CWA crowns winners, announces longlists

The longlists have been revealed for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards as the Crime Writers Association (CWA) awarded a number of Daggers at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Authors including Mo Hayder, S J Watson and Frederick Forsyth made the Dagger longlists for the awards, which are run in association with the CWA. The shortlists will be revealed on 22nd August, and the awards presented at Grosvenor House in London on 7th October.

From 1st September, ITV3 will broadcast a six-part documentary series called "The A to Z of Crime", which will feature five of the longlisted authors.

Cactus TV's Amanda Ross, executive producer for the awards and the ITV3 Crime Season, said: “I'm delighted that Specsavers and ITV have given me such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the stars, writers and creators of the most popular genre of entertainment. It's gratifying to see The Specsavers Crime Thriller Daggers and our Crime Thriller season reach such a wide audience."

Meanwhile, Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström have won the CWA International Dagger for their novel Three Seconds (Quercus). The writing duo were among those lauded by the CWA on 22nd July. Simon & Schuster author Douglas Starr won the Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction for his book The Killer of Little Shepherds. Homework by Phil Lovesey, published in the Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Vol 8 (Constable and Robinson) won the Short Story Dagger.

East Of Suez, West Of Charing Cross Road by John Lawton (Corvus) from Agents Of Treachery, edited by Otto Penzler, was commended and The Dead Club by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer (Corvus) from First Thrills, edited by Lee Child, was in third place.

Bantam author Mo Hayder won the Dagger in the Library for best body of work.

Michele Rowe won the CWA Debut Dagger for best unpublished piece of work for What Hidden Lies. Highly commended was The Outrageous Behaviour of Left-Handed Dwarves by Graham Brack.

CWA chair Peter James said: "Crime fiction is today more popular throughout the western world than any other form of fiction writing. This is because through this medium the authors write in depth and with the greatest intelligence about human life, the human condition, and issues that affect the lives of each and every one of us. That is what great writing always has been about and always will be."
 

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards longlists are:

CWA Gold Dagger 2011
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Pan)
Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)
Snowdrops by A D Miller (Atlantic Books)
The Cypress House by Michael Koryta (Hodder & Stoughton)
The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (Orion)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)
The Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle (Pan)
White Heat by M J McGrath (Mantle)
 
CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications
An Agent of Deceit by Chris Morgan Jones (Mantle)
Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)
Savages by Don Winslow (Heinemann)
The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth (Corgi)
The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Corvus)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)
The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)
 
CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2011
Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (Myriad)
Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller (Robinson)
Or The Bull Kills You by Jason Webster (Chatto & Windus)
Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus)
The Dead Woman of Juárez by Sam Hawken (Serpent's Tail)
The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (Hodder)
 
ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger 2011
David Baldacci The Sixth Man (Macmillan)
Lee Child Worth Dying For (Bantam)
Mark Billingham Good As Dead (Little, Brown)
Peter James Dead Man's Grip (Macmillan)
Peter Robinson Before the Poison (Hodder)