2014 Dagger in the Library winner

Barry Forshaw & Alison Joseph (Chair CWA)

On Thursday 4 December at Waterstone's Bookshop, Piccadilly, London the 2014 winner of the Dagger in the Library was announced. All five shortlisted authors - Sharon Bolton (Transworld), Elly Griffiths (Quercus), Mari Hannah (Pan), James Oswald (Michael Joseph) and Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer) were on attendance.

Unlike most most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library honours an author's body of work to date, rather than a single title and an author must have published three books to be eligible  for the award.

As part of the evening's entertainment a crime fiction quiz took place with Barry Forshaw as quiz master and Lynsey Passmore organising the questions.  It was a lively affair.

After a brief introduction by Alison Joseph the current Chair of the CWA the quiz took place.

Mobeena Khan (Chair, Dagger in the Library Judges)

 Before the announcement of the winner of the quiz the winner of the Dagger in the Library was announced.  Mobeena Khan the Chair of the Dagger in the Library Judges gave a wonderful speech in which she praised libraries. 

This year, for the first time, readers compiled the longlist as crime lovers everywhere were invited to vote online for their three favourite authors. The most popular ten writers formed the longlist. This was then whittled down to five shortlisted authors by a panel of judges, including previous winner Steve Mosby, CWA Director Lucy Santos and a group of UK librarians.

Sharon Bolton

The 2014 Dagger in the Library was awarded to Sharon Bolton who is the author of eight books as well as the Lacey Flint series.

Congratulations to all the nominated authors and to Sharon Bolton for becoming the latest winner of the Dagger in the Library.  She joins authors such as Mo Hayder, Steve Mosby, Belinda Bauer, Peter Robinson and Craig Russell.













Photographs © Ayo Onatade