Courting Favor in Blighty

While I was taking an early summer break away from my desk last week, the British Crime Writers’ Association announced the winners of its 2023 Dagger Awards. Most Rap Sheet readers will have found the results elsewhere; but just in case you haven’t, here they are.

Gold Dagger:
The Kingdoms of Savannah, by George Dawes Green (Headline)

Also nominated: The Lost Man of Bombay, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton); A Killing in November, by Simon Mason (Riverrun); The Clockwork Girl, by Anna Mazzola (Orion); The Winter Guest, by W.C. Ryan (Zaffre); and The Silent Brother, by Simon Van der Velde (Northodox Press)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
Seventeen, by John Brownlow (Hodder & Stoughton)

Also nominated: Take Your Breath Away, by Linwood Barclay (HQ); The Botanist, by M.W. Craven (Constable); The Ink Black Heart, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); Alias Emma, by Ava Glass (Century); and May God Forgive, by Alan Parks (Canongate)

ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
Dirt Town, by Hayley Scrivenor (Macmillan)

Also nominated: Breaking, by Amanda Cassidy (Canelo); The Local, by Joey Hartstone (Pushkin Vertigo); London in Black, by Jack Lutz (Pushkin Vertigo); No Country for Girls, by Emma Styles (Sphere); and Outback, by Patricia Wolf (Embla)

Historical Dagger: The Darkest Sin, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)

Also nominated: The Clockwork Girl, by Anna Mazzola (Orion); The Homes, by J.B. Mylet (Viper); The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Constable); Blue Water, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper); and Hear No Evil, by Sarah Smith (Two Roads)

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger: Even the Darkest Night, by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean (MacLehose Press)

Also nominated: Good Reasons to Die, by Morgan Audic, translated by Sam Taylor (Mountain Leopard Press); The Red Notebook, by Michel Bussi, translated by Vineet Lal (Weidenfeld & Nicolson); Bad Kids, by Zijin Chen, translated by Michelle Deeter (Pushkin Vertigo); The Bleeding, by Johana Gustawsson, translated by David Warriner (Orenda); and The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter (Michael Joseph)

Short Story Dagger: “Cast a Long Shadow,” by Hazell Ward Cast (from Cast a Long Shadow, edited by Katherine Stansfield and Caroline; Honno Welsh Women’s Press)

Also nominated: “The Disappearance,” by Leigh Bardugo (from Marple; HarperCollins); “The Tears of Venus,” by Victoria Dowd and Delilah Dowd (from Unlocked; The D20 Authors); “The Beautiful Game,” by Sanjida Kay (from The Perfect Crime, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski; HarperCollins); “Paradise Lost,” by Abir Mukherjee (from The Perfect Crime); and “Runaway Blues,” by C.J. Tudor (from A Sliver of Darkness, by C.J. Tudor; Michael Joseph)

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction: Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey, by Wendy Joseph (Doubleday)

Also nominated: The Poisonous Solicitor: The True Story of a 1920s Murder Mystery, by Stephen Bates (Icon); The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club); Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector, by Amit Katwala (Mudlark); To Hunt a Killer: How I Brought Melanie Road’s Murderer to Justice, by Julie Mackay and Robert Murphy (Harper Element); and About A Son: A Murder and a Father’s Search for Truth, by David Whitehouse (Phoenix)

Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”): Sophie Hannah

Also nominated: Ben Aaronovitch and Mick Herron

Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”): Viper (Profile Books)

Also nominated: Harper Fiction (HarperCollins); Mantle (PanMacmillan); Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House); Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin Press); and Quercus (Hachette)

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

Also nominated: Bulldog Murphy, by Chris Corbett; Male, Unknown, by Chris Griffiths (highly recommended); Heist, by James Pierson; The Line of Least Resistance, by Jeff Richards (highly recommended); and Cradle of Storms, by Margaret Winslow

The CWA Red Herring (“for services to crime writing and the CWA”): Gary Stratmann and Corinne Turner

Diamond Dagger: Walter Mosley

* * *

Released around the same time were the lists of contenders for the 2023 Fingerprint Awards, sponsored by the London-based Capital Crime convention. Readers are invited to vote online for their favorites.

Crime Book of the Year:
• The Botanist, by M.W. Craven
• The It Girl, by Ruth Ware
• Bleeding Heart Yard, by Elly Griffiths
• The Family Remains, by Lisa Jewell
• The Twist of a Knife, by Anthony Horowitz

Thriller Book of the Year:
• Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett
• Do No Harm, by Jack Jordan
• Truly Darkly Deeply, by Victoria Selman
• Wrong Place Wrong Time, by Gillian McAllister
• A Good Day to Die, by Amen Alonge

Historical Book of the Year:
• The Lost Man of Bombay, by Vaseem Khan
• The Clockwork Girl, by Anna Mazzola
• A Fatal Crossing, by Tom Hindle
• Miss Aldridge Regrets, by Louise Hare
• Shrines of Gaiety, by Kate Atkinson

Genre-Busting Book of the Year:
• The House of Ashes, by Stuart Neville
• The Skeleton Key, by Erin Kelly
• The Cartographers, by Peng Shepherd
• Wild and Wicked Things, by Francesca May
• Suicide Thursday, by Will Carver

Debut Book of the Year:
• The Maid, by Nita Prose
• Wahala, by Nikki May
• That Green-Eyed Girl, by Julie Owen-Moylan
• A Fatal Crossing, by Tom Hindle
• Death and the Conjuror, by Tom Mead

Audiobook of the Year:
• The Ink Black Heart, by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister
• The Skeleton Key, by Erin Kelly; narrated by Helen Keeley
• One Last Secret, by Adele Parks; narrated by Kristin Atherton
• The Twyford Code, by Janice Hallett; narrated by Thomas Judd
• Better the Blood, by Michael Bennett; narrated by Miriama McDowell and Richard Te Are

Again, click here to make your top choices known from among these works. Winners will be revealed at the Capital Crime festival on Thursday, August 31.