Cavanagh and Mina triumph at CWA Daggers

Scottish author Denise Mina and Northern Irish writer Steve Cavanagh were both honoured at this year’s Dagger awards, run by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA).

Cavanagh scooped the CWA Gold Dagger for The Liar (Orion) at the central London ceremony on Thursday evening (25th October), beating the likes of A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker) and London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray). The full shortlists of almost 60 writers across the nine categories were revealed in July.

As well as Orion, Serpent's Tail and Point Blank were two of the winning publishers, along with Penguin Random House imprints William Heinemann and Harvill Secker, as well as Zaffre and Historic Envrionment Scotland – for which Mina took the CWA Short Story Dagger for “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit, Bloody Scotland”

Melissa Scrivner Love took the John Creasey Debut Dagger for Lola (Point Blank), pipping to the post Girl in Snow by Danya Kufafka (Picador) and Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo) among others.

Meanwhile Thomas Harding’s Blood on The Page (Heinemann) won the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, sponsored by ALCS, beating five other nominated titles including The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich (Macmillan) and Black Dahlia Red Rose by Piu Eatwell (Coronet).

The CWA Historical Dagger went to Nucleus by Rory Clements (Zaffre Publishing), having fought off Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson (Faber & Faber) and Lightening Men by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown) among others as well as Mukherjee again.

After the Fire by Henning Mankell, tr Marlaine Delargy (Harvill Secker) took the CWA International Dagger. Meanwhile The CWA Debut Dagger, for the opening of a crime novel from a writer without a traditional publishing contract, went to The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon by Bill Crotty with Riverine Blood by Joseph James highly commended.

Finally Martin Edwards won the CWA Dagger in the Library, for crime authors admired by library users and nominated by libraries.