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Monday 25 April 2022

CWA Dagger Awards Longlists Announced


 The 2022 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced.

Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

Past winners of the prestigious Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the crime novel of the year, include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell.

Bestselling names in contention for Gold this year include Mark Billingham, Paula Hawkins and Imran Mahmood.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, the Fleming family-owned company that looks after the James Bond literary brand, showcases the thriller of the year.
Past winners including Gillian Flynn and Robert Harris. The longlist for 2022 includes MW Craven, who credited the CWA Debut Dagger competition in 2013 for opening the door to his career as an author. He’s up against stalwarts of the genre including Laura Lippman, Belinda Bauer and Linwood Barclay.

Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “The CWA Dagger awards are unparalleled for their reputation and longevity and celebrate the very best of the genre. This year’s longlists showcase authors – established and new – at the top of their game. The sheer diversity of the titles on these longlists illustrates how the genre can entertain and thrill but also provide healthy arguments for much societal debate. In a year when more crime and mystery titles were issued than ever before, our independent judges found making choices difficult, and winnowing these titles down to a forthcoming shortlist will prove fascinating."

The much-anticipated John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels. Among the rising stars of 2022 is Janice Hallett with her debut The Appeal, which was a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, praised as a “dazzlingly clever cosy crime novel”.

Booker Prize winner John Banville is a heavyweight contender on the Historical Dagger longlist. The prizewinning novelist and literary polymath is in the running for April in Spain. Banville is up against established names including Simon Scarrow, Andrew Taylor and Crime Cymru organiser, Alis Hawkins.

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger sees the award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen with The Rabbit Factor and the French author Victor Jestin, for his dark coming-of-age-novel Heatwave, among the longlist.

The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story. This year sees the bestselling Norwegian juggernaut Jo Nesbⱷ on the longlist with his story ‘London’ from his first book of short stories, The Jealousy Man. Novelists Caroline England and Bryony Pearce are other names on the list.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction features The Jigsaw Murders, the debut book by Jeremy Craddock who worked as journalist and crime reporter for over 20 years, tracing the true story of the shocking 1930s murder case.

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 sees firm favourites from the genre including Mark Billingham, Susan Hill, Lin Anderson and Cath Staincliffe.

The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits big publishing houses including Harper Fiction against independent publishers such as Titan Books and the Amazon imprint, Thomas & Mercer.

The Daggers also celebrate unpublished authors with its annual competition for aspiring crime novelists. The competition to find the best new voices in the genre has been going for over 20 years. The winner will receive £500 as well as the attention of leading agents and top editors; over two dozen past winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger authors have been signed to date.

The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring each year and in 2022 it was awarded to
C.J. Sansom.

The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced on 13 May at CrimeFest. The awards ceremony will be held at the Leonardo City hotel in London on 29 June, coinciding with National Crime Reading Month, which takes place throughout June.

 

The Longlists in Full:

GOLD DAGGER

Next of Kin, Kia Abdullah (HarperCollins; HQ)

The Christmas Murder Game, Alexandra Benedict (Bonnier Books UK; Zaffre)

Rabbit Hole, Mark Billingham (Little, Brown; Sphere)

City of Vengeance DV Bishop (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan)

Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz (Little, Brown; Sphere)

Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Razorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group; Headline)

The Last Thing to Burn, Will Dean (Hodder & Stoughton)

The House Uptown, Melissa Ginsburg (Faber)

The Unwilling, John Hart (Bonnier Books UK Ltd; Zaffre)

A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins (Transworld; Doubleday)

Lightseekers, Femi Kayode (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven)

I Know What I Saw, Imran Mahmood (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven)

The Shadows of Men, Abir Mukherjee (Penguin Random House;  Harvill Secker)

The Killing Hills, Chris Offutt (No Exit Press)

The Stoning, Peter Papathanasiou (Quercus; MacLehose)

The Trawlerman, William Shaw   (Quercus; riverrun)

Daughters of Night, Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

A Beginner's Guide to Murder, Rosalind Stopps (HarperCollins; HQ)

Brazilian Psycho, Joe Thomas (Quercus; Arcadia)

 

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

A Man Named Doll, Jonathan Ames (Pushkin Vertigo)

Find You First, Linwood Barclay (HarperCollins; HQ)

Exit, Belinda Bauer (Transworld Publishers; Bantam Press)

The Pact, Sharon Bolton (Orion)

The Devil’s Advocate, Steve Cavanagh (Orion)

Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Razorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group)

Dead Ground, MW Craven (Little, Brown; Constable)

The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz (Faber)

Dream Girl, Laura Lippman (Faber)

Rizzio, Denise Mina (Birlinn; Polygon)

The Lonely Ones, Håkan Nesser (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

 

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Welcome to Cooper, Tariq Ashkanani (Thomas & Mercer)

Sixteen Horses, Greg Buchanan (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Repentance, Eloísa Díaz (Orion Publishing Group; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Hunted, Antony Dunford (Hobeck Books)

The Mash House, Alan Gillespie (Unbound; Unbound Digital)

Raft of Stars, Andrew J. Graff (HarperCollins; HQ)

The Appeal, Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper Books)

Falling, T. J. Newman (Simon & Schuster)

Where Ravens Roost, Karin Nordin (HarperCollins; HQ)

The Stoning, Peter Papathanasiou (Quercus; MacLehose Press)

How to Kidnap the Rich, Rahul Raina (Little, Brown)

A Mumbai Murder Mystery, Meeti Shroff-Shah (Joffe Books)

The Source, Sarah Sultoon (Orenda Books)

Waking the Tiger, Mark Wightman (Hobeck Books)

 

HISTORICAL DAGGER

April in Spain, John Banville (Faber)

City of Vengeance, D. V. Bishop (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan)

Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Crow Court, Andy Charman (Unbound)

Not One Of Us, Alis Hawkins (Canelo)

The Drowned City, K. J. Maitland (Headline)

Where God Does Not Walk, Luke McCallin (No Exit Press )

Edge of the Grave, Robbie Morrison (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan)

A Corruption of Blood, Ambrose Parry (Canongate Books)

Blackout, Simon Scarrow (Headline)

The Royal Secret, Andrew Taylor, (HarperCollins; Harper Fiction)

The Cannonball Tree Mystery, Ovidia Yu (Little, Brown; Constable)

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Girls Who Lie, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribb (Orenda Books)

Hotel Cartagena, Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)

Riccardino, Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Seat 7a, Sebastian Fitzek translated by Steve Anderson (Head of Zeus)

Bullet Train, Kōtarō Isaka translated by Sam Malissa (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)

Heatwave, Victor Jestin translated by Sam Taylor (Simon & Schuster; Scribner)

Oxygen, Sacha Naspini translated by Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions UK Ltd; Europa Editions)

People Like Them, Samira Sedira translated by Lara Vergnaud (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)

The Rabbit Factor, Antti Tuomainen translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

The Scorpion's Head, Hilde Vandermeeren translated by Laura Watkinson (Pushkin Press; Pushkin Vertigo)

 

SHORT STORY DAGGER

‘Blindsided’ by Caroline England in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

‘The Victim’ by Awais Khan in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

‘New Tricks’ by Matt Wesolowski in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

‘London’ in The Jealousy Man and other stories by Jo Nesbⱷ edited by Robert Ferguson (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)

‘With the Others’ by TM Logan in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

‘The Clifton Vampire’ by TE Kinsey in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

‘Flesh of a Fancy Woman’ by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

‘Changeling’ by  Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

‘The Way Of All Flesh’ by Raven Dane in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

‘When I Grow Up’ by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, Dr Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne (Faber)

The Seven Ages of Death Dr Richard Shepherd (Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph)

The Jigsaw Murders, Jeremy Craddock (The History Press)

The Dublin Railway Murder, Thomas Morris (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)

What Lies Buried, Kerry Daynes (Hachette UK; Octopus)

The Unusual Suspect, Ben Machell (Canongate Books)

The Good Girls, Sonia Faleiro (Bloomsbury Publishing; Bloomsbury Circus)

The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice, Julia Laite (Profile Books)

We Are Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe (Pan Macmillan; Picador)

The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire, Julie Kavanagh (Atlantic Books; Grove Press UK)

 

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Ben Aaronovitch

Lin Anderson

Mark Billingham

Susan Hill

Edward Marston

Kate Rhodes

Sara Sheridan

Cath Staincliffe

Rebecca Tope

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Faber & Faber

HarperCollins; Harper Fiction

Pan Macmillan; Mantle

Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph

Oneworld Publications; Point Blank

Pushkin Press; Pushkin Vertigo

Hachette UK; Quercus

Bloomsbury; Raven Books

Amazon; Thomas & Mercer

Titan Books

Profile Books; Viper

  

DEBUT DAGGER Sponsored by ProWritingAid

Henry’s Bomb, Kevin Bartlett

Lufkin, Texas, Katherine Futers

Holloway Castle, Laura Aston Hill

The 10:12, Anna Maloney

The Mercy Seat, Rachel Nixon

The Two Murders at Manor Park, Elizabeth Opalka

Blood Caste, Shylashri Shankar

Dead Reckoning, Jennifer Slee & Jessica Slee

The Dead of Egypt, David Smith

The Dieppe Letters, Liz Rachel Walker


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