The 2024 shortlists 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.
The shortlist for the Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the best crime novel of the year, includes the debut novel Black River from Nilanjana Roy. She is up against stalwarts of the genre, Mick Herron for The Secret Hours, and Dennis Lehane, with Small Mercies.
The bestselling children’s author Maz Evans also makes the list with her debut adult novel, Over My Dead Body. As does the Irish-American author Una Mannion, with her haunting second novel, Tell Me What I Am, and the Chinese-Indonesian author, Jesse Sutanto, with Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.
Past winners of the prestigious Gold Dagger, include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill, and Ruth Rendell.
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year.
The shortlist sees relative newcomer Jordan Harper, with his second thriller, Everybody Knows, up against TJ Newman, the former flight attendant who became a Hollywood sensation, with her latest thriller, Drowning, and Japanese author Kotaro Isaka for The Mantis; Kotaro is best-known for Bullet Train, which was adapted into a Brad Pitt movie.
They’re joined on the Fleming shortlist by SA Crosby, Eli Cranor, and Femi Kayode.
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; and the Victorian gothic, The Tumbling Girl from Bridget Walsh. The shortlist also includes Amy Chua’s The Golden Gate, Kate Foster with The Maiden, Dan McDorman’s West Heart Kill and Go Seek by Michelle Teahan.
The Historical Dagger shortlist sees Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry in contention with A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins.
They’re joined by Lucy Ashe with Clara & Olivia, Louise Hare’s Harlem After Midnight, Jake Lamar’s Viper’s Dream, and Scarlet Town by Lenora Nattrass.
The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction shortlist sees Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, up against 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.
Also in the Non-Fiction category are Matt Johnson and John Murray for No Ordinary Day, Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson for Devil’s Coin, Alex Mar’s Seventy Times Seven and How Many More Women? by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida.
The shortlist for the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger includes The Prey from the Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s, translated by Victoria Cribb, and Maud Ventura’s My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan, which was a sensation in France, likened to Patricia Highsmith and Gone Girl.
They’re joined by the Spanish journalist and author, Juan Gómez-Jurado, Sweden’s Âsa Larsson, French author Cloé Mehdi, and Korea’s Im Seong-sun.
Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: “Once again, our independent judges across all the Dagger categories have come up trumps. Their selections feature well-established authors and new faces, a refreshingly diverse palette highlighting the talent of writers from all origins and publishers large and small, and a steadfast affirmation of how healthy the crime and mystery field is right now. We at the CWA couldn’t be prouder.”
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 Mia Dalia, J Benedict Jones, Sanjida Kay, Ambrose Parry, and FD Quinn.
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 on the shortlist: Louise Candlish, MW Craven, Anthony Horowitz, Cara Hunter, 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 Headline (Hachette), Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), Simon & Schuster, and Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin Press) against independent publishers Joffe Books and Canelo Crime.
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 were 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 Shortlists in Full:
GOLD DAGGER
Maz Evans Over My Dead Body, Headline
Mick Herron The Secret Hours, Baskerville (John Murray)
Dennis Lehane Small Mercies, Abacus (Little Brown)
Una Mannion Tell me What I Am, Faber & Faber
Nilanjana Roy Black River, Pushkin (Vertigo)
Jesse Sutanto Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, HQ (Harper Collins)
IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER
S A Cosby All the Sinners Bleed, Headline (Hachette)
Eli Cranor Ozark Dogs, Headline (Hachette)
Jordan Harper Everybody Knows, Faber & Faber
Kotaro Isaka The Mantis, Harvill Secker (PRH)
Femi Kayode Gaslight, Raven Books (Bloomsbury)
T J Newman Drowning, Simon & Schuster
ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER
Jo Callaghan In The Blink of An Eye, Simon & Schuster UK
Amy Chua The Golden Gate, Corvus (Atlantic Books)
Kate Foster The Maiden, Mantle (Pan Macmillan)
Dann McDorman West Heart Kill, Raven Books
Michelle Teahan Go Seek, Headline Publishing Group
Bridget Walsh The Tumbling Gir, Gallic Books
HISTORICAL DAGGER
Lucy Ashe Clara & Olivia, Magpie (Oneworld Publications)
Louise Hare Harlem After Midnight, HQ (HarperCollins)
Alis Hawkins A Bitter Remedy, Canelo
Jake Lamar Viper’s Dream, No Exit Press
Leonora Nattrass Scarlet Town, Viper (Profile Books)
Ambrose Parry Voices of the Dead, Canongate Books
CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER
Juan Gómez-Jurado Red Queen, translated by Nick Caistor, Macmillan
Âsa Larsson The Sins Of Our Fathers, translated by Frank Perry, Maclehose Press
Cloé Mehdi Nothing Is Lost, translated by Howard Curtis, Europa Editions UK
Im Seong-sun The Consultant, translated by An Seong Jae, Raven Books
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
Matt Johnson with John Murray No Ordinary Day, Ad Lib Publishers
Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson Devil’s Coin, Ad Lib Publishers Ltd
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
SHORT STORY DAGGER
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
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
FD Quinn Best Served Cold from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree
DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY
Louise Candlish
MW Craven
Cara Hunter
Anthony Horowitz
LJ Ross
PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER
Canelo
Headline (Hachette)
Joffe Books
Michael Joseph (PenguinRandomHouse)
Pushkin Press
Simon & Schuster
