2018 Dagger Award Ceremony

On Thursday 25^th October at the Grange City Hotel the CWA announced the winners of the 2018 CWA Daggers, honoured Michael Connelly as this years Diamond Dagger recipient and also honoured David Stuart David, Mike Stotter, Ali Karim and I with Red Herring Awards for generously giving our time and expertise benefiting the CWA and the wider crime community.

The short list of the nominees is listed below with the winner in bold.

Gold Dagger
The Liar by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray)
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane (Little Brown)
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

The CWA Historical Dagger
Nucleus by Rory Clements (Zaffre Publishing)

Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)

A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen (Little Brown)
Fire by L. C. Len Tyler (Constable)
Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson (Faber & Faber)

The CWA Short Story Dagger 
The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle by Chris Brookmyre from Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)
Second Son by Lee Child from No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories (Bantam Press)
Smoking Kills by Erin Kelly from “The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2 Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit by Denise Mina from Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)
Accounting for Murder by Christine Poulson from Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories Edited by Martin Edwards (Orenda Books)

The CWA International Dagger 
Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini tr. Jamie Bulloch (MacLehose)
Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre tr. Frank Wynne (MacLehose)
After the Fire by Henning Mankell tr. Marlaine Delargy (Harvill Secker)
The Frozen Woman by Jon Michelet tr. Don Bartlett (No Exit Press)
Offering to the Storm by Dolores Redondo tr. Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzía, (HarperCollins)
The Accordionist by Fred Vargas tr. Sian Reynolds (Harvill Secker)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray Publishers)
If I Die Before I Wake by Emily Koch (Harvill Secker)
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
An Act of Silence by Colette McBeth (Wildfire)
The Chalk Man by C J Tudor (Michael Joseph)
The Force by Don Winslow (HarperFiction)

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
Gravesend by William Boyle (No Exit Press)
I.Q by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Girl In Snow by Danya Kukafka (Picador)
Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love (Point Blank)
East Of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic Pushkin Vertigo

CWA Debut Dagger
The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon by Bill Crotty
The Last Googling of Beth Bailly by Luke Melia
Riverine Blood by Joseph James
Original Sins by Linda McLaughlin
Trust Me, I’m Dead by Sherryl Clark

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction
Black Dahlia Red Rose by Piu Eatwell (Coronet)
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Simon & Schuster)
Blood on the Page by Thomas Harding (Heinemann)
The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich (Macmillan)
A False Report by Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong (Hutchinson)
Rex V Edith Thompson by Laura Thompson (Head of Zeus)

CWA Dagger In The Library 
Selected by nominations from libraries.
Martin Edwards
Nicci French
Simon Kernick
Edward Marston
Peter May
Rebecca Tope

CWA Diamond Dagger Recipient
Michael Connelly

Congratulations to all the nominated authors and winners.

The night was full of surprises and all the winners were worthy.  Huge congratulations to Michael Connelly for being honoured with the Diamond Dagger.   Attica Lock who won the Ian Fleming Dagger for Bluebird, Bluebird (which was also one of my favourite reads of the year when it was published) won the Edgar earlier on in the year for the same book.  It is not often that this happens.  In the case of Henning Mankell wining the international Dagger I am not sure whether or not this is the first time it has been awarded posthumously I strongly suspect so. 

It was incredibly nice to catch up with so many people especially Craig Sisterton the convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Awards along with the lovely Stella Duffy whose novel was not only shortlisted for the Historical Dagger but also the Ngaio Marsh Award as well.  Of course my fellow judges of the Short Story Dagger, Sophie Goodfellow and Gaynor Coules. Steve Cavanagh and to finally get to meet his lovely wife Tracey after being online friends. Ruth Dudley-Edwards, Martin Edwards and of course the incomparable Barry Forshaw to name a few.

A shout-out was also given to Capital Crime the new crime festival that is due to take place in London. Information about the festival can be found on the website. (http://www.capitalcrime.org) .

A big thanks to everyone who organised the award ceremony.