The 2024 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 best crime novel of the year, include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill, and Ruth Rendell.
Authors in contention for the Gold Dagger this year include the debut novel Black River from Nilanjana Roy. She is up against stalwarts of the genre Mick Herron, Chris Hammer, and Dennis Lehane.
Also in the category are historical crime writer Alis Hawkins, the journalist turned international bestseller, Julia Haeberlin, and the bestselling children’s author Maz Evans with her first adult debut novel, Over My Dead Body.
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year.
The longlist for 2024 includes James Wolff, who was a British intelligence officer for over ten years before leaving to write espionage novels, with The Man in the Corduroy Suit.
He’s joined by giants of the genre Linwood Barclay, David Baldacci, and Karin Slaughter alongside relative newcomers such as Jordan Harper, whose second thriller, Everybody Knows, makes the longlist.
Also in contention are TJ Newman, the former flight attendant who became a Hollywood sensation with her latest thriller, Drowning, and Japanese author Isaka Kotaro for The Mantis; Kotaro is best-known for Bullet Train, which was adapted into a Brad Pitt movie.
Vaseem Khan, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “As ever, the announcement of the CWA Daggers longlist is greeted with immense excitement in the crime and thriller writing world. Once again, our independent panels of expert judges have mulled, cogitated, debated, and, when all else has failed, challenged each other to duels, in their sterling efforts to pick longlists from the incredible array of books submitted to each Dagger. The Daggers are the gold standard of awards in the genre, and Dagger recognition has often served as a stepping stone for careers. More importantly, a Dagger longlisting means that genre readers can be assured of quality. Buy these books. You will not be disappointed.”
The much-anticipated John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels.
Among the rising stars of 2024 is Jo Callaghan with her BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick, The Blink of an Eye; the sensational fiery debut featuring a crime-solving queer punk nun, Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy, and the Victorian gothic, The Tumbling Girl from Bridget Walsh.
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 The Lock-Up. Banville is up against established names including Ambrose Parry, S.G. MacLean, Alis Hawkins, and James Lee Burke with Flags on the Bayou.
The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger includes international hits such as The Prey from the Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb; Maud Ventura’s My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan, which was a sensation in France, likened to Patricia Highsmith and Gone Girl. And the Spanish writer Javier Castillo behind the international phenomenon, The Snow Girl, which was adapted to screen by Netflix, translated by Isabelle Kaufeler.
The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man; The Art Thief by Michael Finkel, the true story of the world’s most prolific art thief who accumulated a collection worth over $1.4 billion, and No Comment by Jess McDonald, who quit her job as a Met detective to tell all about her work on rape and domestic violence cases that left her with PTSD and a determination to speak out.
The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.
This year sees the bestselling juggernaut Lee Child with his story Safe Enough. He’s up against Robert Scragg with Revenge is Best Served Hot, Sanjida Kay’s The Divide, and Rachel Amphlett with Three Ways to Die.
The Dagger in the Library nominees are voted by librarians and library users, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year sees firm favourites from the genre including MW Craven, Anthony Horowitz, Vaseem Khan, and LJ Ross.
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 Headline and Simon & Schuster against independent publishers Joffe Books, Bitter Lemon Press and Canelo.
The Debut Dagger, which has been going for over 20 years, celebrates aspiring crime novelists.
The competition is open to unpublished authors, and is judged on the best opening for an unpublished crime novel. The winner will gain the attention of leading agents and top editors; over two dozen past winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger authors have signed publishing deals 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 and in 2024 it was jointly awarded to Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke.
The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced on 10 May at the UK’s largest crime fiction convention, CrimeFest, hosted in Bristol.
The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 4.
The Longlists in Full:
GOLD DAGGER
- Maz Evans Over My Dead Body, Headline
- Chris Hammer Dead Man’s Creek, Wildfire Books
- Alis Hawkins A Bitter Remedy, Canelo
- Julia Haeberlin Night Will Find You, Penguin (Michael Joseph)
- Mick Herron The Secret Hours, Baskerville (John Murray)
- J G Kelly The White Lie, Hodder & Stoughton
- Vaseem Khan Death of a Lesser God, Hodder & Stoughton
- Dennis Lehane Small Mercies, Abacus (Little Brown)
- Una Mannion Tell me What I Am, Faber & Faber
- Kate Morton Homecoming, Mantle (Pan Macmillan)
- Nilanjana Roy Black River, Pushkin (Vertigo)
- Jesse Sutanto Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, HQ (Harper Collins)
IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER
- David Baldacci Simply Lies, Macmillan (Pan Macmillan)
- Linwood Barclay The Lie Maker, HQ (HC)
- S A Cosby All the Sinners Bleed, Headline (Hachette)
- Eli Cranor Ozark Dogs, Headline (Hachette)
- C M Ewan The House Hunt, Macmillan (Pan Macmillan)
- Jordan Harper Everybody Knows, Faber & Faber
- Kotaro Isaka The Mantis, Harvill Secker (PRH)
- Femi Kayode Gaslight, Raven Books (Bloomsbury)
- D L Marshall 77 North, Canelo
- T J Newman Drowning, Simon & Schuster
- Karin Slaughter After that Night, HarperCollins
- James Wolff The Man in the Corduroy Suit, Bitter Lemon Press
ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER
- Kathryn Black A Most Unusual Demise, Bloodhound Books
- Jo Callaghan In The Blink of An Eye, Simon & Schuster UK
- Amy Chua The Golden Gate, Corvus (Atlantic Books)
- Margot Douaihy Scorched Grace, Pushkin Vertigo
- Helen Erichsen Murder By Natural Causes, Muswell Press
- Kate Foster The Maiden, Mantle (Pan Macmillan)
- Jessa Maxwell The Golden Spoon, Penguin
- Dann McDorman West Heart Kill, Raven Books
- Liza North Obsessed, Constable
- Michelle Teahan Go Seek, Headline Publishing Group
- Charlotte Vassell The Other Half, Faber & Faber
- Bridget Walsh The Tumbling Girl, Gallic Books
HISTORICAL DAGGER
- Lucy Ashe Clara & Olivia, Magpie (Oneworld Publications)
- John Banville The Lock-Up, Faber & Faber
- James Lee Burke Flags on the Bayou, Orion Fiction (Hachette)
- Anita Davison Murder in the Bookshop, Boldwood Books
- Louise Hare Harlem After Midnight, HQ (HarperCollins)
- Alis Hawkins A Bitter Remedy, Canelo
- Jake Lamar Viper’s Dream, No Exit Press
- S.G. MacLean The Winter List, Quercus Fiction (Quercus)
- Tom Mead The Murder Wheel, Aries (Head of Zeus)
- Leonora Nattrass Scarlet Town, Viper (Profile Books)
- Ambrose Parry Voices of the Dead, Canongate Books
- Isabelle Schuler Lady MacBethad, Raven Books (Bloomsbury)
CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER
- Javier Castillo The Snow Girl, translated by Isabelle Kaufeler, Penguin Books
- Juan Gómez-Jurado Red Queen, translated by Nick Caistor, Macmillan
- Arnaldur Indridason The Girl By The Bridge, translated by Philip Roughton, Vintage
- Kotaro Isaka The Mantis, translated by Sam Malissa, Vintage
- Âsa Larsson The Sins Of Our Fathers, translated by Frank Perry, Maclehose Press
- Jenny Lund Madsen Thirty Days Of Darkness, translated by Megan E.Turney, Orenda Books
- Cloé Mehdi Nothing Is Lost, translated by Howard Curtis, Europa Editions UK
- Schneider Hansjörg He Murder Of Anton Livius, translated by Astrid Freuler, Bitter Lemon Press
- Im Seong-sun The Consultant, translated by An Seong Jae, Raven Books
- Mikhail Shevelev Not Russian translated by Brian James Baer & Ellen Vayner, Europa Editions UK
- Yrsa Sigurdardottir The Prey, translated by Victoria Cribb, Hodder & Stoughton
- Maud Ventura My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan, Hutchinson Heinemann
ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
- Michael Finkel The Art Thief, Simon & Schuster
- Beverly Gage G-Man, Simon & Schuster
- Lara Love Hardin The Many Lives of Mama Love, Endeavour
- Matt Johnson with John Murray No Ordinary Day, Ad Lib Publishers
- Miles Johnson Chasing Shadows, The Bridge Street Press
- Patrick Radden Keefe The Snakehead, Picador
- Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson Devil’s Coin, Ad Lib Publishers Ltd
- Jess McDonald No Comment, Raven Books
- Alex Mar Seventy Times Seven, Bedford Square Publishers
- Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida How Many More Women? Endeavour
- Nicholas Shakespeare Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, Vintage
- David Wilson Murder at Home, Sphere
SHORT STORY DAGGER
- Rachel Amphlett Three Ways to Die from No W.W.M. – Thrill Ride #3, edited by M. L. “Matt” Buchman, Buchman Bookworks, Inc
- Lee Child Safe Enough from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree
- Mia Dalia The Last Best Thing from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook, Head Shot Press
- Andrew Humphrey Slap Happy from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction edited by Andrew Hook, Head Shot Press
- Benedict J Jones The Also-Rans from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction edited by Andrew Hook, Head Shot Press
- Sanjida Kay The Divide from The Book of Bristol edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks, Comma Press
- Ambrose Parry The Spendthrift and the Swallow, Canongate Books
- DG Penny Drive from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree
- FD Quinn Best Served Cold from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree
- Robert Scragg Revenge is Best Served Hot from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree
DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY
- Louise Candlish
- MW Craven
- Lucy Foley
- Cara Hunter
- Anthony Horowitz
- Vaseem Khan
- Angela Marsons
- Kate Rhodes
- LJ Ross
- Diane Saxon
PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER
- Bitter Lemon Press
- Canelo
- Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)
- Harvill Secker (PenguinRandomHouse)
- Headline (Hachette)
- Joffe Books
- Michael Joseph (PenguinRandomHouse)
- Pushkin Press
- Raven (Bloomsbury)
- Simon & Schuster
DEBUT DAGGER Sponsored by ProWritingAid
- Katherine Ahlert, Burnt Ranch
- Caroline Arnoul, Unnatural Predators
- Matt Coot, Vilomah
- Judy Hock, Good Criminals
- JR Holland, Vigilante Love Song
- Alan Jackson, Bluebirds
- Richard Jerram, Makoto Murders
- Lynn McCall, Long Way Home
- Karabi Mitra, Not a Good Mother
- Jeremy Tinker, The Last Days of Forever
- James Tobin, A Politician’s Guide to Murder
- Megan Toogood, The Blond
