Saturday, April 20, 2024

Who Has the Edge in Daggers Contest?



The British Crime Writers’ Association has released 10 categories of longlisted nominees for the 2024 Dagger Awards. The CWA Dagger shortlists are scheduled to be announced on Friday, May 10, during this year’s CrimeFest, hosted in Bristol, England.

Gold Dagger:
Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans (Headline)
Dead Man’s Creek, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)
A Bitter Remedy, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
Night Will Find You, by Julia Haeberlin (Michael Joseph)
The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
The White Lie, by J.G. Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
Death of a Lesser God, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Abacus)
Tell Me What I Am, by Una Mannion (Faber and Faber)
Homecoming, by Kate Morton (Mantle)
Black River, by Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo)
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Sutanto (HQ)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
Simply Lies, by David Baldacci (Macmillan)
The Lie Maker, by Linwood Barclay (HQ)
All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Headline)
The House Hunt, by C.M. Ewan (Macmillan)
Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Faber and Faber)
The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka (Harvill Secker)
Gaslight, by Femi Kayode (Raven)
77 North, by D.L. Marshall (Canelo)
Drowning, by T.J. Newman (Simon & Schuster)
After That Night, by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins)
The Man in the Corduroy Suit, by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press)

ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
A Most Unusual Demise, by Kathryn Black (Bloodhound)
In the Blink of an Eye, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
The Golden Gate, by Amy Chua (Corvus)
Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo)
Murder by Natural Causes, by Helen Erichsen (Muswell Press)
The Maiden, by Kate Foster (Mantle)
The Golden Spoon, by Jessa Maxwell (Penguin)
West Heart Kill, by Dann McDorman (Raven)
Obsessed, by Liza North (Constable)
Go Seek, by Michelle Teahan (Headline)
The Other Half, by Charlotte Vassell (Faber and Faber)
The Tumbling Girl, by Bridget Walsh (Gallic)

Historical Dagger:
Clara & Olivia, by Lucy Ashe (Magpie)
The Lock-Up, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
Flags on the Bayou, by James Lee Burke (Orion)
Murder in the Bookshop, by Anita Davison (Boldwood)
After Midnight, by Louise Hare Harlem (HQ)
A Bitter Remedy, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
Viper's Dream, by Jake Lamar (No Exit Press)
The Winter List, by S.G. MacLean (Quercus)
The Murder Wheel, by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus/Aries)
Scarlet Town, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
Voices of the Dead, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
Lady MacBethad, by Isabelle Schuler (Raven)

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:
The Snow Girl, by Javier Castillo,
translated by Isabelle Kaufeler (Penguin)
Red Queen, by Juan Gómez-Jurado,
translated by Nick Caistor (Macmillan)
The Girl by the Bridge, by Arnaldur Indriðason,
translated by Philip Roughton (Vintage)
The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka,
translated by Sam Malissa (Vintage)
The Sins of Our Fathers, by Åsa Larsson,
translated by Frank Perry (Maclehose Press)
Thirty Days of Darkness, by Jenny Lund Madsen,
translated by Megan E.Turney (Orenda)
Nothing Is Lost, by Cloé Mehdi,
translated by Howard Curtis (Europa Editions UK)
The Murder of Anton Livius, by Hansjörg Schneider,
translated by Astrid Freuler (Bitter Lemon Press)
The Consultant, by Im Seong-sun,
translated by An Seong Jae (Raven)
Not Russian, by Mikhail Shevelev,
translated by Brian James Baer and Ellen Vayner (Europa Editions UK)
The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir,
translated by Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton)
My Husband, by Maud Ventura,
translated by Emma Ramadan (Hutchinson Heinemann)

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel (Simon & Schuster)
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage (Simon & Schuster)
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing, by Lara Love Hardin (Endeavour)
No Ordinary Day: Espionage, Betrayal, Terrorism and Corruption—The Truth Behind the Murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by Matt Johnson with John Murray (Ad Lib)
Chasing Shadows: A True Story of the Mafia, Drugs and Terrorism, by Miles Johnson (Bridge Street Press)
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador)
Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen, by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson (Ad Lib)
No Comment: What I Wish I’d Known About Becoming a Detective, by Jess McDonald (Raven)
Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy, by Alex Mar (Bedford Square)
How Many More Women?: The Silencing of Women by the Law and How to Stop It, by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida (Endeavour)
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare (Vintage)
Murder at Home: How Our Safest Space Is Where We’re Most in Danger, by David Wilson (Sphere)

Short Story Dagger:
“Three Ways to Die,” by Rachel Amphlett (from Thrill Ride: No W.W.M., edited by M. L. “Matt” Buchman (Buchman Bookworks)
“Safe Enough,” by Lee Child (from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens; Rivertree)
“The Last Best Thing,” by Mia Dalia (from Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook; Head Shot Press)
“Slap Happy,” by Andrew Humphrey (from Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction)
“The Also-Rans,” by Benedict J. Jones (from Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction)
“The Divide,” by Sanjida Kay (from The Book of Bristol, edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks; Comma Press)
The Spendthrift and the Swallow, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
“Drive By,” by D.G. Penny Drive (from An Unnecessary Assassin)
“Best Served Cold,” by F.D. Quinn (from An Unnecessary Assassin)
“Revenge Is Best Served Hot,” by Robert Scragg (from An Unnecessary Assassin)

Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”):
Louise Candlish
M.W. Craven
Lucy Foley
Cara Hunter
Anthony Horowitz
Vaseem Khan
Angela Marsons
Kate Rhodes
L.J. Ross
Diane Saxon

Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”):
Bitter Lemon Press
Canelo
Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)
Harvill Secker (Penguin Random House)
Headline (Hachette)
Joffe Books
Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)
Pushkin Press
Raven (Bloomsbury)
Simon & Schuster

Debut Dagger (“for the opening of a crime novel by an
unpublished writer”):

Burnt Ranch, by Katherine Ahlert
Unnatural Predators, by Caroline Arnoul
Vilomah, by Matt Coot
Good Criminals, by Judy Hock
Vigilante Love Song, by J.R. Holland
Bluebirds, by Alan Jackson
Makoto Murders, by Richard Jerram
Long Way Home, by Lynn McCall
Not a Good Mother, by Karabi Mitra
The Last Days of Forever, by Jeremy Tinker
A Politician’s Guide to Murder, by James Tobin
The Blond, by Megan Toogood

As a press release explains, “The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring and in 2024 it was jointly awarded to Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke.”

The winners of this year’s Dagger Awards will be announced on Thursday, July 4, at a gala Daggers Dinner.

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