Dagger Rivals Make the Cut

Laura Lippman, Joseph Finder, Gin Phillips, and Arnaldur Indridason are among the losers in today’s announcement, by the British Crime Writers’ Association, of shortlisted titles for the 2018 Dagger Awards. All of those prominent writers had works longlisted for these prizes (see here), but—surprisingly—not one of them appears among the finalists. These books and writers remain in the running:

CWA Gold Dagger:
• The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• London Rules, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Little, Brown)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• 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)
• 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)
• Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka (Picador)
• Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Point Blank)
• East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
• 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)
• 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)
• The Accordionist, by Fred Vargas,
translated by Sian Reynolds (Harvill Secker)

CWA Historical Dagger:
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Fire, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)
• Lightning Men, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)
• Money in the Morgue, by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)
• Nine Lessons, by Nicola Upson (Faber and Faber)
• Nucleus, by Rory Clements (Zaffre)

CWA Short Story Dagger:
• “The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle,” by Chris Brookmyre (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
• “Second Son,” by Lee Child (from No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories, by Lee Child; Bantam Press)
• “Smoking Kills,” by Erin Kelly (from Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2: The Body, edited by Susan Opie; Killer Women)
• “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)

CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction:
• Black Dahlia, Red Rose, by Piu Eatwell (Coronet)
• Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann (Simon & Schuster)
• Blood on the Page, by Thomas Harding (Heinemann)
• The Fact of a Body, by Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich (Macmillan)
• A False Report, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong (Hutchinson)
• Rex v. Edith Thompson, by Laura Thompson (Head of Zeus)

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

CWA Debut Dagger (for unpublished writers):
• The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon, by Bill Crotty
• The Last Googling of Beth Bailly, by Luke Melia
• Riverine Blood, by Joseph James
• Original Sins, by Linda McLaughlin
• Trust Me, I’m Dead, by Sherryl Clark

Winners are to be announced during the CWA Dagger Awards dinner in London on Thursday, October 25.

(Hat tip to Ali Karim and Mystery Fanfare.)