The 2020 shortlists
for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime
writing genre, have been announced.
The world-famous
Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and
have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.
Mick Herron’s Joe
Country, Claire Askew’s What You Pay For and Lou
Berney’s November Road are all in contention for the CWA Gold
Dagger, awarded to the best crime novel. November Road is also
on the shortlist for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller, up
against One Way Out by AA Dhand, Between Two Evils by
Eva Dolan and the Richard and Judy pick The Whisper Man by
Alex North.
Linda Stratmann,
Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said:
“As the CWA Daggers are
unmatched for their reputation and longevity, these shortlists offer a showcase
of the finest writing in crime fiction and non-fiction. They reveal the
remarkable variety and huge relevance of the genre, which continues to dominate
book sales and to shape our cultural landscape.”
The much-anticipated
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels. Among the six
shortlisted debuts are Little White Lies by Philippa East,
acclaimed as ‘unputdownable’, and Trevor Wood, who served in the Royal Navy for
16 years, makes the list with The Man on the Street, featuring a
homeless veteran grappling with PTSD, dubbed by Lee Child as ‘an instant
classic’.
Abir
Mukherjee’s Death in the East is not only shortlisted for the
Gold Dagger but also the Sapere Books Historical Dagger. He contends with Metropolis,
completed just before Philip Kerr’s untimely death and SG Maclean, who won the
Dagger last year for Destroying Angel; she returns with The
Bear Pit.
The Crime Fiction in
Translation Dagger shortlist features Finland’s acclaimed and award-winning
writer, Antti Tuomainen, with Little Siberia translated by
David Hackston. The king of Helsinki noir is up against Marion Brunet, the
winner of the prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature policière in
2018, whose novel Summer of Reckoning is translated by
Katherine Gregor.
The CWA Daggers are
one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.
Syd Moore, who was
shortlisted in the category in 2019, returns with her short story “Easily Made”
in 12 Strange Days of Christmas. Paul Finch, a former cop and
journalist turned bestselling crime writer, sees his short story “The New Lad”
(published in the anthology Exit Wounds) make the shortlist. They
are up against established authors including Christopher Fowler, author of over
fifty novels and short-story collections, and the blockbuster American mystery
writer Jeffery Deaver, who won the Short Story Dagger in 2004.
The shortlist for the
ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes Casey Cep, a staff writer at
the New York Times whose first book Furious Hours:
Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, has received acclaim on
both sides of the Atlantic. Also on the shortlist is Caroline Goode for Honour:
Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod. It’s the heart-breaking true story
of Banaz Mahmod, the young Londoner murdered by her own family for falling in
love with the wrong man, adapted for TV starring Keeley Hawes as Detective
Chief Inspector Caroline Goode.
The Dagger in the
Library is voted on exclusively by librarians, chosen for the author’s body of
work and support of libraries. This year’s shortlisted nominees are Christopher
Brookmyre, Jane Casey, Alex Gray and Quintin Jardine.
One of the
anticipated highlights of the awards is the Debut Dagger competition, open to
unknown and uncontracted writers. Settings for the shortlisted novels are
varied and range from modern-day America, rural Australia, an organic farm near
Bern, 2011 Cuba, a contemporary offshore oil platform and sixteenth century Orkney.
This year also
features the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, launched in
2019, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and
diversity in crime writing.
The winners of the
2020 Daggers will be announced at an awards ceremony, due to take place on 22
October.
The Shortlists in
Full:
GOLD DAGGER
Claire Askew: What
You Pay For (Hodder & Stoughton)
Lou Berney: November
Road (Harper Fiction)
John Fairfax: Forced
Confessions (Little, Brown)
Mick Herron: Joe
Country (John Murray)
Abir Mukherjee: Death
in the East (Harvill Secker)
Michael Robotham:
Good Girl, Bad Girl (Sphere)
IAN FLEMING STEEL
DAGGER
Lou Berney: November
Road (Harper Fiction)
Tom Chatfield: This
is Gomorrah (Hodder & Stoughton)
AA Dhand: One Way Out
(Bantam Press)
Eva Dolan: Between
Two Evils (Raven Books)
David Koepp: Cold
Storage (HQ)
Alex North: The
Whisper Man (Michael Joseph)
JOHN CREASEY (NEW
BLOOD) DAGGER
Steph Cha: Your House
Will Pay (Faber & Faber)
Samantha Downing: My
Lovely Wife (Michael Joseph)
Philippa East: Little
White Lies (HQ)
Robin Morgan-Bentley:
The Wreckage (Trapeze)
Trevor Wood: The Man
on the Street (Quercus Fiction)
SAPERE BOOKS
HISTORICAL DAGGER
Alis Hawkins: In Two Minds (The
Dome Press)
Philip Kerr:
Metropolis (Quercus Fiction)
SG MacLean: The Bear
Pit (Quercus Fiction)
Abir Mukherjee: Death
in the East (Harvill Secker)
Alex Reeve: The
Anarchists’ Club (Raven Books)
Ovidia Yu: The Paper
Bark Tree Mystery (Constable)
CRIME FICTION IN
TRANSLATION DAGGER
Marion Brunet: Summer
of Reckoning, translated by Katherine Gregor (Bitter Lemon Press)
Hannelore Cayre: The
Godmother, translated by Stephanie Smee (Old Street Publishing)
K Ferrari: Like Flies
from Afar, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Canongate Books)
Jorge Galán:
November, translated by Jason Wilson (Constable)
Sergio Olguín: The
Fragility of Bodies, translated by Miranda France (Bitter Lemon Press)
Antti Tuomainen: Little
Siberia, translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)
SHORT STORY DAGGER
Jeffery Deaver: The
Bully in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan
Books)
Paul Finch: The
New Lad in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan
Books)
Christopher
Fowler: The Washing in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim
Jakubowski (Titan Books)
Lauren
Henderson: #Me Too in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim
Jakubowski (Titan Books)
Louise Jensen: The
Recipe in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan
Books)
Syd Moore: Easily
Made in 12 Strange Days of Christmas (Point Blank Press)
ALCS GOLD DAGGER
FOR NON-FICTION
Casey Cep: Furious
Hours (William Heinemann)
Peter Everett:
Corrupt Bodies (Icon Books)
Caroline Goode:
Honour: Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod (Oneworld Publications)
Sean O’Connor: The
Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury (Simon & Schuster)
Adam Sisman: The
Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking (Profile
Books)
Susannah Stapleton:
The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective (Picador)
DAGGER IN THE
LIBRARY
Christopher Brookmyre
Jane Casey
Alex Gray
Quintin Jardine
DEBUT DAGGER
Anna Caig: The
Spae-Wife
Leanne Fry: Whipstick
Kim Hays: Pesticide
Nicholas Morrish:
Emergency Drill
Josephine Moulds:
Revolution Never Lies
Michael Munro: Bitter
Lake
PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER
Bitter Lemon Press
Harvill Secker
Head of Zeus
HQ
Michael Joseph
Orenda
Raven Books
Severn House
For further media
info please contact Ann Chadwick, ann@causeuk.com M: 07534 892715.
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