The Daggers. Crime Writers Association book awards. Winners. Shortlists. News.

About the Literary Award - The Daggers

The Crime Writers Association (Official site) is responsible for administering Britain's leading crime fiction awards. Membership is open to any author who has had one crime novel produced by a bona fide publisher. It is this collective body, consisting of over 450 members,that decides upon the awards. There are seven Dagger Book Awards including the :Duncan Lawrie Dagger. the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger; CWA Ian Flemming Steel Dagger; CWA New Blood Dagger; CWA Dagger in the Library; the Debut Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger. The Ellis Peter Historical Award is also given.

Starting in 1955 major award was originally known as the Crossed Red Herring Award, then the Gold Dagger and is now the Duncan Lawrie Dagger. It carries a prize of £20,000, the largest award for crime fiction in the world for the best crime novel of the year.

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Frances Fyfield wins the 2008 Duncan Lawrie Dagger

JULY 10 2008:
Frances Fyfield has won the £20,000 Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Blood From Stone>>details published by Sphere (Little, Brown). She was presented with her dagger and cheque by Peter Ostacchini, Deputy Managing Director of sponsor Duncan Lawrie Private Bank, at a black tie dinner at the elegant Four Seasons Hotel on Park Lane in London.

The International Duncan Lawrie Dagger has gone to Dominique Manotti with Lorraine Connection>>details , translated from the French by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz, and published by the EuroCrime imprint of Arcadia Books. She receives the dagger and a cheque for £5000. The two translators split their prize of £1000. Unfortunately Ms Manotti was unable to be present as she has still not recovered from a serious fall from her horse earlier this year, which resulted in multiple fractures. The prize was collected on her behalf by Ros Schwartz.

In all there are eight awards in contention, the other winners being:
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Tom Rob Smith for Child 44 >>>>>> more details of book>>>>
Non-Fiction Dagger: Kester Aspden for Nationality:Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: Matt Rees for The Bethlehem Murders: A Novel
Dagger in the Library: Craig Russell
Short Story Award: Martin Edwards for The Bookbinder's Apprentice From The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries
Debut Dagger: Amer Anwar for Western Fringes

Blood from Stone>buy from amazon by Frances Fyfield:(Sphere Little, Brown)

Judges’ comments: ‘A subtle and elegantly written exploration of contemporary themes. The mystery behind the death of a troublesome female barrister is explored in ways that illuminate the dark corners of life in Britain today, while detailed attention to costume and dress as aspects of identity resonates with insights into the fabric of society.’

Synopsis: Marianne Shearer is at the height of her career, a dauntingly successful barrister, respected by her peers and revered by her clients. So why has she killed herself? Her latest case had again resulted in an acquittal, though the outcome was principally due to the death of the prime witness after Marianne's forceful cross-examination. Had this wholly professional and unemotional lawyer been struck by guilt or uncertainty, or is there some secret to be discovered in her blandly comfortable private life? Her death reveals a paucity of friends, a grasping brother and a tenacious colleague, Peter Friel, who is determined to find out if that last trial held the reason for her taking her own life. The transcript holds intriguing clues, but it is another witness at the trial who holds the key to the truth and she is far from sure that she can reveal her fyfield_francis secrets without releasing even more deceit and destruction.

Frances Fyfield grew up in rural Derbyshire, but her adult life has been spent mostly in London, with long intervals in Norfolk and Deal. She studied English and went on to qualify as a solicitor, working for what is now the Crown Prosecution Service, and thus learning a bit about murder at second hand. The law and its ramifications still haunt her and inform many of her novels. Ms Fyfield is a novelist, short story writer for magazines and radio, sometime Radio 4 contributor, (Front Row, Quote Unquote, Night Waves,) and presenter of Tales from the Stave. Her work is widely translated and several of her books have been televised. She is the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger and the Prix de Litterature Policière in France. Authors Website>> www.francesfyfield.co.uk

CWA 2008 SHORTLISTS

3rd June, 2008 London.- The Crime Writer's Association have announced the shortlists for the CWA / Duncan Lawrie Daggers 2008 at a reception at the British Library. The winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner, to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in London's Park Lane on Thursday 10th July.

More details and comment to follow.

The Duncan Lawrie Dagger Shortlist 2008

James Lee Burke	The Tin Roof Blowdown>>details	Orion
Colin Cotterill	Coroner's Lunch>>details	Quercus
Frances Fyfield	Blood From Stone>>details	Sphere (Little, Brown)
Steve Hamilton	Night Work>>details	Orion
Laura Lippman	What the Dead Know>>details	Orion
RN Morris	A Vengeful Longing>>details	Faber & Faber

DUNCAN LAWRIE INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2008 Winner
For crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication. Dagger and cheque for £5000 prize money for the author and £1000 between the translators, sponsored by Duncan Lawrie Private Bank and the CWA respectively, and presented by Duncan Lawrie’s Deputy Managing Director Peter Ostacchini to Dominique Manotti, and Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz, author and translators respectively.

Dominique Manotti (France) - LORRAINE CONNECTION - EuroCrime, Arcadia Books
translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz
Judges’ comments: ‘Manotti seamlessly integrates a fine crime story with French provincial and national politics within the EU then matches it with an equally convincing grip on the characters of her northern landscape.’

Synopsis: A factory owned by the Korean Daewoo group in Pondage, Lorraine, manufactures cathode ray tubes. Working conditions are abysmal, but as it's the only source of employment in this bleak former iron and steel manufacturing region, the workers daren't protest. Until a strike breaks out and there's a fire at the factory. But is it an accident? Autumn 1996, and the Pondage factory is at the centre of a strategic battle being played out in Paris, Brussels and Asia for the takeover of the ailing state-owned electronics giant Thomson. Contrary to expectations, the Matra-Daewoo alliance wins the bid. Rival contender Alcatel believes there's foul play involved and brings in the big guns led by its head of security, former deputy head of the national security service. Intrepid private cop Charles Montoya is called to Lorraine to carry out an investigation, and explosive revelations follow - murders, dirty tricks, blackmail, wheeling and dealing.

Author biogs: Dominique Manotti (right) is a professor of nineteenth-century economic history in Paris. She i manotti_dominique s the author of a number of novels including ‘Rough Trade’ (winner of the French Crime Writers’ Association Award) and ‘Dead Horsemeat’, both published in English by Arcadia Books.
Amanda Hopkinson is the Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia. She is also a literary translator from Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Ros Schwartz has translated a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, and regularly publishes articles and gives workshops on the art of translation.

EuroCrime, Arcadia Books contact: Daniela de Groote. Email: daniela@arcadiabooks.co.uk. Tel:+64 207 436 9898.

The Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Shortlist 2008

Andrea Camilleri (Italy)	The Patience of the Spider>>details (Picador, Macmillan)	Translated by Stephen Sartarelli
Stieg Larsson (Sweden)	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo>>details (MacLehose Press, Quercus)	Translated by Reg Keeland
Dominique Manotti (France)	Lorraine Connection>>details (EuroCrime, Arcadia Books)	Translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz
Martin Suter (Spain)	A Deal with the Devil>>details ( EuroCrime, Arcadia Books)	Translated by Peter Millar
Fred Vargas (France)	This Night's Foul Work>>details (Harvill Secker, Random House)	Translated by Sîan Reynolds

2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Shortlist (blue book links below this line to amazon)
Mo Hayder (Ritual), Gregg Hurwitz (I See You), Michael Robotham (Shatter), Tom Rob Smith (Child 44) and David Stone (The Echelon Vendetta) >> Go to official CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for detailed information on titles and authors>>Go

THE CWA GOLD DAGGER 2008 WINNER FOR NON-FICTION
A biennial award for the best work of crime-related non-fiction, £2000 prize money, sponsored by Owatonna Media, who have recently acquired the Eric Ambler estate.
Presented by Simon Clegg, on behalf of Owatonna Media, to:.

Kester Aspden -Nationality:Wog: The Hounding of David OluwaleE - Jonathan Cape (Random House)
Judges’ comments: ‘An excellently well-written and engaging account of the brutal treatment of a Nigerian by two Leeds police officers. The book gives a new and
important insight into the recent history of British policing, with many powerful and disturbing implications for our society.’

Judges’ overview: ‘In a large field of entries – twice as many submissions as we expected – we found the standard to be very high. The wide range of topics covered meant that a variety of criteria had to be applied to each book, with such considerations as the contribution made to non-fiction crime literature, and the likely response of a general reader. Through many hours of dedicated reading, the judges did not disagree widely on the titles that met the requirements of the award.
‘The shortlist is extremely strong – all six books are very well written indeed, and each has great merit. We appreciate that those authors not selected will be disappointed, but we wish to stress that nearly all the submissions were well written and eminently readable. We are only sorry that we cannot recognise more than the six on the shortlist.’

Synopsis: When the body of David Oluwale, a rough sleeper with a criminal record and a history of mental illness, was pulled out of the River Aire near Leeds in May 1969, nobody asked too many questions about the circumstances of his death. A police charge sheet from three months before had ‘UK’ scored out, and his nationality replaced with a handwritten ‘WOG’. This ‘social nuisance’ went unmourned to a pauper’s grave. A year and a half later, rumours that the Nigerian man had been subject to a lengthy campaign of abuse from two police officers led to the opening of the grave and a difficult criminal investigation. Drawing on original archival material only just released into the public domain, and interviews with police officers and lawyers involved in the eventual prosecution of two Leeds City Police officers, Kester Aspden’s chilling book revisits one of the most notorious racist crimes in British history. David Oluwale came to Britain as a stowaway in 1949. He also came as a British subject and citizen with a belief that ‘the Mother Country’ was a place of fairness and liberty and law. ‘Nationality: Wog’ is not just the forensic examination of a crime; in his imaginative reconstruction of the life and death of this obscure man Kester Aspden exposes Britain’s belligerent and painful response to the fact that black people were part of the national story. It raises questions as relevant today as they were at the end of the 1960s.

Author biog: Kester Aspden was born in Toronto in 1968, and raised in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and York. He has a doctorate in history from Cambridge University, and taught history of crime at Leeds University whilst researching this book. He now lives in Istanbul.

Jonathan Cape, Random House contact: Briony Nelder. Email: bnelder@randomhouse.co.uk. Tel: 0207 840 8518

2008 Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Shortlist
Kester Aspden - WINNER (Nationality:Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale), Francisco Goldman (The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed Bishop Gerardi?), David Rose (Violation), Duncan Staff (The Lost Boy), Kate Summerscale (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: Or the Murder at Road Hill House) and Peter Zimonjic (Into the Darkness: 7/7)>>Go to official CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction for detailed information on titles>>Go

THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) 2008 WINNER DAGGER
Formerly the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger and the CWA New Blood Dagger, this award - presented in the centenary year of John Creasey, founder of the CWA - is for first books by previously unpublished writers. £1000 prize money, sponsored by BBC Audiobooks, and presented by former Chair of the CWA, Philip Gooden, to Matt Rees.

Matt Rees -The Bethlehem Murders: A Novel- Atlantic Books
Judges’ comments: ‘The intensity and integrity of the novel gave it credibility and placed the crime into its social and political context. The scenes of destruction and terror in Bethlehem are well explored and the characterisation excellent.
An excellent debut novel.’

Synopsis: For decades, Omar Yussef has been a teacher of history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favourite former pupil, George Saba, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Yussef is convinced that he has been framed. With George facing imminent execution, Yussef sets out to prove his innocence. As Yussef falls foul of his headmaster and the local police chief, time begins to run out for Saba. Saba's home is bombed, members of his family are murdered. But with no one else willing to stand up for the truth, it is up to Yussef to act, even as bloodshed and heartbreak surround him.

Author biog: Matt Rees is a mystery novelist who lives in Jerusalem. As a journalist, he has covered the Middle East for over a decade, with the vast majority of that time spent amongst Palestinians and Israelis. He was Time Magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief from June 2000 until January 2006, and was previously Middle East correspondent for The Scotsman. He was born in Wales in 1967 and studied at Oxford University and the University of Maryland. Rees wrote award-winning stories about the violence of the Aqsa intifada for Time. ‘The Bethlehem Murders’ is published in the United States as ‘The Collaborator of Bethlehem’.

Atlantic Books contact: Emma Grove. Email: emmagrove@groveatlantic.co.uk. Tel: 0207 269 1610.

2008 John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Shortlist
Zoë Ferraris (The Night of the Mi'raj published in the USA as Finding Nouf), Elena Forbes (Die with Me), Caro Ramsey (Absolution), Matt Rees- WINNER (The Bethlehem Murders: A Novel (Omar Yussef Mystery Series)) and Tom Rob Smith (Child 44)>> Go to official CWA John Creasey (New Blood)for detailed information on titles>>Go

CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY
Nominated and judged by librarians and awarded to an author for a body of work, not one single title. £1500 prize money, sponsored by the Random House Group and presented by Jonathan Gibbs, Chair of Judges, to Craig Russell. CJ Sansom was Highly Commended.

Judges’ overview: ‘We were pleased to discover new names amongst the more well-known authors, and delighted to see a wealth of new talent emerging in this, the most popular genre in public libraries. Over 65 nominations came in from twenty-five separate sources across the UK, and the shortlist was hotly debated.’

Craig Russell
Judges’ comments: ‘This author, highly rated by readers’ groups, deals well with German society and issues which remain sensitive even today. His works provide a persuasive portrayal of German mores, while providing lots of tension and good pace. Fabel’s character is memorable and the style of writing gripping. Russell’s research, plotting, engaging characters and use of setting combine to make the reader want to go back for more.’

Bibliography - the Jan Fabel series:
Eternal - Hutchinson (2007)
Brother Grimm - Hutchinson (2006)
Blood Eagle - Hutchinson (2005)
Hutchinson, Random House contact: Louisa Gibbs. Email: lgibbs@randomhouse.co.uk. Tel: 0207 840 8564.

Author biog: Russell was born in Fife, Scotland in 1956. His career has included serving as a police officer and working in advertising as a copywriter and creative director. He has a long-standing interest in the German language, culture and post-war German history. Russell has been a freelance writer since 1990 and in 2007 he was awarded the highly prestigious Polizeistern (Police Star) by the Polizei Hamburg. Russell’s best-selling Jan Fabel series of thrillers has been published in twenty languages around the world.

CJ Sansom - Highly Commended
Judges’ comments: ‘CJ Sansom’s novels stand head and shoulders above most historical crime fiction. The narrative voice is strong and engaging and historical events are brought to life by his exceptional research, which is integrated quietly into the stories. His novels are richly populated with interesting characters and the standard of his writing makes for rewarding reading. He is justifiably popular with readers.’

2008 Dagger in the Library Shortlist
Elizabeth Corley, Andrew Martin, Denise Mina, Craig Russell, CJ Sansom and Chris Simms. >>Go to official CWA Dagger in the Library Award page for more information>>Go

THE CWA SHORT STORY 2008 WINNER AWARD
For best short story, £1500 prize money, presented by Lesley Horton, Chair of the CWA, to Martin Edwards. Highly Commended went to Danuta Reah.

Martin Edwards - THE BOOKBINDER’S APPRENTICE
>From ‘The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries’ edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Constable Robinson Publishing
Judges’ comments: ‘A subtle, insidious, and disturbingly creepy tale of how an Englishman in Venice finds

himself offered the job of apprentice to a bookbinder with unusual methods.’

Synopsis: Leading crime critic Maxim Jakubowski presents this year's must-have collection of British crime fiction. This latest volume of the acclaimed annual collection presents over 20 short stories of murder mystery, selected from the very cream of new British crime fiction. Contributors include Lee Child, Colin Dexter, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Len Deighton, John Harvey, and many more. This is an ideal present for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good murder-mystery. A page-turning compendium of British talent to capture the imagination of readers around the world.

Author biog: Martin Edwards was born at Knutsford, Cheshire in 1955 and educated in Northwich and at Balliol College, Oxford University, taking a first class honours degree in law. He trained as a solicitor in Leeds and moved to Liverpool on qualifying in 1980. He published his first legal article at the age of 25 and his first book, about legal aspects of buying a business computer at 27, becoming a partner in the firm of Mace and Jones in 1984. He is married to Helena with two children and lives in Lymm. Martin is a member of the Murder Squad of crime writers and is chairman of the nominations sub-committee for the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, crime writing's most prestigious award. In 2007 he was appointed the Archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Danuta Reah - GLAZED - Highly Commended
>From ‘Getting Even: Revenge Stories’ edited by Mitzi Szereto, Serpent's Tail
Judges’ comments: ‘A well-executed tale of comeuppance and revenge in unusual circumstances.’

Synopsis: If you've ever been betrayed, this is the book for you: ‘Getting Even’ is a collection of stories about passion and the sweetness of revenge. >From the re-writing of Echo and Narcissus by Rosie Jackson to the practical tips for achieving widowhood in How to Kill an Aries by Tony Fennelly, these are tales of the unexpected for the twenty-first century. If you need a lesson in love, or the end of love, take a cathartic trip through the murky waters of vengeance with these unsettling stories.

Author biog: Danuta Reah, who also writes under the name Carla Banks, is the author of four novels of pyschological suspense. She also publishes academic books, valued as resources for the study of language. Her most recent novel is a Carla Banks title, ‘Strangers’, in January 2007. Danuta Reah is past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.
NOTE: Danuta Reah won the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2005 for No Flies on Fran

2008 Short Story Dagger Shortlist

Robert Barnard - PROVENANCE
s edited by Maxim Jakubowkski, Constable Robinson Publishing
Judges’ comments: ‘A stylish and intelligent tale of murder in the art world.’

Michael Connelly - ONE DOLLAR JACKPOT
From Dead Man's Hand edited by Otto Penzler, Quercus
Judges’ comments: ‘Harry Bosch plays his own high-stakes game of poker in order to catch a brutal killer - exciting and pacy.’

Martin Edwards - THE BOOKBINDER’S APPRENTICE- WINNER
FromThe Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Constable Robinson Publishing
Judges’ comments: ‘A subtle, insidious, and disturbingly creepy tale of how an Englishman in Venice finds himself offered the job of apprentice to a bookbinder with unusual methods.’

Laura Lippman - ONE TRUE LOVE
From Best American Mystery Stories 2007 edited by Otto Penzler and Carl Hiaasen, Quercus
Judges’ comments: ‘A subtle attempt at blackmail in suburbia gets turned on its head in this clever story.’

Danuta Reah - GLAZED
From Getting Even: Revenge Stories edited by Mitzi Szereto, Serpent's Tail
Judges’ comments: ‘A well-executed tale of comeuppance and revenge in unusual circumstances.’

CWA DEBUT 2008 WINNER DAGGER
For unpublished novels by unpublished authors, £500 prize money, sponsored by Orion and presented by Jon Wood, Editorial Director of Orion to Amer Anwar. Highly Commended went to Belinda Bauer.

Amer Anwar (UK) - WESTERN FRINGES
Judges’ comments: ‘Set in London's Asian community, with a story that explores family ties as much as criminal behaviour, Western Fringes shows good narrative control and a talent for creating suspense and an atmosphere of menace. The central character is well-drawn, sympathetic and appealing.’

Synopsis: ‘Western Fringes’ is a novel set in and around West London's Asian community. When ex-con Zaq Khan is asked to find his employer's runaway daughter, he has no idea that his search will draw him into a violent dispute between robbers, and a hunt for £6million in cash.

Author biog: Amer was born, brought up and still lives in West London. He was reading and writing stories from an early age but didn't pursue writing as a career early on. Since leaving college he has worked as a warehouse assistant, a comic book lettering artist, a chalet rep in the French Alps and in the print and design industries. He is currently a freelance graphic designer and working on his first novel.
Belinda Bauer (UK) - BLACKLANDS - Highly Commended
Judges’ comments: ‘UK-based psychological suspense story of deceptive simplicity, with good dramatic potential. The writing is atmospheric, visual and insightful, and the family dynamics well-drawn.’

Synopsis: ‘Blacklands’ describes the dangerous cat-and-mouse game a twelve-year-old boy plays with a serial killer.

Author biog: After zig-zagging through journalism, dishwashing, gardening and bookmaking, Belinda Bauer has worked for the past ten years as a full-time screenwriter. Finally frustrated by the near-impossibility of getting features made, she decided to write all her script ideas as novels first, so that she would at least have something tangible to show for many months spent hunched over a keyboard. ‘Blacklands’ is the first of these novels.

2008 Short lists Debut Dagger- Ten authors are in

contention for this prize.
Amer Anwar (UK) - Western Fringes- WINNER
Belinda Bauer (UK) - Blacklands
Russell Colman (Canada) - Desert Storm
Peter Dewar (UK) - The Eclipse of Lilith
Bill Harrison (Canada) - Nite Lite
Alison Marlow (UK) - The Stench of Lilies
James Oswald (UK) - The Book of Souls
Susan Schaab (USA) - Wearing the Spider
Ian Simpson (UK) - Devils and Disciples
PJ Watson (USA) - All the Wrong People

The Duncan Lawrie Dagger 2008 Shortlist - Book Descriptions

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (Orion

Judges’ comments: ‘A passionate response to recent events in America. Burke uses crime fiction at its most atmospheric to explore the fallout after Hurricane Katrina, and to expose the government's abandonment of people who suffered in the aftermath.’

Synopsis
This is James Lee Burke's latest mystery featuring Dave Robicheaux. It is also much more than that. The story begins with the shooting of two would-be looters in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and then follows a motley group of characters - from street thugs to a big-time mob boss, from a junkie priest to a sadistic psychopath - as their stories converge on a cache of stolen diamonds, while the storm turns the Big Easy into a lawless wasteland of apocalyptic proportions. The nightmarish landscape created by Katrina seems the perfect setting for Burke's almost Biblical visions of good and evil - it is as if he had to wait for this disaster to find the occasion to match his emotionally supercharged prose. You can feel the undercurrents of rage and pain beneath the narrative, making this not only his most personal and deeply felt book for some time, but quite poss burke_james_lee ibly his best novel to date. This is not just a superb crime novel, it is potentially THE fictional chronicle of a disaster whose human dimensions America is still struggling to process.

About the Author (right)

James Lee Burke is the author of many previous novels, many featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux. He won the Edgar Award in 1997 for Cimarron Rose, while Black Cherry Blues won the Edgar in 1989 and was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger in 1998. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana and New Iberia, Louisiana.

>>Authors Website: www.jamesleeburke.com

Toby Clements, DAILY TELEGRAPH
'the characters are beautifully realised and their motivation strong. But it is the fury at the authorities response to the crisis that gives this its added dimension.'

David Sexton, EVENING STANDARD
'The Tin Roof Blowdown is the novel James Lee Burke was born to write. His imagination has always tended to the apocalyptical - but Hurricane Katrina outdid his worst inventions ... The passages describing the actual flooding are tremendously powerful but Burke also weaves a fully satisfying story into this extreme event.'

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill.(Quercus)

Judges’ comments: ‘An engaging and quirky tale with the glamour of strangeness, featuring a highly original sleuth and a fascinating story woven around an honourable man in a corrupt regime, and people's struggle to survive in the People's Republic of Laos.

Synopsis
Laos,1976. The monarchy has been deposed, the Communist Pathet Lao have taken over. Most of the educated class has fled, but Dr Siri Paiboun, a Paris-trained doctor remains. And so this 72-year-old physician is appointed state coroner, despite having no training, equipment, experience or even inclination for the job. But the job's not that bad and Siri quickly settles into a routine of studying outdated medical texts, scrounging scarce supplies, and circumnavigating bureaucratic red tape to arrive at justice. The fact that the recently departed ar cooterill_colin e prone to pay Siri the odd, unwanted nocturnal visit turns out to be an added bonus in his new line of work. But when the wife of a party leader turns up dead and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake, all eyes turn to Siri. Faced with official cover-ups and an emerging international crisis, the doctor enlists old friends, village shamans, forest spirits, dream visits from the dead - and even the occasional bit of medical deduction - to solve the crimes.

Colin Cotterill (right), author of four previous books in the Dr Siri Paiboun series, was born in London and taught in Australia, the US, Laos and Japan. He lives in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand on the Burmese border with his wife, and teaches at the University of Chiang Mai. His Books have been BookSense Picks and he won the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth. He works for UNICEF and local non governmental agencies to prevent child prostitution and to rehabilitate abused children. Authors Website>>www.colincotterill.com

Night Work by Steve Hamilton

Judges’ comments: ‘A reinvigoration of the classic Private Eye tale, with the PI morphing into a parole officer who is forced to confront a taut range of moral and ethical issues. Irresistibly readable, and a wonderful evocation of small-town America.’

Synopsis: Joe Trumble is a probation officer with a tragedy in his past. Two years ago his fiancée was brutally killed three days before their wedding. No one has yet been caught. As the story opens, Joe is heading for a blind date with Marlene, a jewellery designer, his first encounter with a woman since his late fiancée Laurel's death.

The evening is a success, but next day Marlene is reported missing and, two days later, her body is found. As the last person to see her alive, Joe is at the very least a material witness and, as the evidence mounts and another body is found, suspicion begins to centre on him.

Born and raised in Detroit, Steve Hamilton (right)graduated from the University of Michigan wher hamiliton_steve e he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for fiction. In 2006, he won the Michigan Author Award for his outstanding body of work. His novels have won numerous awards and media acclaim beginning with the very first in the Alex McKnight series, A Cold Day in Paradise, which won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Mystery by an Unpublished Writer. Once published, it went on to win the MWA Edgar and the PWA Shamus Awards for Best First Novel, and was shortlisted for the Anthony and Barry Awards. Hamilton currently works for IBM in upstate New York where he lives with his wife, Julia, and their two children. Authors Website>> www.authorstevehamilton.com

What The Dead Know by Laura Lippman

Judges’ comments: ‘A very innovative structure and a daring use of chronology are deployed in a story that investigates the disappearance of two little girls in a shopping mall. The protagonist is intriguing, family secrets are skilfully uncovered, suspense is ratcheted up, and there is a great twist at the end.’

Synopsis: A middle-aged woman causes an accident on the Baltimore Beltway, flees the scene and is later picked up wandering on the shoulder of the Interstate. The accident occurs just a mile from the former home of the Bethany family, Dave and Miriam and their daughters Sunny and Heather. Thirty years before, twe liipman_laura lve-year-old Heather persuaded her older sister Sunny to let her tag along on a visit to the mall. Neither of the girls has been seen since.

Now, the woman on the Beltway claims to be Heather Bethany. Today she has a different name; a different identity. What has prompted this woman to announce her true - if it is true - identity at this moment?

Laura Lippman (right) )was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognised as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association. Authors Website>> www.lauralippman.com (Orion)

A Vengeful Longing by RN Morris (Faber & Faber)

Synopsis
It's the middle of a hot, dusty St Petersburg summer in the late 1860s. A doctor's wife and son die morris_roger suddenly and the doctor is arrested, suspected of poisoning. As investigator Petrovich concedes, in such cases the obvious solution often turns out to be the correct solution. And in the city's stifling, stinking atmosphere, even he lacks the energy to look any deeper. But when further, apparently unconnected, murders occur, Porfiry is forced to reassess his assumptions. Delving into the hidden, squalid heart of the city, he is brought face to face with incomprehensible horror and cruelty, in this vivid rendering of a brutal and stifling nineteenth-century St Petersburg.

About the author- Born in Manchester in 1960, RN Morris now lives in North London with his wife and two young children. He read Classics at Cambridge University. One of his stories, The Devil’s Drum, has been turned into a one-act opera, which was performed at the Purcell Room in London’s South Bank. Another, Revenants, was published as a comic book. He writes contemporary urban fiction as Roger Morris and historical crime as RN Morris. Authors website>> www.rogernmorris.co.uk

The Duncan Lawrie International Dagger 2008

The Patience of the Spider (Montalbano 8) by Andrea Camilleri (left- Italy) (Picador, Macmillan)
Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. Original title: La pazienza del ragno

Judges’ comments: ‘The judges were impressed by the evocation of a complete local world, by the skill with which the characters are distinguished, and, of course, by the creation of a believable Sicilian dialect.’

Synopsis: When a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl's impoverished father and dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Chief Inspector Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style.

Andrea Camilleri is one of Italy's most famous contemporary writers. His Montalbano series has been adapted for Italian television and translated into nine languages. He lives in Rome.

Stephen Sartarelli is an award-winning translator. He is also the author of three books of poetry, most recently The Open Vault. He lives in France.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Sweden) (MacLehose Press, Quercus)

Translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland. Original title: Män som hatar kvinnor

Judges’ comments: ‘It is rare for a novelist to be able to combine a range of odd characters; social breadth; and the detail of financial markets, especially in what bankers call ‘a point of compromise’. Larsson’s death robs us of a new, yet mature, voice in fiction.’

Synopsis: Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to larsson_stieg investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant - and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattoed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot, and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves - and each other.

Stieg Larsson (right) was for twenty years graphics editor at a Swedish news agency. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the anti-racist magazine Expo from 1999. He was one of the world’s leading experts on anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and Nazi organisations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the three manuscripts of the Millennium Trilogy to a Swedish publisher.

Lorraine Connections by Dominique Manotti (France) (EuroCrime, Arcadia Books)

Translated from the French by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz. Original title: Lorraine Connection

Judges’ comments: ‘Manotti seamlessly integrates a fine crime story with French provincial and national politics within the EU then matches it with an equally convincing grip on the characters of her northern landscape.’

Dominique Manotti is a professor of nineteenth-century economic history in Paris. She is the au manotti_dominique thor of a number of novels including Rough Trade (winner of the French Crime Writers’ Association Award) and Dead Horsemeat, both published in English by Arcadia Books. Dead Horsemeat was shortlisted for the 2006 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award.

Amanda Hopkinson is the Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia. She is also a literary translator from Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Ros Schwartz has translated a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, and regularly publishes articles and gives workshops on the art of translation.

A Deal with the Devil (Eurocrime) by Martin Suter (Spain) (EuroCrime, Arcadia Books)

Translated from the German by Peter Millar. Original title: Der Teufel von Mailand

Judges’ comments: ‘Friedrich Glauser was a pioneering Swiss writer of crime fiction, and the national award bears his name. In this novel Suter pays literary homage which modernises Glauser’s plot and setting, while extending it into an original conception of his own.’

Synopsis: Sonia Frey fears for her sanity. Her marriage ended in divorce after her husband tried to kill her. On top of this, an acid trip has disordered her senses - she can now ‘feel’ smells, ‘see’ sounds.
Martin Suter

To escape these worries, she takes a job as a physiotherapist at a newly re-opened hotel in a remote Alpine village. However, a series of unusual events throws her into disarray once more suter_martin . The mystery deepens as she discovers a parallel to these occurrences in local folkloric tales of the supernatural. Can the legend of the Devil of Milan really be true? Or is the thruth more sinister? Sonia's mind, already under pressure from her strange sensory awareness, is stretched to breaking point by the climate of paranoia developing around her.

Martin Suter (right) is of Swiss-German origin and now lives with his wife in Spain and Guatemala. He is the author of five novels. Small World was published by Harvill Secker in 2001, and A Deal with the Devil, originally published in German, was the winner of the 2007 Friedrich Glauser Prize for best new crime novel. His books are published in twenty countries.

Peter Millar is an award-winning journalist, author and translator. Millar was named Foreign Correspondent of the Year for his reporting on the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He is the author of Tomorrow Belongs to Me, an oral history of post-war Germany, and four popular fiction novels.

This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas (France) (Harvill Secker, Random House)

Translated from the French by Sîan Reynolds. Original title: Dans les bois éternels

Judges’ comments: ‘No one writes like Fred Vargas, and her invention is unflagging. This novel takes Adamsberg and his team into the wilds of upper Normandy, and deep into the medieval past of relics and alchemy.’

Synopsis: On the edge of Paris two small-time drug dealers have had their throats cut in a peculiar fashion. Setting out on the trail of the shadowy killer, Commissaire Adamsberg and his detectives travel between Paris and the Normandy countryside. Adamsberg’s investigation into these horrible deaths brings him into contact with the attractive Ariane Lagarde –a pathologist who caused him professional grief some twenty-five years ago. There’s vargas_fred also a new lieutenant on the scene, whose ties to Adamsberg’s past create tension and hostility in his present.
Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas (left) is the pseudonym of Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau, who was born in Paris in 1957. (Fred is not unusual in France as an abbreviation of this feminine name.) As well as being a best-selling author in France, she is by training a mediaeval archaeologist. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages. She has won the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger twice.

Sîan Reynolds is a historian, translator, and former professor at the University of Stirling. She has written several academic texts and her translations from the French include books by Fernand Braudel and Claude Lévi-Strauss. She lives in Edinburgh.

SUE GRAFTON WINS2008 DIAMOND DAGGER

The twenty-third Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing, has been awarded to the best-selling American novelist, Sue Grafton (right). Her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of PI mystery novels have won numerous awards in her native America. The latest number one best-seller, T Is for Trespass, was published in the US in December 2007 and will be out in Macmillan hardback in the UK in April 2008.

On hearing of the award, Ms Grafton said: “News of my being named the 2008 recipient of the CWA's Cartier Diamond Dagger so astonished me that I thought at first it was a practical joke. I'm thrilled with the news and honoured at the prospect.”

SUE GRAFTON was born in Kentucky in 1940, the daughter of mystery writer CW Grafton. After receiving a bachelors degree in English Literature from the University of Louisville, she worked as a TV scriptwriter before her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of PI mystery novels found success. The first in the series, ‘A is for Alibi’ was famously inspired by her own divorce. “For months I lay in bed and plotted to kill my ex-husband, but I knew I’d bungle it and get caught so I wrote it in a book instead.”

Three of Ms Grafton’s novels have won the Anthony Award at the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention; she has won three Shamus Awards, and in 2004 received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award given to a California writer whose work raises the standard of literary excellence..”

2007 Crime Writer Association Winners Dagger Awards

Australian Peter Temple Wins 2007 Duncan Laurie Dagger

Peter Temple (right) has won the 2007 Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the biggest crime writing prize in the world, for his book The Broken Shore, published by Quercus. On learning of his success he said: “It's a huge thrill to win the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for The Broken Shore. You're up against some of the world's best crime writers in English. I was proud enough just to be the first Aussie to make the shortlist, let alone win.”

The prize for the best crime novel of the year was announced by Peter Ostacchini, Deputy Managing Director of sponsor Duncan Lawrie Private Bank, and the dagger and a cheque for £20,000 was presented by Ann Cleeves, who last year won the first Duncan Lawrie Dagger.

Peter Temple is Australia's most acclaimed crime and thriller writer. He has won the Ned Kelly Award for crime fiction five times and has a legion of fans around the world. He is the author of The Iron Rose, Shooting Star and In The Evil Day, and of four novels featuring lawyer, gambler and private eye, Jack Irish: Bad Debts, Black Tide, Dead Point and White Dog. The Broken Shore has won the Colin Roderick Award, the Ned Kelly, the Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction Book of the Year 2006, and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Peter Temple lives in Ballarat, Australia, with his family.

2007 Duncan Lawrie Winner & Shortlists

Winner: Peter Temple: The Broken Shore

Giles Blunt: The Fields of Grief (HarperCollins)
James Lee Burke: Pegasus Descending (Orion)
Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Craig Russell: Brother Grimm(Hutchinson)
CJ Sansom: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake 3) (Macmillan)

2007 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger

Fo fred_vargas r the best crime novel translated into English, with £5000 going to the author and £1000 to the translator.

Fred Vargas (left- yes Fred is a woman)- Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand (Harvill Secker), translated by Siân Reynolds

“A stylish return to the shortlist for last year’s inventive winner with another unconventional police procedural.”

More details plus historic winners for Duncan Lawrie International Dagger

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

The dagger and £2000 prize money are awarded for the best adventure/thriller novel in the vein of James Bond. Sponsored by by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.

Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
“A very good debut, atmospheric and creepy, with a complex and convincingly drawn female protagonist. The claustrophobiaof small-town America in the south is portrayed exceptionally well in this dark psychological thriller.”

gillian_flynn
2007 CWA New Blood Dagger

Awarded in memory of CWA founder John Creasey, this dagger for first books by previously unpublished writers is sponsored by BBC Audiobooks and carries a prize of £1000.

Gillian Flynn (right)- Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
“This was a novel characterized by its vivid and poetic writing. A superb sense of character with an imaginative treatment of the reasons for and the problems of self-harm.”

2007 CWA Dagger in the Library

This Dagger, sponsored by Random House and worth £1500, is awarded to "the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to readers"; authors are nominated by UK libraries and Readers' Groups and judged by a panel of librarians.

Stuart MacBride
“His books tell of life in all its grim reality, but this only adds to the appeal of this truly impressive new author...the grimmest of subjects, but leavened (thankfully) with dashes of humour. He’s bad news for the Aberdeen tourist industry, but great news for crime readers.”

C.J. Sansom was very highly commended in this category.

2007 Debut Dagger

The Debut Dagger, sponsored by Orion, is open to anyone who has not yet had a novel published commercially. The winner receives a £500 cash prize.

Alan Bradley – from British Columbia in Canada – is this year's winner with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

'“Flavia is barely eleven, but her passion for poisons would make Lucrezia Borgia cringe”

David Jackson, from the Wirral on Merseyside was Highly Commended with Pariah: “Where do you turn when your very presence is the kiss of death to those around you? Detective Cal Doyle is about to discover just how low he is prepared to sink.”

2007 Diamond Dagger

The Cartier Diamond Dagger is awarded by the CWA committee, chosen from those writers nominated by the CWA's membership. This year's winner, announced earlier this year, was John Harvey.

2007 Ellis Peters Award

Ariana Franklin’s The Mistress of the Art of Death, published by Bantam Press, has been announced as the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Historical Award for 2007. In announcing Ms Franklin’s success, Chair of judges, Janet Laurence praised the exceptional high standard of this year’s entry. The shortlist contained a wide-ranging selection, from Henry II’s England to post-war Munich and Tuscany, via the Victorian railways, and nineteenth century Istanbul and Canada.

2007 Short Story Award

The £1500 Short Story Award - formerly the Short Story Dagger - has been won by Peter Lovesey for his story, 'Needle Match' in the The Best British Mysteries: v. 4 anthology edited by Maxim Jakubowski and published by Allison & Busby.

The Non-Fiction Dagger

The non-fiction dagger is now awarded every other year and will next be in contention in 2008. To qualify for entry books must have been published between 1 June 2006 and 31 May 2008.

2007 John Creasey Award

Peter N Walker has been given the John Creasey Award for his outstanding contribution to the Crime Writers' Association. He was presented with the award – a red herring mounted on a plinth – by CWA Chairman Philip Gooden at the September 2007 meeting of the Northern Chapter of the CWA.)

Past Winners of Gold and Silver Daggers 1955-2007

2000s

2007

* Duncan Lawrie Dagger: Peter Temple, The Broken Shore
Giles Blunt: The Fields of Grief (HarperCollins)
James Lee Burke: Pegasus Descending (Orion)
Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Craig ann_cleeves

Russell: Brother Grimm(Hutchinson)
CJ Sansom: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake 3) (Macmillan)

2006 (award re-named)

* Duncan Lawrie Dagger: Ann Cleeves (left), Raven Black
o Simon Beckett, The Chemistry of Death
o Thomas H. Cook, Red Leaves
o Frances Fyfield, Safer Than Houses
o Bill James, Wolves of Memory: A Harper and Iles Mystery (Harpur & Iles Mysteries)
o Laura Wilson, A Thousand Lies

2005

* Gold Dagger: Arnaldur Indridason, Silence of the Grave
* Silver Dagger: Barbara Nadel, Deadly Web
o Karin Fossum, Calling Out for You
o Friedrich Glauser, In Matto's Realm (Sergeant Studer Mystery)
o Carl Hiaasen, Skinny Dip
o Fred Vargas, Seeking Whom He May Devour

2004

* Gold Dagger: Sara Paretsky, Blacklist
* Silver Dagger: John Harvey, Flesh and Blood
o Mo Hayder, Tokyo
o Val McDermid, The Torment of Others
o James W. Nichol, Midnight Cab: A Novel
o Laura Wilson, The Lover

2003

* Gold Dagger: Minette Walters, Fox Evil
* Silver Dagger: Morag Joss, Half-Broken Things
o Boris Akunin, The Winter Queen
o Robert Littell, The Company
o Carlo Lucarelli, Almost Blue
o Robert Wilson, The Blind Man of Seville

2002

* Gold Dagger: Jose Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders
* Silver Dagger: James Crumley, The Final Country
o Mark Billingham, Scaredy Cat
o James Lee Burke, Jolie Blon's Bounce
o Michael Connelly, City of Bones
o Minette Walters, Acid Row

2001

* Gold Dagger: Henning Mankell, Sidetracked (Kurt Wallender Mystery)
* Silver Dagger: Giles Blunt, Forty Words for Sorrow
o Stephen Booth, Dancing with the Virgins
o Denise Danks, Baby Love
o George Pelecanos, Right as Rain
o Scott Phillips, The Ice Harvest

2000

* Gold Dagger: Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn
* Silver Dagger: Donna Leon, Friends In High Places
o James Lee Burke, Purple Cane Road
o Elliot Pattison, The Skull Mantra
o Lucy Wadham, Lost
o Martin Cruz Smith, Havana Bay

1990s

1999

* Gold Dagger: Robert Wilson, A Small Death in Lisbon
* Silver Dagger: Adrian Mathews, Vienna Blood
o Val McDermid, A Place of Execution
o Ian Rankin, Dead Souls
o Michael Connelly, Angels Flight
o Denise Danks, Phreak
o Frances Fyfield, Staring at the Light

1998

* Gold Dagger: James Lee Burke, Sunset Limited
* Silver Dagger: Nicholas Blincoe, Manchester Slingback
o Michael Dibdin, A Long Finish
o Geoffrey Archer, Fire Hawk
o Reginald Hill, On Beulah Height
o George Pelecanos, King Suckerman

1997

* Gold Dagger: Ian Rankin, Black and Blue
* Silver Dagger: Janet Evanovich, Three to Get Deadly
o Frank Lean, The Reluctant Investigator

1996

* Gold Dagger: Ben Elton, Popcorn
* Silver Dagger: Peter Lovesey, Bloodhounds
o Jessica Mann, A Private Enquiry

1995

* Gold Dagger: Val McDermid, The Mermaids Singing
* Silver Dagger: Peter Lovesey, The Summons
o Elizabeth Ironside, A Very Private Enterprise
o Minette Walters, The Dark Room

1994

* Gold Dagger: Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle
* Silver Dagger: Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
o Val McDermid, Crack Down
o Sara Paretsky, Tunnel Vision

1993

* Gold Dagger: Patricia Cornwell, Cruel and Unusual
* Silver Dagger: Sarah Dunant, Fatlands
o Robert Richards, The Hand of Strange Children
o Janet Neel, Death Among the Dons

1992

* Gold Dagger: Colin Dexter, The Way Through the Woods
* Silver Dagger: Liza Cody, Bucket Nut

1991

* Gold Dagger: Barbara Vine, King Solomon's Carpet
* Silver Dagger: Frances Fyfield, Deep Sleep
o Janet Neel, Death of a Partner
o Michael Dibdin, Dirty Tricks

1990

* Gold Dagger: Reginald Hill, Bones and Silence
* Silver Dagger: Mike Philips, The Late Candidate
o John Harvey, Rough Treatment

1980s

1989

* Gold Dagger: Colin Dexter, The Wench is Dead
* Silver Dagger: Desmond Lowden, The Shadow Run

1988

* Gold Dagger: Michael Dibdin, Ratking
* Silver Dagger: Sara Paretsky, Toxic Shock

1987

* Gold Dagger: Barbara Vine, A Fatal Inversion
* Silver Dagger: Scott Turow, Presumed Innocent
o Liza Cody, Under Contract

1986

* Gold Dagger: Ruth Rendell, Live Flesh
* Silver Dagger: P. D. James, A Taste for Death

1985

* Gold Dagger: Paula Gosling, Monkey Puzzle
* Silver Dagger: Dorothy Simpson, Last Seen Alive
o Andrew Taylor, Our Father's Lies
o Jill Paton Walsh, A Piece of Justice

1984

* Gold Dagger: B. M. Gill, The Twelfth Juror
* Silver Dagger: Ruth Rendell, The Tree of Hands

1983

* Gold Dagger: John Hutton, Accidental Crimes
* Silver Dagger: William McInnery, The Papers of Tony Vietch

1982

* Gold Dagger: Peter Lovesey, The False Inspector Dew
* Silver Dagger: S.T. Haymon, Ritual Murder

1981

* Gold Dagger: Martin Cruz Smith, Gorky Park
* Silver Dagger: Colin Dexter, The Dead of Jericho

1980

* Gold Dagger: H.R.F. Keating, The Murder of the Maharaja
* Silver Dagger: Ellis Peters, Monk's Hood

1970s

1979

* Gold Dagger: Dick Francis, Whip Hand
* Silver Dagger: Colin Dexter, Service of All the Dead

1978

* Gold Dagger: Lionel Davidson, The Chelsea Murders
* Silver Dagger: Peter Lovesey, Waxwork

1977

* Gold Dagger: John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy
* Silver Dagger: William McIlvanney, Laidlaw

1976

* Gold Dagger: Ruth Rendell, A Demon in My View
* Silver Dagger: James H. McClure, Rogue Eagle

1975

* Gold Dagger: Nicholas Meyer, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
* Silver Dagger: P. D. James, The Black Tower

1974

* Gold Dagger: Anthony Price, Other Paths to Glory
* Silver Dagger: Francis Clifford, The Grosvenor Square Goodbye

1973

* Gold Dagger: Robert Littell, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter
* Silver Dagger: Gwendoline Butler, A Coffin for Pandora

1972

* Gold Dagger: Eric Ambler, The Levanter
* Silver Dagger: Victor Canning, The Rainbird Pattern

1971

* Gold Dagger: James H. McClure, The Steam Pig
* Silver Dagger: P.D. James, Shroud for a Nightingale

1970

* Gold Dagger: Joan Fleming, Young Man I Think You're Dying
* Silver Dagger: Anthony Price, The Labyrinth Makers

[edit] 1960s

1969

* Gold Dagger: Peter Dickinson, A Pride of Heroes
* Silver Dagger: Francis Clifford, Another Way of Dying

1968

* Gold Dagger: Peter Dickinson, Skin Deep

1967

* Gold Dagger: Emma Lathen, Murder Against the Grain

1966

* Gold Dagger: Lionel Davidson, A Long Way to Shiloh

1965

* Gold Dagger: Ross Macdonald, The Far Side of the Dollar

1964

* Gold Dagger: H.R.F. Keating, The Perfect Murder

1963

* Gold Dagger: John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
o Nicholas Freeling, Gun Before Butter
o William Haggard, The High Wire

1962

* Gold Dagger: Joan Fleming, When I Grow Rich
o Eric Ambler, The Light of the Day
o Colin Watson, Hopjoy Was Here

1961

* Gold Dagger: Mary Kelly, The Spoilt Kill
o John le Carré, Call for the Dead
o Allan Prior, One Way

1960

* Gold Dagger: Lionel Davidson, The Night of Wenceslas
o Mary Stewart, My Brother Michael
o Julian Symons, Progress of a Crime

1950s

1959

* Crossed Red Herring Award: Eric Ambler, Passage of Arms
o James Mitchell, A Way Back
o Menna Gallie, Strike for a Kingdom

1958

* Crossed Red Herring Award: Margot Bennett, Someone from the Past
o Margery Allingham, Hide My Eyes
o James Byrom, Or Be He Dead
o John Sherwood, Undiplomatic Exit

1957

* Crossed Red Herring Award: Julian Symons, The Colour of Murder
o Ngaio Marsh, Off With His Head
o George Milner, Your Money or Your Life
o Douglas Rutherford, The Long Echo

1956

* Crossed Red Herring Award: Edward Grierson, The Second Man
o Sarah Gainham, Time Right Deadly
o Arthur Upfield, Man of Two Tribes
o J. J. Marric, Gideon's Week

1955

* Crossed Red Herring Award: Winston Graham, The Little Walls
o Leigh Howard, Blind Date
o Ngaio Marsh, Scales of Justice
o Margot Bennett, The Man Who Didn't Fly