Shortlist Unveiled for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2018

The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2018, announced today, features a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across sixteen categories, including Novel of the Year, Children’s, Cookery, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Nonfiction, Sports, Short Story, Poetry, Teen and Young Adult and the new ‘Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book Of The Year’ category.

This year, the An Post Irish Book Awards will be presented by Keelin Shanley and a one hour highlight television programme will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Thursday 29 November at 10.45pm.

The shortlisted authors for the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book Of The Year are as follows -

 A House Of Ghosts by William Ryan

 One Click by Andrea Mara

 Skin Deep by Liz Nugent

 The Confession by Jo Spain

 The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

 Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

To tie in with the announcement of the An Post Irish Book Awards shortlist, the public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website https://www.irishbookawards.irish/vote2018/.

Votes may be cast until Friday 23 November, and the winners will be announced at the gala ceremony in The Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road on Tuesday, 27th November.

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.

Books to Look Forward to from John Murray Press

January 2019

The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries, and the realm is governed by a self-interested elite, leaving its citizens to suffer. On the streets, malcontent and paranoia abound. A body is found in the city's swamp by a watchman, Mickel Cardell, and the case is handed over to investigator Cecil Winge, who is dying of consumption. Together, Winge and Cardell become embroiled in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams, and one death will expose a city rotten with corruption beneath its powdered and painted veneer.  The Wolf and the Watchman is by Niklas Natt och Dag.

June 2019

In the sixth Jackson Lamb thriller by Mick Herron, in Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad.  And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can’t ignore the dried blood on his carpets.  So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.  This time they are heading into joe country.  And they’re not all coming home.

The International Crime Fiction Association Book Prize 2018

The ICFA is delighted to announce a prestigious new annual book prize. The prize will recognise ingenuity, innovation, and scholarship in the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its widest sense. 

Monographs and edited collections can be nominated by publishers, members of the association, and authors.

There will be one winner who will receive £100 plus a write up from the independent judges which can be used for publicity purposes. 

Shortlisted books will also receive comments from the judges which can be used for publicity purposes.

The winner and the shortlisted authors will be announced at our 2019 conference.

The competition is open to any monograph or edited collection, published in 2018, on the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its broadest sense.

For more information, or to nominate a book please contact j.parsons1@bathspa.ac.uk.