CWA Dagger Awards and the Crime Thriller Awards

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2011 in conjunction with the CWA took place on Friday 7 October in the ballroom of the Grosvenor House Hotel along Park Lane. In attendance were a number of crime writers and shortlisted authors. These included authors David Baldacci, Mark Billingham, Lee Child, Peter James and Peter Robinson who were not only inducted into the International Hall of Fame but were also on the shortlist for the ITV3 People’s Bestseller Dagger which is voted on by the public. Once again the host for the evening was Marcus Brigstocke.

(Lee Child and Ayo Onatade ( © Pictures Ayo Onatade))

The first award that was given was the TV Dagger. The shortlist was made up of the following –

Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)

Luther: Series 2 (BBC One)

The Shadow Line Company Pictures, BBC Two)

Vera (ITV Studios, ITV) and

Zen (Left Bank Pictures, BBC One).

The TV Dagger was awarded to Case Histories.

The first of the three CWA Daggers that was due to be given was the CWA John Creasey (New Blood Dagger). The nominated books were –

The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail)

Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller (His blog post about writing the book can be found here) (Constable & Robinson)

Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)

The Dogs of Rome by Conor FitzGerald (Bloomsbury)

It was not really a surprise that the winner was S J Watson’s Before I go To Sleep. Since it has been published Before I Go To Sleep has been receiving rave reviews from both sides of the Atlantic amongst readers, reviewers and bloggers.

The second Specsavers Award to be given out was the Film Dagger. The shortlisted films were -

Brighton Rock (Optimum Releasing)

Source Code (Optimum Releasing)

True Grit (Paramount Pictures) and

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Momentum Pictures)

The film that in my opinion was the odd one out also ended up being the winner. This was of course True Grit!

The Killing started off what was a good evening for them by winning the Best Supporting Actress Dagger. The nominees were –

Amanda Abbington for Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)

Ann Eleonara Jørgensen for The Killing (Arrow Films BBC4)

Tara Fitzgerald for Waking the Dead (BBC One)

Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO/Sky Atlantic)

And Ruth Wilson for Luther (BBC One)

The Best Supporting Actor Dagger nominees were –

Aidan Gillen for Thorne (Company Pictures, BBC Two)

Bjarne Henriksen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)

Rafe Spall for The Shadow Line (Stagereel / Cité Amérique, Sky One)

John Lithgow for Dexter (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)

Søren Malling for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)

The winner was Rafe Spall for The Shadow Line.

The second CWA Dagger to be announced was the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. The nominees were -

Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)

The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Corvus) His blog post for Shots can be found here, and

Before I go To Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)

The International TV Dagger award was also handed out and the nominations were -

The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC4)

Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Castle (Beacon Pictures/Experimental Pictures/ ABC Studios)

Dexter: Season 5 (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)

Spiral: Series 3 (Son Et Lumiere)

The winner was The Killing

The Dagger for the Best Actor went to Idris Elba for Luther (BBC) and the other nominees were –

Steve Buscemi for Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Jason Isaacs for Case Histories (Ruby Films/BBC)

Lars Mikkelsen for The Killing (NRK/SVT/Arrow Films) and

Rufus Sewell for Zen (Left Bank Pictures)

The Best Actress Dagger nominations were as follows –

Brenda Blethyn for Vera (ITV Studios)

Sofie Gråbøl for The Killing (NRK/SVT/Arrow Films)

Sue Johnston for Waking The Dead (BBC)

Maxine Peake for Silk (BBC)

Kelly Reilly for Above Suspicion (La Plante Productions/ITV)

Olivia Williams for Case Sensitive (Hat Trick Productions/ITV)

The winner was Sofie Gråbøl for The Killing. The Killing walked away with 3 Dagger Awards at the ceremony.

The final CWA Dagger Award that was given out was the CWA Gold Dagger and the nominees were –

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Snowdrops by A D Miller

The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina and

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

The Gold Dagger was won by Tom Franklin’s and his novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

(Mike Stotter and Peter Robinson ( © Pictures Ayo Onatade))

The final award was the ITV3 People’s Bestseller Dagger, which was of course voted upon by the public. The winner was Peter James, which of course did not surprise many of us in the room. So all of those people that voted for Peter James will surely be expecting their promised fish and chips on Brighton Pier which he promised to buy if he won the award.

The Award ceremony will be televised in the UK on Tuesday 11 October at 9pm on ITV3