Cleeves Applauded for Excellence

It was just a couple of months ago that UK author Ann Cleeves picked up the Icelandic Noir festival’s first Honorary Award for Services to the Art of Crime Fiction. Now here she is again, winning an even more prestigious commendation. Martin Edwards, the new chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, announced this morning that Cleeves will be given the 2017 CWA Diamond Dagger award. Shotsmag Confidential explains that this is “the highest honor in British crime writing … recogniz[ing] authors whose crime-writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre.” The official news release notes that

Ann has written 30 novels and is translated into as many languages. Before her writing career took off, Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard. In 2015, Ann chaired the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, during which Vera [Stanhope] was voted the UK’s favorite fictional detective. Also in 2015, Thin Air was nominated for the Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and Ann was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library award. In 2006, Cleeves’ novel Raven Black was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, and in 2012, she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame.

As well as fiction, Ann has written a non-fiction title about Shetland and, in November 2015, she hosted the inaugural Shetland Noir festival on the Shetland Islands.

Cleeves will be presented with her Diamond Dagger during a ceremony to held in London on October 26 of this year. Previous winners of the same prize include P.D. James, John le Carré, Ian Rankin, Dick Francis, and last year’s recipient, Peter James.

The latest novel in her Shetland mystery series, Cold Earth, is due for release for its U.S. release in April by Minotaur Books.