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 [8pm, April 20 at the CWA annual conference, Brighton].
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 foriThe 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’s, 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 4 July 2024
The Longlists in Full:
Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans, (Headline)
Dead Man’s Creek by Chris Hammer, (Wildfire Books)
A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins, (Canelo)
Night Will Find You by Julia Haeberlin, (Penguin, Michael Joseph)
The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville, John Murray)
The White Lie by J G Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
Death of a Lesser God, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Abacus, Little Brown)
Tell me What I Am, by Una Mannion (Faber & Faber)
Homecoming by Kate Morton, (Mantle, Pan Macmillan)
Black River, by Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo)
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Sutanto (HQ ,Harper Collins)
IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER
Simply Lies, by David Baldacci (Macmillan Pan Macmillan)
The Lie Maker, by Linwood Barclay (HQ HarperCollins)
All the Sinners Bleed, by S A Cosby (Headline, Hachette)
Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Headline Hachette)
The House Hunt by C M Ewan (Macmillan, Pan Macmillan)
Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Faber & Faber)
The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka, (Harvill Secker, Penguin Random House)
Gaslight by Femi Kayode (Raven Books, Bloomsbury)
77 North by D L Marshall, (Canelo)
Drowning, by T J Newman (Simon & Schuster)
After that Night, by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins)
The Man in the Corduroy Suit, by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press
A Most Unusual Demise by Kathryn Black (Bloodhound Books)
In The Blink of An Eye, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua, (Corvus, Atlantic Books)
Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo)
Murder By Natural Causes, by Helen Erichsen (Muswell Press)
The Maiden, by Kate Foster (Mantle Pan Macmillan)
The Golden Spoon, by Jessa Maxwell (Penguin)
West Heart Kill, by Dann McDorman (Raven Books)
Obsessed, by Liza North (Constable)
Go Seek by Michelle Teahan (Headline)
The Other Half, by Charlotte Vassell (Faber & Faber)
The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh, (Gallic Books)
HISTORICAL DAGGER
Clara & Olivia, by Lucy Ashe (Magpie, Oneworld Publications)
The Lock-Up by John Banville Faber & Faber
Flags on the Bayou, by James Lee Burke Orion Fiction (Hachette)
Murder in the Bookshop by Anita Davison (Boldwood Books)
Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare (HQ, HarperCollins)
A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
Viper's Dream by Jake Lamar (No Exit Press)
The Winter List by S.G. MacLean (Quercus Fiction, Quercus)
The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead (Aries Head of Zeus)
Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass (Viper, Profile Books)
Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry (Canongate Books)
Lady MacBethad by Isabelle Schuler (Raven Books, Bloomsbury)
The Snow Girl by Javier Castillo (translated by Isabelle Kaufeler), Penguin Books
Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado, (translated by Nick Caistor,) Macmillan
The Girl By The Bridge by Arnaldur Indridason (translated by Philip Roughton,) Vintage
The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka, (translated by Sam Malissa,) Vintage
The Sins Of Our Fathers by translated by Frank Perry), Maclehose Press
Thirty Days Of Darkness, by Jenny Lund Madsen (translated by Megan E.Turney), Orenda Books
Nothing Is Lost, by Cloé Mehdi (translated by Howard Curtis), Europa Editions UK
He Murder Of Anton Livius, by Schneider Hansjörg (translated by Astrid Freuler), Bitter Lemon Press
The Consultant, by Im Seong-sun (translated by An Seong Jae,) Raven Books
Not Russian by Mikhail Shevelev (translated by Brian James Baer & Ellen Vayner), Europa Editions UK
The Prey by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Victoria Cribb), Hodder & Stoughton
My Husband by Maud Ventura (translated by Emma Ramadan,) Hutchinson Heinemann
ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel (Simon & Schuster)
G-Man, by Beverly Gage (Simon & Schuster)
The Many Lives of Mama Love, by Lara Love Hardin (Endeavour)
No Ordinary Day by Matt Johnson with John Murray (Ad Lib Publishers)
Chasing Shadows by Miles Johnson, (The Bridge Street Press)
The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador)
Devil’s Coin by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson (Ad Lib Publishers Ltd)
No Comment by Jess McDonald (Raven Books)
Seventy Times Seven by Alex Mar (Bedford Square Publishers)
How Many More Women? By Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida (Endeavour)
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare, (Vintage)
Murder at Home, by David Wilson (Sphere)
SHORT STORY DAGGER
Three Ways to Die by Rachel Amphlett from No W.W.M. - Thrill Ride #3, edited by M. L. "Matt" Buchman, (Buchman Bookworks, Inc)
Safe Enough by Lee Child from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens, (Rivertree)
The Last Best Thing by Mia Dalia from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook, (Head Shot Press)
Slap Happy by Andrew Humphrey from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction edited by Andrew Hook, (Head Shot Press)
The Also-Rans by Benedict J Jones from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction edited by Andrew Hook, (Head Shot Press)
The Divide by Sanjida Kay from The Book of Bristol edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks, (Comma Press)
The Spendthrift and the Swallow, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate Books)
Drive Bye by DG Penny from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, (Rivertree)
Best Served Cold by FD Quinn from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, (Rivertree)
Revenge is Best Served Hot by Robert Scragg from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, (Rivertree)
Lucy Foley
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)
Burnt Ranch by Katherine Ahlert,
Unnatural Predators by Caroline Arnoul
Vilomah by Matt Coot
Good Criminals by Judy Hock
Vigilante Love Song by JR Holland
Bluebirds by Alan Jackson
Makoto Murders by Richard Jerram
Long Way Home by Lynn McCall,
Not a Good Mother by Karabi Mitra
The Last Days of Forever by Jeremy Tinker
A Politician’s Guide to Murder by James Tobin
The Blond by Megan Toogood
