025 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing.

 

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the Winners of the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. 

THE 2025 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS

The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel Sponsored by the Boreal Benefactor with a $1000 prize

Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr Strange Light (an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada)

Best Crime First Novel (Sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize)

 Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate, Doubleday Canada

Best Crime Novel Set in Canada Sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize

As We Forgive Others by Shane Peacock, Cormorant Books

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery Sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize

Black Ice by Thomas King, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Best Crime Novella Sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $200 prize

The Windmill Mystery by Pamela Jones, Austin Macauley Publishers

Best Crime Short Story

 “Hatcheck Bingo”, by Therese Greenwood, from The 13th Letter, Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem, Carrick Publishing

Best French Language Crime Book

Une mémoire de lion by Guillaume Morrissette, Saint-Jean

Best Juvenile / YA Crime Book Sponsored by Superior Shores Press with a $250 prize

Shock Wave by Sigmund Brouwer,  Orca Book Publishers

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book Sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize

It’s a tie!

Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse by Denise Chong, Random House Canada

and 

The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author Sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize

Govern Yourself Accordingly by Luke Devlin,

***

About Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada was founded in 1982 as a professional organization designed to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers. Our members include authors, publishers, editors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and literary agents as well as many developing authors. Past winners of the Awards have included such major names in Canadian crime writing as Mario Bolduc, Gail Bowen, Stevie Cameron, Howard Engel, Barbara Fradkin, Louise Penny, Peter Robinson and Eric Wright. We thank our sponsors and volunteers, and the many participating publishers, authors and judges for their continued support.

2025 CWA Daggers Shortlist announced

The 2025 shortlist 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 prestigious KAA Gold Dagger, sponsored by Kevin Anderson & Associates, is awarded for the best crime novel of the year

The shortlist includes the debut novel from Bonnie Burke-Patel’s Died at Fallow Hall, up against established authors in the genre, including RJ Ellory with The Bell Tower, Tana French’s The Hunter, and Attica Locke’s Guide Me Home.

It also features two historical crime books with D.V. Bishop’s A Divine Fury, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets.

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

The shortlist sees Lou Berne’s masterful thriller, Dark Ride, up against previous winner of the Steel Dagger, MW Craven, with Nobody’s Hero. Also making the list are Garry Disher with Sanctuary, Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted, Stuart Neville with Blood Like Mine and the iconic American author, Don Winslow with City in Ruins.

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. Jessica Bull’s Miss Austen Investigates, Justine Champine’s Knife River, Anders Lustgarten’s Three Burials are also contenders alongside Gay Marris with A Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder and Marie Tierney with Deadly Animals.

The Historical Dagger, sponsored by Morgan Witzel in memory of Dr Marilyn Livingstone.

Two novels feature on both the Gold and the Historical Dagger shortlist. DV Bishop’s A Divine Fury is the fourth in the Cesare Aldo series featuring a sixteenth century detective in Florence, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets set in 17th century Italy. 

The shortlist also includes Chris Lloyd: Banquet of Beggars, Clare Whitfield with Poor Girls, and A.J. West, The Betrayal of Thomas True which is set in a London underworld in the year 1710.

Nadine Matheson, Chair of the CWA, said: “Congratulations to everyone who has been shortlisted for these prestigious awards. It’s not only a joy but it’s inspiring to see such a rich variety of stories and voices being celebrated. The 2025 CWA Daggers shortlist is a true reflection of the growing strength of crime writing today. The contributed work of every shortlisted writer is shaping the future of the genre, and their work reminds us why we fell in love with these stories in the first place.”

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski, features the smash-hit, Waterstones Book of the Month, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton.  The queer debut gangland thriller The Night of Baba Yaga from Japan’s Akira Otani also makes the shortlist shortly after winning the 2025 CrimeFest Debut Crime Novel of the Year, sponsored by Specsavers.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes a giant of the genre with John Grisham and Jim McCloskey’s Framed, which looks at ten wrongful convictions, 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 Janice Hallett, and Ruth Ware, up against lesser established names such as the academic and expert on Agatha Christie, J.C Bernthal, with the short story, A Date on Yarmouth Pier.

The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits independent publisher Bitter Lemon Press against Faber, Orenda, Pan Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. 

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. 

Shortlisted titles include Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings, Catherine Steadman’s Look in the Mirror, and Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra.

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. Amongst the six shortlisted authors are Lisa Hall with The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl and Laura Marshall with A Good Place to Hide a Body.

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’s sees established names including the bestselling phenomenon Richard Osman, the acclaimed Kate Atkinson, JK Rowling’s crime alter-ego Robert Galbraith, the award-winning mystery author Janice Hallett, bestseller Lisa Jewell and author of sixty historical crime novels, Edward Marston.

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

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

 The Shortlist in Full:

KAA GOLD DAGGER

A Divine Fury by D V Bishop (Macmillan)

The Bell Tower by R J Ellory (Orion)

The Hunter by Tana French (Penguin Books Ltd)

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Profile Books Ltd)

 Book of Secrets byAnna Mazzola (Orion)

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

 

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Dark Ride by Lou Berney (Hemlock Press/ HarperCollins)

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

Sanctuary by Garry Disher (Viper/Profile Books)

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

Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville (Simon & Schuster)

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

 

ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

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

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

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

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

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

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

 HISTORICAL DAGGER

A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)

Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)

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

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

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

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

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

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

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

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

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate) tr. Polly Barton

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

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 

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

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

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

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

Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming (Quercus)   

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

SHORT STORY DAGGER

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHODUNNIT DAGGER

 A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett, (Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)

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

 The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall, (Hera Hera)

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

 A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah, (Joffe Books)

Murder at the Matinee, by Jamie West, (Brabinger Publishing)

TWISTED DAGGER

Emma, Disappeared by Andrew Hughes (Hachette Books Ireland)

Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings (HarperCollins/ HQ FICTION)

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

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

 Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra: (PRH/ Viking)

Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman (Quercus)           

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Kate Atkinson

Robert Galbraith

Janice Hallett

Lisa Jewell

Edward Marston

Richard Osman

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Bitter Lemon Press

Faber & Faber

Orenda Books

Pan Macmillan

Simon & Schuster

 

EMERGING AUTHOR DAGGER

Bahadur Is My Name by Loftus Brown, 

Funeral Games by Shannon Chamberlain

 Soho Love, Soho Blood by Hywel Davies

Ashland by Joe Eurell

 The Fifth by Shannon Falkson,

Murder Under Wraps by Catherine Lovering, 

 

Fish and Fowl: Categorizing the Genre-Bending Novel

I am a native-born Scot with a Nigerian surname, a US passport and an English accent.  If some librarian of humanity were to place me on the shelf beside my brothers and sisters, where, I wonder, would I be filed?  In the fiction section, perhaps.  Possibly under cryptids.

When it comes to categories, I’m a bit of a nightmare.  And yet it’s a fundamental of human nature that everything must be sorted, catalogued and put into boxes.  A nice, compact label to sum up the entirety of a thing in all its nuanced glory.  Even something as ostensibly descriptive as blonde or brunette is freighted with sub-text.  It is highly unlikely, for instance, that the persons generated in your mind by the previous sentence were male.

Categories are fundamental to who we are for a reason.  We need shortcuts to get us through the day, otherwise the one-and-a-half kilos of fat sheltering behind our eyeballs would cook itself into render.  Imagine going through life treating every pedestrian crossing you come across as something you’ve never seen before; or wondering if the unaccompanied two-year old bawling their eyes out in the park is a lost and frightened child, or merely some very tiny, very upset grown-up.  Life would very quickly grind to a halt.

Publishers, shocking as it may seem, are human too.  When it comes to books, they like to categorise them.  They need to categorise them.  If the reader is looking for a fast-paced thriller, they do not want to wade through historical textbooks on the Serene Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire in order to find one.  That would be . . . not efficient.  So, publishers make it easy.  We have thrillers, and sci-fi, and cosy crime, and romance, and paranormal romance and the list goes on.  Pick your category and start browsing.  Job done.

But the list is not endless.  What if someone has written something that is two or more of these things?  What then?  What bookshelf could possibly be home for a mutant creation like that?

I’m asking for a friend.

This friend likes to write stories.  If he has a great idea for a story, he’ll write it.  But the deluded fool never bothers to think about the type of story he’s writing.  It’s enough for him that it’s a cool story.  He wrote a sci-fi adventure called Braking Day, then a murder mystery called A Quiet Teacher, and a follow-up called Two Times Murder.  And then . . . then he wrote Esperance, a police procedural that turns weird.  About a cop who’s in way over his head, wondering how someone can drown in seawater on the 20^th floor of a Chicago apartment block hundreds of miles from the ocean.  About a woman who materialises out of nowhere in Bristol, England asking questions about a ship that set sail in 1791.  About how each, unknown to the other, has set out on a path where human justice and inhuman crimes will crash into each other with dire consequences.  How does one label a book like that?  On what shelf does it fit?  It is part crime novel, part thriller, part sci-fi, with a dash of historical fiction thrown in for good measure.  Exactly the sort of hot, buttery mess that might be written by a native-born Scot with a Nigerian surname, a US passport and an English accent.

Not that I did, of course.  I’m asking for a friend, remember?

My friend’s publishers have decided to run with “speculative fiction”, by which I think they mean a novel set in the “real” world with science-fiction (“speculative”) elements.  On the other hand, Library Journal in the US described Esperance as “recommended for readers who love intricately blended genre stories that ask big questions”.  And if one were to open up the programme for this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, one would find said friend described as, you guessed it, a “crime writer”.  You pays your money and takes your choice, I guess.

Which kind of brings me back to the question we started out with.  On what shelf does one put a native-born Scot with a Nigerian surname, a US passport and an English accent?

So, here’s the thing.  I am not Scottish or Nigerian or American or English.  I am all of these things.  At the same time.  I know, right!  But now we can answer the question.  My librarian of humanity should keep me on all of those shelves.  Everywhere all at once, so to speak.  That way, I’m easy to find and always where I belong.  Similarly, whether the reader happens upon Esperance as speculative fiction, or sci-fi, or crime, or thriller, or anything else, I hope they’ll give it a try, regardless.  It’s a cool story.

Not that I care, really.

I’m only asking for a friend.

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (Quercus Books) Out now.

An impossible death: Detective Ethan Krol has been called to the scene of a baffling murder: a man and his son, who appear to have been drowned in sea-water. But the nearest ocean is a thousand miles away. An improbable story: Hollie Rogers doesn't want to ask too many questions of her new friend, Abi Eniola. Abi claims to be an ordinary woman from Nigeria, but her high-tech gadgets and extraordinary physical abilities suggest she's not telling the whole truth. An incredible quest: As Ethan's investigation begins to point towards Abi, Hollie's fears mount. For Abi is very much not who she seems. And it won't be long before Ethan and Hollie find themselves playing a part in a story that spans cultures, continents . . . and centuries.

More information about the author and be found on his website.

 

 

The return of George Smiley's Circus and stage adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Press Release

George Smiley’s ‘Circus’ returns: with The Taper Man the new novel from John le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway, and the first stage adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to London’s West End 

John le Carré’s son, writer Nick Harkaway, announces a new novel, The Taper Man, featuring his father’s iconic spy, George Smiley, for publication in 2026. The new work will continue the plotline explored in Karla’s Choice, Harkaway’s critically acclaimed, Sunday Times bestseller (published in hardback in Oct 2024 and in paperback on 22 May 2025). Simultaneously announced today, le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, will premiere in the West End this autumn. Adapted by award-winning playwright and screenwriter David Eldridge and directed by Jeremy Herrin, this is the first novel by the undisputed master of the modern spy genre to be brought to life on London’s stage. Following a sold out premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2024, the play will be produced by Ink Factory and Second Half Productions in association with Nica Burns. Smiley’s American investigation.

In his new novel, Nick Harkaway will send George Smiley for the first time on an operation to America, pursuing an old communist network across the West Coast. It’s 1965, eighteen months after the events of Karla’s Choice, and within the missing decade between the two instalments in the Smiley Saga, The Spy who Came in from the Cold and of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War, Smiley finds himself dealing with a crisis involving the ‘Cousins’, which throws him once again in a struggle to find a path in the dark. To whom does he owe his allegiance? To this investigation in America or to the wider geopolitical gameboard? Viking’s publishing director Harriet Bourton and commissioning editor Edd Kirke acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown and agent to the le Carré estate. Nick Harkaway is represented by Patrick Walsh at Pew Literary.

Harriet Bourton, Viking Publishing Director, says: ‘Karla’s Choice proved to be one of the great espionage novels of recent times and it’s so incredibly exciting to be continuing George Smiley’s story with The Taper Man. The reader couldn’t be in more expert or ingenious hands with Nick. He has taken on a legacy and made it his own, and we are so ambitious about reaching a huge audience with this extraordinary new addition to the iconic literary world of John le Carré.’ 

Nick Harkaway says: ‘It’s an enormous pleasure to be working with George Smiley again, this time following the breadcrumbs of a messy debacle in Helsinki all the way to the US west coast, uncovering the truth of Karla’s 1950s network in California, and pursuing Roy Bland into the USSR. It’s time to meet our American Cousins.’ 

Smiley to be brought to life in West End production 

A global bestseller for over six decades and named one of TIME Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold will be adapted for the stage @sohoplace, running from 17 November 2025 until 21 February 2026. This production will star Rory Keenan (Somewhere Boy, The Regime) and Screen International Star of Tomorrow Agnes O’Casey (Lies We Tell, Black Doves) playing disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and the idealistic, left-wing librarian Liz Gold. John Ramm (King Lear, Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies) and Gunnar Cauthery (Dear England, Mack & Mabel) will take on George Smiley and Hans-Dieter Mundt. 

Clare Cornwell, Director of the John le Carre estate says, ‘The John le Carre estate is delighted to be celebrating the return of the Circus and George Smiley through these two new projects: Nick’s new novel and the first ever stage play of one of John le Carre’s works coming to the West End.’ 

Nick Harkaway Picture - © Ula Soltys

John le Carré picture ©Nadav Kandar

Move Over Marta Hari - Here comes the Middle Aged Spy by M J Robotham

Breathless, the KGB man stumbles onto the crowded train platform, the prickling of his skin signalling that he hasn’t yet escaped the shadowy figures on his tail. He scans rapidly for any likely spooks in the sea of faces: the middle-aged man in a mac, head buried in the evening newspaper; the woman dressed to the nines for an evening date and applying more lipstick with the aid of her compact; the brightly-dressed juggler heading home after a day’s toil in street theatre. Our KGB boy sweats. Experience says it could be any one of them. But which will give the signal to out him as an enemy of the British state and curtail his freedom for good?

Behind all three candidates, a sweet old dear on a bench pack away her knitting into a tired holdall, stands and totters unsteadily across the platform, forcing First-Lieutenant Petrov to remember his ingrained manners and step aside.

‘Thank you, young man,’ the old woman rasps quietly as she passes, ‘but I’m afraid you’ve been made, Alexei.’   

Fact, fiction or somewhere in between? Popular culture would have us believe that female members of the spy world are more often that woman dressed to impress: young, slim, and lithe – think The Avengers feisty Emma Peel, Goldfinger’s Pussy Galore (plus a whole troop of ‘Bond girls’ thereafter), and even Scarlett Johannson’s modern take in Marvel’s Black Widow. They pack a punch but are, first and foremost, sexy and alluring for the screen. In day-to-day espionage, however, I’d argue the leather catsuit has a tendency to stand out a tad. Far better that your furtive member of the Security Service is of average height and weight, with non-descript features and a wardrobe from Marks & Spencer. Someone you wouldn’t glance at twice at, let alone clock their motive or the secret camera tucked in their shopping bag.

As a huge fan of spy fiction and a newbie author in this genre with Mrs Spy, I thought long and hard about what the covert world demands. My own creation of MI5 Watcher Maggie Flynn is no spring chicken: 45, slightly squat, and even on a good day would benefit from a visit to the hairdresser. At all times, she lugs around several hats and at least one half-finished knitting project, making her nigh-on invisible amid the kaleidoscopic London of the 1960’s. No-one can recall the dowdy ‘ole biddy click-clacking away in the background.

Maggie is my fiction, but she is not – as it happens - too far from reality. While history and myth have painted the celebrated Mata Hari as the archetypal female spy in her belly-dancing garb, she is in the minority. As far back as the first world war, British intelligence employed a swathe of older women to place themselves next to German railway tracks. While gossiping and knitting, they were quietly logging every troop movement or military carriage in their complex stitch pattern. The subsequent ‘coded’ sweaters were sent back to England for analysis as a bizarre form of Morse. Post-war, the East German secret police – the infamous Stasi – employed thousands of older women as ‘block monitors’, spying on residents while sweeping apartment corridors in a bid to flush out enemies of the communist ideology.

And individually, it seems, dowdy aligns with the devious. Short and stout, Daphne Park was likened by colleagues to Miss Marple and even described herself as ‘a fat missionary-type.’ She was also one of MI6’s most successful overseas spies, running agents in Hanoi, Moscow, Zambia, and the politically incendiary Congo throughout her long career, once hiding a dissident in the boot of her ancient Citroen CV. Her effectiveness was put down to her open and unassuming manner, a million miles from a sultry siren.

Similarly, eighty-seven-year-old Briton Melita Norwood caused a media frenzy when she was exposed as the Soviet’s longest-serving spy in 2017, having passed atomic secrets in the 1930’s and beyond. Later dramatized in the film, Red Joan, Melita’s shocked neighbours in her suburban street admitted they didn’t suspect a thing from the benign-looking grandmother. The list doesn’t end there: ‘mumsy’ American TV cook Julia Childs worked for the CIA, and the US’s illustrious wartime agent Virginia Hall went as far as knocking out several teeth in disguising herself as an old peasant woman, successfully dodging capture in Nazi-occupied France.

Where life leads, fiction often follows among John Le Carre’s most memorable characters in his iconic Smiley series is Connie Sachs, an ageing, eccentric alcoholic, and expert on Soviet intelligence. Brilliantly brought to life on screen by Beryl Reid and Kathy Burke, Sachs is said to be modelled on a real-life MI6 Watcher Millicent Bagot.

Inspired by this army of unassuming spooks, Mrs Spy sees my own Maggie Flynn waging her war against infiltration from both east and west, proving once again that ordinary trumps outlandish in the murky world of espionage.

Take a leaf out of Maggie’s book: if you want to blend in, be more bag lady!

 

Mrs Spy by M J Robotham, is published on May 15th by Aria/Head of Zeus, available in hardback, digital and audio. 

Maggie Flynn isn’t your typical 1960s mum. She’s a spy, an unsuspecting operative for MI5, stalking London’s streets in myriad disguises. Widowed and balancing her clandestine career with raising a Beatles-mad teenage daughter, Maggie finds comfort and purpose in her profession – providing a connection to her late husband, whose own covert past only surfaced after his death. But Maggie’s world spins out of control when a chance encounter with a mysterious Russian agent triggers a chilling revelation: he knew her husband. And what’s worse, the agent suspects someone on home soil betrayed him. As Maggie searches for answers, she’ll question everyone – and everything – she thought she could trust. In the murky and perilous world of espionage, can she outsmart those determined to keep her silenced?

M J Robotham can be found on Instagram @Robothammandy and on X @mandyrobothamuk 

National Crime Reading Month

 

National Crime Reading Month Returns this June 

with Bestselling Authors

Lives of Crime: The Compelling Power of Dark and Twisty Tales

The national charity The Reading Agency and the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has a cunning plot to get the nation reading.

This June, the partners in crime invite the nation to step into the shadows and discover how crime fiction turns us into voracious readers.

National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) is a month-long festival of reading that takes place every June, hosted by the CWA with The Reading Agency.

This year it opens with an exclusive online panel, The Lives of Crime, featuring bestselling crime authors.

On 4 June at 6pm, the CWA chair and bestselling author, Vaseem Khan, will host authors Fiona Cummins, Adele Parks, and Penny Batchelor in the free online panel event. The authors bring their unique perspectives on crafting addictive mysteries that hook new readers and reel them into the world of reading.

It will kick start over a hundred local author events and talks that run throughout June across the UK and Ireland, which take place in libraries, theatres, bookshops and online.

Readers are asked to keep an eye on the website www.crimereading.com as new events are added throughout the month, as readers are encouraged to #PickUpAPageTurner.

Events have been announced in libraries up and down the country, from Hillingdon Libraries Crime Festival in Ruislip featuring Rev Richard Coles, Nicci French, Elly Griffiths and Mark Billingham, to Blood in t’ Dales with an author panel and Q&A in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, featuring Catherine Yaffe and L.K. Pang.

Karen Napier, CEO, The Reading Agency said: “Through our reading advocacy work, we know how important crime fiction is both for lifelong reading lovers and for those who are just starting out on their reading journey. Thanks to its structured plot-driven narratives, crime fiction often rights wrongs and solves mysteries so we experience a sense of justice and resolution in the pages of a novel, which we often can’t find in the real world. This is part of its huge appeal.”

Regular reading has far-reaching social impacts; improving health, wellbeing, life chances and social connections.

Research from The Reading Agency, who work across the UK to empower people of all ages to read, shows that adults who read for just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to report greater life satisfaction. However, only half (50%) of adults now read regularly, and 1 in 10 find reading difficult.

The Lives of Crime panel will explore the genre's universal appeal - from psychological thrillers to cozy mysteries – and how it creates accessible pathways to reading for audiences who might otherwise never discover the joy of books.

Linda Mather, the CWA NCRM Liaison, said: “Crime fiction's straightforward language, compelling characters, and twisting narratives make it an ideal gateway for new readers. This exciting launch panel for NCRM will discuss how these elements combine to create stories that are both intellectually stimulating and accessible to diverse reading experiences and abilities.”

Linda added: “Whether you're a long time crime fiction aficionado or curious about the genre's remarkable ability to create new readers, this event offers insights into how these masters of suspense craft stories that refuse to be put down and welcome everyone to the reading table. The panel will also talk about how crime fiction is evolving as a genre and responding to our rapidly changing world.”

Join online for an evening of murderous inspiration and literary conversation that celebrates how crime fiction breaks down barriers and opens doors to the power of reading.

Admission is free. Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lives-of-crime-the-compelling-power-of-dark-and-twisty-tales-tickets-1328044108679?aff=oddtdtcreator

Ticket to Ride: Seichō Matsumoto

 

Readers of Crime and Mystery Fiction are often restless, always on the lookout for something new, something fresh and thought provoking – far from what we term the “same old, same old.”

I would like to talk about a writer from the past, from Japan – a writer who is making inroads with the critics and now into the mainstream thanks to the efforts of Penguin Classics. They say that one should never judge a book by the cover, however the recent reissues of Seichō Matsumoto’s work comes with extraordinary cover art, imagery that matches the narrative[s] within.

I recall a speech delivered by legendary publisher Christopher MacLehose back in 2008 at a book launch hosted at the Foreign Press Association’s London Offices.

“….MacLehose delivered a very passionate speech about the current, challenging state of publishing, especially the difficulty of bringing international works into English………the job of the publisher is to bring books to the public that they didn’t want; books that they didn’t anticipate; and books that would nonetheless make an impression and challenge their way of thinking….”

“…..He concluded by noting the importance of booksellers, and said he wishes that the larger chains would regain some of the enthusiasm for books they had in the past, as that enthusiasm can be infectious, leading readers to try authors and works with which they aren’t familiar….”

Read More from that press launch HERE

So if you are looking to refresh your palate [crime and mystery], then I would urge you to explore the work of Seichō Matsumoto, both in print [with excellent translations] as well as dynamically read in audiobooks.

In Japan, Matsumoto is as celebrated as Agatha Christie.

I read [and then listened to via Audible] Penguin Classics re-issues of Seichō Matsumoto Tokyo Express and Inspector Imanishi Investigates and am impatiently awaiting release of the next two reissues which I have on pre-order.

Suspicion [first published in 1962 and re-issued in a new translation on 29^th May 2025] is a tense psychological mystery that hinges less on the mechanics of the crime than on the insidious nature of doubt. Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newlywed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour, and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves. Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in. The book touches on many themes that still resonate today, notably media sensationalism and trial by public opinion, social prejudice and gender roles, and economic hardship and survival.

So, what are these re-issued Japanese Crime Mysteries about?

Tokyo Express [available in paperback]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood]

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates [available in paperback]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Beth Cary]

Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man’s body is found on the tracks. With only two leads – a distinctive accent and a single word, ‘kameda’ – senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle.

Setting aside his beloved bonsai and haikus, he must cross Japan in search of answers, from Osaka to Akita, accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura. At each new town, they encounter traces of the avant-garde Nouveau Group – young Tokyo artists who are bringing new ideas from the West. What to make of this modern collective? And how to stop another mysterious death occurring? Inspector Imanishi investigates.

Suspicion [available for pre-order – Paperback to be published 29 May 2025]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood]

Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newlywed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves.

Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press, but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in .

A Quiet Place [available for pre-order – Paperback to be published on 7 Aug. 2025]

Seicho Matsumoto [Translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai]

While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood?

When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana nearby, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life.

About Seichō Matsumoto [December 21, 1909 – August 4, 1992]; born Kiyoharu Matsumoto) was a Japanese writer, credited with popularizing detective fiction in Japan.

Matsumoto's works broke new ground by incorporating elements of human psychology and ordinary life. His works often reflect a wider social context and post-war nihilism that expanded the scope and further darkened the atmosphere of the genre. His exposé of corruption among police officials and criminals was a new addition to the field. The subject of investigation was not just the crime but also the society affected.

Although Matsumoto was a self-educated prolific author, his first book was not printed until he was in his forties. In the following 40 years, he published more than 450 works. Matsumoto's work included historical novels and non-fiction, but it was his mystery and detective fiction that solidified his reputation as a writer internationally.

Credited with popularizing the genre among readers in his country, Matsumoto became Japan's best-selling and highest earning author in the 1960s. His most acclaimed detective novels, including Ten to sen (1958; Points and Lines, 1970); Suna no utsuwa (1961; Inspector Imanishi Investigates, 1989) and Kiri no hata (1961; Pro Bono, 2012), have been translated into a number of languages, including English. He received the Akutagawa Prize in 1952, the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970, and the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1957. He served as president of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 1963 to 1971.

Matsumoto wrote short fiction while simultaneously producing multiple novels, at one point as many as five concurrently, in the form of magazine serials. Many of his crime stories debuted in periodicals, among them "Harikomi" (The Chase), in which a woman reunites with her fugitive lover while police close in on them.

For his literary accomplishments, Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Prize, Kikuchi Kan Prize, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature. In 1952 he was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for "The Legend of the Kokura-Diary”.

In 1977, Matsumoto met Ellery Queen when they visited Japan. In 1987, he was invited by French mystery writers to talk about his sense of mystery at Grenoble.

More information on the life of and work of Seichō Matsumoto HERE

More information on these reissues from Penguin Classics HERE

Shots Magazine would like to thank Fiona Livesey of Penguin Random House for assistance in alerting our readers about the work of Seichō Matsumoto.