Let Fly the Daggers!

Nine shortlists of contenders for the 2019 Dagger Awards were announced today by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). The winners will be broadcast during a special ceremony to be held at the Grange City Hotel in London, England, on October 24.

CWA Gold Dagger:
• All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Puppet Show, by M.W. Craven: (Constable)
• 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)
• A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, by Benjamin Wood (Scribner)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood):
• All the Hidden Truths, by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Boy at the Door, by Alex Dahl (Head of Zeus)
• Scrublands, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)
• Turn a Blind Eye, by Vicky Newham (HQ)
• Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)
• Overkill, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
• 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)
• The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre (Viking)
• The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• 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)
• To the Lions, by Holly Watt (Bloomsbury)
• Memo from Turner, by Tim Willocks (Jonathan Cape)

CWA Sapere Books Historical Dagger:
• The Quaker, by Liam McIlvanney (Harper Fiction)
• Destroying Angel, by S.G. MacLean: (Quercus)
• Smoke and Ashes, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The House on Half Moon Street, by Alex Reeve (Raven)
• Tombland, by C.J. Sansom: (Mantle)
• Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)

CWA International Dagger:
• A Long Night in Paris, by Dov Alfon;
translated by Daniella Zamir (MacLehose Press)
• 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)
• The Forger, by Cay Rademacher;
translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia)

CWA Short Story Dagger:
• “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)
• “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)
• “I Detest Mozart,” by Teresa Solana (from The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories, by Teresa Solana; Bitter Lemon Press)
• “Bag Man,” by Lavie Tidhar (from The Outcast Hours,
edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin; Solaris)

Dagger in the Library:
• M.C. Beaton
• Mark Billingham
• John Connolly
• Kate Ellis
• C.J. Sansom
• Cath Staincliffe

Debut Dagger
(for the opening of a crime novel by an uncontracted writer):
• WAKE, by Shelley Burr
• The Mourning Light, by Jerry Krause
• Hardways, by Catherine Hendricks
• The Firefly, by David Smith
• A Thin Sharp Blade, by Fran Smith

Diamond Dagger Recipient: Robert Goddard

Congratulations to all of the nominees!