The CWA announced the shortlist on 25 May at Daunt Books in London. The Daggers are now in their 40th year, with past winners including Antonia Fraser, Jonathan Goodman and Ruth Dudley Edwards. Each year ten Daggers are awarded and this year ALCS is thrilled to be sponsoring the Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.

Barbara Hayes, Deputy Chief Executive of ALCS said: “ALCS is delighted to be sponsoring the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction. We are committed to promoting writing of all types and are proud to be involved with the CWA in supporting a genre that has been inspirational to British authors and readers for so long.”

CWA Gold Dagger

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

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

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

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

• William Boyle, Gravesend (No Exit Press)
• Joe Ide, I.Q. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Danya Kukafka, Girl in Snow (Picador)
• Melissa Scrivner Love, Lola (Point Blank)
• Khurrum Rahman, East of Hounslow (HQ)
• Emma Viskic, Resurrection Bay (Pushkin Vertigo)

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

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

CWA Historical Dagger

• Abir Mukherjee, A Necessary Evil (Harvill Secker)
• L. C. Tyler, Fire (Constable)
• Thomas Mullen, Lightning Men (Little, Brown)
• Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy, Money in the Morgue (HarperCollins)
• Nicola Upson, Nine Lessons (Faber & Faber)
• Rory Clements, Nucleus (Zaffre Publishing)

CWA International Dagger

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

CWA Short Story Dagger

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

CWA Dagger in the Library

• Martin Edwards
• Nicci French
• Edward Marston
• Peter May
• Rebecca Tope
• Simon Kernick

CWA Debut Dagger

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

Diamond Dagger

The Diamond Dagger is awarded for a writer’s outstanding contribution to crime fiction and nominated by CWA members. This was announced earlier in the year and will be awarded to author Michael Connelly at the Dagger Awards event in October.

The winners of the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on 25 October. Further information and tickets can be found here.

About the CWA: The Crime Writers Association was established in 1953 by crime writer John Creasey. The Daggers began with what was originally known as the Crossed Red Herring Award in 1955 and have grown from there, attracting sponsors such as Ian Fleming Publications and ALCS. The 10 Daggers are awarded every year. Except for the Diamond Dagger, Debut Dagger and the Dagger in the Library, authors’ books are nominated by their publishers.