to Michael Robotham, making him only the second Australian--after Peter Temple in 2007--to capture that coveted honor.

Here’s the complete list of winners and shortlisted works.

CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger:
Life or Death, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)

Also nominated: The Shut Eye, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press); The Rules of Wolfe, by James Carlos Blake (No Exit Press); The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); Missing, by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail); Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton); and Pleasantville, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
Cop Town, by Karin Slaughter (Century)

Also nominated: The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday); The Night the Rich Men Burned, by Malcolm MacKay (Mantle); Missing, by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail); Nobody Walks, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); The White Van, by Patrick Hoffman (Grove Press); and The Kind Worth Killing, by Peter Swanson (Faber and Faber)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
Fourth of July Creek, by Smith Henderson (Heinemann)

Also nominated: The Girl in the Red Coat, by Kate Hamer (Faber and Faber); The Abrupt Physics of Dying, by Paul E. Hardisty (Orenda); Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (Little, Brown); and You, by Caroline Kepnes (Simon & Schuster)

In a comment on Twitter, critic-editor Sarah Weinman (Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & ’50s) wrote of Henderson’s victorious work: “So fascinating as it was not marketed as a crime novel in the U.S. at all.”

Congratulations to all of the winners and runners-up here!

Seven other annual Dagger Awards were handed out in June. You can find out who won them by clicking here.

READ MORE: “Australian Ghostwriter Beats Stephen King and J.K. Rowling to Top UK Crime-writing Award,” by David Barnett (The Guardian); “In Pictures: The CWA Dagger Awards 2015,” by Caroine Carpenter (The Bookseller); “The Psychology of Crime: An Interview with Michael Robotham,” by Jacques Jacques Filippi (The House of Crime and Mystery).