Lucky Contenders on the 13th

The British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced its shortlists of nominees for the 2022 Dagger awards. Winners will be named during a “live gala dinner event” in London on June 29.

Gold Dagger:
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Little, Brown)
• Sunset Swing, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
• Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• The Unwilling, by John Hart (Zaffre)
• The Shadows of Men, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The Trawlerman, by William Shaw (Riverrun)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• Find You First, by Linwood Barclay (HQ)
• The Pact, by Sharon Bolton (Orion)
• The Devil’s Advocate, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• Dead Ground, by M.W. Craven (Constable)
• Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman (Faber and Faber)

John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
• Welcome to Cooper, by Tariq Ashkanani (Thomas & Mercer)
• Repentance, by Eloísa Díaz (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Mash House, by Alan Gillespie (Unbound)
• The Appeal, by Janice Hallett (Viper)
• Where Ravens Roost, by Karin Nordin (HQ)
• How to Kidnap the Rich, by Rahul Raina (Little, Brown)
• Waking the Tiger, by Mark Wightman (Hobeck)

Historical Dagger:
• April in Spain, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
• Sunset Swing, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
• Crow Court, by Andy Charman (Unbound)
• Not One of Us, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
• Edge of the Grave, by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)
• A Corruption of Blood, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:
• Hotel Cartagena, by Simone Buchholz,
translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda)
• Bullet Train, by Kōtarō Isaka,
translated by Sam Malissa (Harvill Secker)
• Oxygen, by Sacha Naspini,
translated by Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions)
• People Like Them, by Samira Sedira,
translated by Lara Vergnaud (Raven)
• The Rabbit Factor, by Antti Tuomainen,
translated by David Hackston (Orenda)

Short Story Dagger:
• “Blindsided,” by Caroline England (from Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time, edited by Samantha Lee Howe; Telos)
• “London,” by Jo Nesbø (from The Jealousy Man and Other Stories, by Jo Nesbø; Harvill Secker)
• “With the Others,” by T.M. Logan (from Afraid of the Shadows, edited by Miranda Jewess; Criminal Minds)
• “Flesh of a Fancy Woman,” by Paul Magrs (from Criminal Pursuits)
• “Changeling,” by Bryony Pearce (from Criminal Pursuits)
• “When I Grow Up,” by Robert Scragg (from Afraid of the Shadows)

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
• The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne (Faber and Faber)
• The Dublin Railway Murder, by Thomas Morris (Harvill Secker)
• The Unusual Suspect, by Ben Machell (Canongate)
• The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A True Story of Sex, Crime and the Meaning of Justice, by Julia Laite (Profile)
• Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador)
• The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders That Stunned an Empire, by Julie Kavanagh (Grove Press)

Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”):
• Cath Staincliffe
• Edward Marston
• Lin Anderson
• Mark Billingham
• Susan Hill

Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”):
• Faber and Faber
• HarperCollins; Harper Fiction
• Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph
• Pushkin Press; Pushkin Vertigo
• Titan
• Profile Books; Viper

Debut Dagger:
• Henry’s Bomb, by Kevin Bartlett
• Holloway Candle, by Laura Ashton Hill
• The 10-12, by Anna Maloney
• The Dead of Egypt, by David Smith
• The Dieppe Letters, by Liz Rachel Walker

In addition, the CWA has decided to give Edinburgh-born historical crime novelist C.J. Sansom the 2022 Diamond Dagger “for a lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language.”

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Today also brings news—declared during the CrimeFest convention being held in Bristol, England—about the winner of the 2022 Margery Allingham Short Story Competition. As press materials explain, this competition is designed to suss out “the best unpublished short mystery, and not only that, but one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great story.”

The 2022 prize recipient is “Locked In,” by Scott Hunter. At least for the time being, you can read Hunter’s story here.

Shortlisted as well for this honor were “A Face for Murder,” by Judith O’Reilly; “Weights and Biases,” by Alexandre Sadeghi; and “Boxed In,” by Mark Thielman.