Bringing Out the Daggers

During a ceremony held earlier tonight in London, the British Crime Writers’ Association handed out its 2019 Dagger Awards.

CWA chair Linda Stratmann was quoted as saying, “2019’s winners show the incredible range and quality of authors at work in the crime-writing genre today. The Daggers recognize both established and emerging names, and we are incredibly proud of the reputation and longevity the Daggers have, nationally and internationally.”

Although I couldn’t be on the scene to witness these prizes announced and dispensed, The Rap Sheet’s chief UK correspondent, Ali Karim, certainly was. He reports the list of winners as follows.

CWA Gold Dagger:
The Puppet Show, by M.W. Craven (Constable)

Also nominated: All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton); What We Did, by Christobel Kent (Sphere); Unto Us a Son Is Given, by Donna Leon (Heinemann); American by Day, by Derek B. Miller (Doubleday); and A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, by Benjamin Wood (Scribner)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood):
Scrublands, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)

Also nominated: All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton); The Boy at the Door, by Alex Dahl (Head of Zeus); Turn a Blind Eye, by Vicky Newham (HQ); Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle); and Overkill, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction: The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre (Viking)

Also nominated: All That Remains: A Life in Death, by Sue Black (Doubleday); An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere, by Mikita Brottman (Canongate); Murder by the Book: A Sensational Chapter in Victorian Crime, by Claire Harman (Viking); The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Hutchinson); and The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
To the Lions, by Holly Watt (Bloomsbury)

Also nominated: Give Me Your Hand, by Megan Abbott (Picador);
Safe Houses, by Dan Fesperman (Head of Zeus); Killing Eve: No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings (John Murray); Lives Laid Away, by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Crime); and Memo from Turner, by Tim Willocks (Jonathan Cape)

CWA International Dagger: A Long Night in Paris, by Dov Alfon; translated by Daniella Zamir (MacLehose Press)

Also nominated: Weeping Waters, by Karin Brynard, translated by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon (World Noir); The Cold Summer, by Gianrico Carofiglio, translated by Howard Curtis (Bitter Lemon Press); Newcomer, by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray (Little, Brown); The Root of Evil, by Håkan Nesser, translated by Sarah Death (Mantle); and The Forger, by Cay Rademacher, translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia)

CWA Sapere Books Historical Dagger:
Destroying Angel, by S.G. MacLean: (Quercus)

Also nominated: The Quaker, by Liam McIlvanney (Harper Fiction); Smoke and Ashes, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker); The House on Half Moon Street, by Alex Reeve (Raven); Tombland, by C.J. Sansom: (Mantle); and Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)

CWA Short Story Dagger:
“The Dummies’ Guide to Serial Killing,” by Danuta Reah (from The Dummies’ Guide to Serial Killing and Other Fantastic Female Fables, by Danuta Reah [aka Danuta Kot]; Fantastic). Highly recommended: “I Detest Mozart,” by Teresa Solana (from The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories, by Teresa Solana; Bitter Lemon Press)

Also nominated: “Strangers in a Pub,” by Martin Edwards (from Ten Year Stretch, edited by Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller; No Exit Press); “Death Becomes Her,” by Syd Moore (from The Strange Casebook, by Syd Moore; Point Blank Books); and “Bag Man,” by Lavie Tidhar (from The Outcast Hours, edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin; Solaris)

Dagger in the Library: Kate Ellis

Also nominated: M.C. Beaton, Mark Billingham, John Connolly, C.J. Sansom, and Cath Staincliffe

Debut Dagger (for the opening of a crime novel by an uncontracted writer): WAKE, by Shelley Burr

Also nominated: The Mourning Light, by Jerry Krause; Hardways, by Catherine Hendricks; The Firefly, by David Smith; and A Thin Sharp Blade, by Fran Smith

Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year:
No Exit Press (Oldcastle Books)

Also nominated: Faber and Faber, Harper Fiction (HarperCollins), HQ (HarperCollins), Orenda Books, Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin),
and Raven (Bloomsbury)

Diamond Dagger Recipient: Robert Goddard

Congratulations to all of the victors and other nominees alike!

FOLLOW-UP: Ali Karim has posted a fine selection of videos from this year’s Dagger Awards ceremony on his YouTube page.