CWA Dagger Awards Longlists Announced

The 2025 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, are 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 longlist for the prestigious Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the best crime novel of the year, includes five debut novels including Bonnie Burke-Patel’s Died at Fallow Hall, the debut whodunnit from Kristen Perrin, How to Solve Your Own Murder, and the first book from bestselling author Harriet Evans, under her penname, Harriet F Townson: D is for Death.

The debuts are up against established authors in the genre, including RJ Ellory, Tana French, and Attica Locke.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year.

The longlist for 2025 includes Chris Whitaker with All the Colours of the Dark. Whitaker has previously taken home the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2017 and CWA Gold Dagger in 2021. 

He’s up against firm favourites including MW Craven with Nobody’s Hero, Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, and Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted. 

The much-anticipated ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger highlights the best debut novels.

Among the rising stars of 2025 is the debut set in the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper, Katy Massey’s All of Us Are Sinners, former prison officer Claire Wilson’s assured debut, Five by Five, and the moody neo-noir love letter to New York, An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy.

DV Bishop makes two longlists with A Divine Fury – the Gold and the Historical Dagger. The book is the fourth in the Cesare Aldo series featuring a sixteenth century detective in Florence.

The Historical Dagger is sponsored by Morgan Witzel in memory of Dr Marilyn Livingstone. The longlist also includes Clare Whitfield’s Poor Girls: Meet the Female Peaky Blinders, which exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets set in 17th century Italy.

Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: “Once again our independent and rotating judging panels have come up with surprises galore, highlighting the impressive efforts of both major authors and newcomers, with a convincing demonstration of how diverse and talented the crime, mystery and thriller field is at present. A wonderful embarrassment of outstanding titles.”

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski, features the smash-hit, Waterstones Book of the Month, Butter by Asako Yuziki, translated by Polly Barton.

From France comes Artifice, a thriller with a twist from Claire Berest translated by Sophie Lewis, and the queer debut gangland thriller The Night of Baba Yaga from Japan’s Akira Otani also makes the longlist.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes giants of the genre with John Grisham and Jim McCloskey’s Framed, which looks at ten wrongful convictions, Lynda La Plante’s memoir, Getting Away with Murder and Kate Summerscale’s retelling of the Christie murders, The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place.

The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.

This year sees multiple bestselling names from the genre up for the award including Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, Janice Hallet, Clare Mackintosh, Ruth Ware and Vaseem Khan.

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 Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), Hemlock Press (HarperCollins) and Sphere (Little Brown) against independent publishers, Bitter Lemon Press and Canelo. 

2025 sees the announcement of two new CWA Dagger Awards.

The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers and dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail.

Longlist titles include NJ Cracknell’s The Perfect Couple, Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings and Catherine Steadman’s Look in the Mirror. Tracy Sierra’s Nightwatching also makes two longlists: the Twisted and the Gold Dagger.

The Whodunnit Dagger celebrates books that focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery. Books in this category include cosy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age-inspired mysteries.

Longlisted authors include Tess Gerritsen with The Spy Coast, Tom Spencer with The Mystery of the Crooked Man, and Lisa Hall with The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl.

The Dagger in the Library nominee longlist is 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 Richard Osman, Kate Atkinson, Robert Galbraith, and Barbara Nadel.

The Emerging Author Dagger, which has been going for over 20 years, celebrates aspiring crime novelists and is sponsored by Fiction Feedback.

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 2025 was awarded to Mick Herron.

The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced later in the year on 29 May.

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on 3 July.

The Longlists in Full:

GOLD DAGGER 

D V Bishop: A Divine Fury (Macmillan)

Bonnie Burke-Patel: I Died at Fallow Hall (Bedford Square Publishers)

Ben Creed: Man of Bones (Mountain Leopard Press/Headline)

R J Ellory: The Bell Tower (Orion)

Tana French: The Hunter (Penguin Books Ltd)

Attica Locke: Guide Me Home (Profile Books Ltd)

Anna Mazzola: Book of Secrets (Orion)

Kristen Perrin: How to Solve Your Own Murder (Quercus)

Tracy Sierra: Nightwatching (Penguin Books Ltd)

Marie Tierney: Deadly Animals (Bonnier Books Ltd)

Harriet F Townson: D is for Death (Hodder & Stoughton)

Bridget Walsh: The Innocents (Pushkin Press)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Lou Berney: Dark Ride (Hemlock Press/ HarperCollins)

I S Berry: The Peacock and the Sparrow (No Exit Press)

Chris Brookmyre: The Cracked Mirror (Abacus/Little Brown, Hachette)

M W Craven: Nobody's Hero (Constable/Little Brown, Hachette)

Blake Crouch: Run (Macmillan/Pan Macmillan)

Garry Disher: Sanctuary (Viper/Profile Books)

Dervla McTiernan: What Happened to Nina? (HarperCollins)

Liz Moore: The God of the Woods (The Borough Press/(HarperCollins)

Abir Mukherjee: Hunted (Harvill & Secker/ Penguin Random House)

Stuart Neville: Blood Like Mine (Simon & Schuster)

Chris Whitaker: All the Colours of Dark (Orion/Hachette)

Don Winslow: City in Ruins (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)

ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Jack Anderson: The Grief Doctor (Bloomsbury/Raven Books)

Eleanor Barker-White: My Name Was Eden (HarperCollins/ HarperNorth)

Jessica Bull: Miss Austen Investigates (Penguin Random House/ Michael Joseph)

Justine Champine: Knife River (Bonnier Books UK/ Manilla Press)

Anders Lustgarten: Three Burials (Penguin Random House/ Hamish Hamilton)

Gay Marris: A Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder (Bedford Square Publishers)       

Katy Massey: All Us Sinners (Little, Brown /Sphere)

Alice McIlroy: The Glass Woman (Watkins Media/ Datura Books)

Dwyer Murphy: An Honest Living (No Exit Press)

Marie Tierney: Deadly Animals (Bonnier Books UK/ Zaffre)

Claire Wilson: Five by Five (Penguin Random House/ Michael Joseph)

 

HISTORICAL DAGGER

Rory Clements: Munich Wolf (Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)

Emily Critchley: The Undoing of Violet Claybourne (Bonnier Books UK, Manilla Press)

D.L. Douglas: Dr Spilsbury and the Cursed Bride (Orion Publishing)

Douglas Jackson: Blood Roses (Canelo)

Chris Lloyd: Banquet of Beggers (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)

Anna Mazzola: The Book of Secrets (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)

Lizzie Pook: Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge (Picador)

Sally Smith: A Case of Mice and Murder (Raven Books/Bloomsbury Publishing)

L.C. Tyler: The Three Deaths of Justice Godfrey (Constable/Little, Brown)

A.J. West, The Betrayal of Thomas True (Orenda Books)

Clare Whitfield: Poor Girls (Aries / Head of Zeus)

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Claire Berest: Artifice (Mountain Leopard) tr. Sophie Lewis

Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini: The Lover of No Fixed Abode (Bitter Lemon Press) tr. Gregory Dowling

Anne Mette Hancock: Ruthless (Swift Press) tr. Tara Chase

Kotaro Isaka: Hotel Lucky Seven (Harvill Secker) tr. Brian Bergstrom

Andrey Kurkov: The Silver Bone (Maclehose Press) tr. Boris Dralyuk

Hervé Le Corre: Dogs and Wolves (Europa Editions UK) tr. Howard Curtis

Pierre Lemaitre: Going to the Dogs (Maclehose Press) tr. Frank Wynne

Patrícia Melo: The Simple Art of Killing a Woman (The Indigo Press) tr. Sophie Lewis

Akira Otani: The Night of Baby Yaga (Faber & Faber) tr. Sam Bett

Satu Rämö: The Clues in the Fjord (Zaffre) tr.  Kristian London 

Asako Yuziki: Butter (4th Estate) tr. Polly Barton

Alia Trabucco Zerán: Clean (4th Estate) tr. Sophie Hughes

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Jared Cade: Secrets From the Agatha Christie Archive (Pen & Sword) 

Chris Chan with Patricia Meyer Chan, Ph.D.: The Autistic Sleuth (MX Publishing) 

Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz: Unmasking Lucy Letby (Seven Dials)  

Jeremy Craddock: The Lady in the Lake (Mirror Books)  

John Grisham & Jim McCloskey: Framed (Hodder & Stoughton) 

Duncan Harding: The Criminal Mind (PRH/Michael Joseph)  

Henry Hemming: Four Shots in the Night (Quercus)  

Joseph Hone: The Book Forger (Chatto & Windus)  

Emma Kenny: The Serial Killer Next Door (Sphere)  

Lynda LaPlante: Getting Away with Murder (Zaffre/Bonnier Books)  

Jane Rosenberg: Drawn Testimony (Manilla Press/Bonnier Books)  

Kate Summerscale: The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place (Bloomsbury Circus)  

SHORT STORY DAGGER

S.J Bennett: ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (lame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

J.C Berthal: ‘A Date on Yarmouth Pier’ in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

Ann Cleeves: ‘Parkrun’ in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)

Elly Griffiths: ‘The Valley of the Queens’ in The Man in Black and Other Stories (Quercus)

Janice Hallett: ‘Why Harrogate?’ in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)

Vaseem Khan: ‘Murder in Masham’ in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)

Clare Mackintosh: ‘The Perfect Smile’ in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)

William Burton McCormick: ‘City Without Shadows’ in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

Meeti Shroff-Shah: ‘A Ruby Sun’ in Beyond and Within: Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

Ruth Ware: ‘Murder at the Turkish Baths’ in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan, (Orion Publishing Group/ Orion Fiction)

WHODUNNIT DAGGER

SJ Bennett, A Death in Diamonds Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre

Andreina Cordani, Murder at the Christmas Emporium Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre

Tess Gerritsen, The Spy Coast, Transworld, Penguin Random House, Bantam

Lisa Hall, The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl Hera Hera

Ellery Lloyd, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, Macmillan         

Laura Marshall,  A Good Place to Hide a Body, Hodder & Stoughton    

Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest, HarperCollins Publishers, HarperFiction

Meeti Shroff-Shah, A Matrimonial Murder, Joffe Books   

Sally Smith, A Case of Mice and Murder, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Raven Books

Tom Spencer, The Mystery of the Crooked Man, Pushkin Press, Pushkin Vertigo

Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect, PRH, Michael Joseph

Jamie West, Murder at the Matinee, Brabinger Publishing

 TWISTED DAGGER

Sharon Bolton: The Neighbour's Secret (Orion Publishing Group/ Orion Fiction)

NJ Cracknell: The Perfect Couple (Bloodhound Books)      

Clara Dillon: The Playdate (PRH/Penguin Sandycove)

Caz Frear: Five Bad Deeds (Simon & Schuster UK)

Kellye Garrett: Missing White Woman (Simon & Schuster UK)

Andrew Hughes: Emma, Disappeared (Hachette Books Ireland)

Amanda Jennings: Beautiful People (HarperCollins/ HQ FICTION)

John Marrs: The Stranger In Her House (Amazon Publishing/ Thomas & Mercer)

Hannah Richell: The Search Party (Simon & Schuster UK)

CS Robertson: The Trials Of Marjorie Crowe (Hodder & Stoughton)            

Tracy Sierra: Nightwatching (PRH/ Viking)

Catherine Steadman: Look In The Mirror (Quercus)   

     

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Richard Osman

Janice Hallett

Kate Atkinson

Barbara Nadel

CJ Tudor

Edward Marston

Julia Chapman

Lisa Jewell

Robert Galbraith

Tim Sullivan

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Allison & Busby

Bitter Lemon Press

Canelo

Faber & Faber

Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)

Hemlock Press (HarperCollins)

Orenda

Orion Books

Pan Macmillan

 

Researching The Innocents by Bridget Walsh.

My novels often start with a little nugget of research and my second novel, ‘The Innocents’, was no different. Finding myself with time on my hands during lockdown, I came across a fascinating history of The Illustrated Police News by Linda Stratmann. And that’s where I read about the Victoria Hall disaster. 

On 16 June 1883, at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, toys and prizes were thrown into the stalls at the end of a children’s matinee performance. Those in the upper galleries saw they were missing out and rushed downstairs, but their way was blocked by a bolted door, leaving a gap of just twenty-two inches to squeeze through. Barely enough space for one child, never mind hundreds, and nobody realised in time exactly what was happening. The rush of children from the galleries resulted in the death by suffocation of 183 children. Frederick Graham, a caretaker on that fateful day, saved some 600 children by diverting them to another exit. 

The Victoria Hall disaster was not a one-off. In 1849, at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, 65 people died. In 1878 a false cry of ‘fire’ at the Colosseum Theatre in Liverpool led to the deaths of 37 people. Nine years later, a fire broke out at the Theatre Royal in Exeter and 186 people died.

One of the things that facilitated tragedies like these was the sheer numbers of people who attended theatres and music halls in the 19th century. For a long time there were no limits on how many people could be admitted, so a venue ostensibly for an audience of 400 might well pack in as many as 2000 people on a busy night. And if someone shouted ‘fire’, or if performers started hurling toys into the audience, there were no procedures in place to manage the crowds. 

I started asking around, and almost no-one had heard of the Victoria Hall tragedy. Only people who lived locally, or who had a knowledge of theatre history, were aware of what happened. I wondered how such terrible events could be all but forgotten. The inquest into Victoria Hall found no-one responsible. Was this because music halls were seen as largely the province of the working classes? Some of the newspaper illustrations of the tragedy show the children as wild-eyed and manic in their rush to get down to the stalls, with the suggestion they were perhaps culpable in what happened.

It got me thinking about what it would have been like to survive such an incident, particularly when no-one was made to pay for their part in it all. The groundwork for ‘The Innocents’ was laid, where a series of apparently unconnected murders all lead back to one terrible day. I’ve taken a bit of poetic license, changing the date and the location, but the details of the tragedy remain largely the same. And a fictionalised Frederick Graham makes an appearance, acknowledging his heroic actions.

The Innocents by Bridget Walsh (Gallic Books) Out Now

The Variety Palace Music Hall is in trouble, due in no small part to a gruesome spate of murders that unfolded around it a few months previously. Between writing, managing the music hall and trying to dissuade her boss from installing a water tank in the building, Minnie Ward has her hands full. Her complicated relationship with detective Albert Easterbrook doesn’t even bear thinking about.  But when a new string of murders tears through London, Minnie and Albert are thrown together once more. Strangely, the crimes seem to link back to a tragedy that took place fourteen years ago, leaving 183 children dead. And given that the incident touched so many people’s lives, everyone is a suspect . . .

More information about Bridget Walsh and her books can be found on her website. She can also be found on “X” at @bridget_walsh1