CWA 2019 Dagger shortlists revealed

Luke Jennings and Professor Sue Black are among the authors shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) 2019 Dagger Awards. 

Jennings is shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for No Tomorrow (John Murray), the sequel to his 2018 hit Codename Villanelle which formed the basis for BBC show "Killing Eve". Jennings faces competition from Give Me Your Hand (Picador) by Megan Abbott and Safe Houses (Head of Zeus) by Dan Fesperman. Stephen Mack Jones' Lives Laid (Soho Crime); Holly Watt's To the Lions (Bloomsbury) and Memo from Turner (Jonathan Cape) by Tim Willocks are also in the running. 

Forensic anthropologist Black, who was awarded an OBE for her international human identification work on mass graves and is the expert forensics adviser to crime writing heavyweight Val McDermid, makes the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction for All That Remains (Doubleday). Mikita Brottman's An Unexplained Death (Canongate); Claire Harman's Murder by the Book (Viking) and Kirk Wallace Johnson's The Feather Thief (Hutchinson) have also been recognised. The Spy and the Traitor (Viking) by Ben Macintyre and The Five (Doubleday) by Hallie Rubenhold round off the nominations for the non-fiction category. 

The CWA Sapere Books Historical Dagger sees Liam McIlvanney in the running for The Quaker (Harper Fiction), which has already won the 2018 McIlvanney Prize, named in honour of his father, William McIllvanney. He’s up against five authors including C J Sansom with the latest in his acclaimed Shardlake series Tombland (Mantle) and the award-winning Abir Mukherjee for Smoke and Ashes (Harvill Secker), the third novel in his historical crime series set in Calcutta. S G MacLean is also up for the Dagger with Destroying Angel (Quercus Fiction) alongside Alex Reeve's The House on Half Moon Street (Raven Books) and Laura Shepherd-Robinson's Blood and Sugar (Mantle).

Award-winning poet Claire Askew has been shortlisted for two Daggers - CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and CWA Gold Dagger - for her debut novel All the Hidden Truths (Hodder & Stoughton). Askew faces competition from Alex Dahl's The Boy at the Door (Head Of Zeus); ​Chris Hammer's Scrublands (Wildfire); Vicky Newham's Turn a Blind Eye and Vanda Symon's Overkill (Orenda) for the John Creasey award while Shepherd-Robinson bags a second nomination for Blood and Sugar. 

In the Gold Dagger category, Askew is up against M W Craven's The Puppet Show (Constable) and What We Did (Sphere) by Christobel Kent. Donna Leon's Unto Us a Son is Given (William Heinemann); Derek B Miller's American by Day (Doubleday) and Benjamin Wood's A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (Scribner) are also in contention. 

The 2019 Debut Dagger competition sees five unknown and uncontracted writers shortlisted. Shelley Burr bagged a nomination for Wake alongside Jerry Crause's The Mourning Light; Hardways by Catherine Hendricks: David Smith's The Firefly and Fran Smith's A Thin Sharp Blade. 

Meanwhile, UK Libraries whittled down six crime authors for the prestigious Dagger in the Library prize. M C Beaton, Mark Billingham, John Connolly, Kate Ellis, C J Sansom and Cath Staincliffe are all nominees, selected by librarians and chosen for their body of work and support of libraries.

A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon, translated by Daniella Zamir (Maclehose Press) and Weeping Waters by Karin Brynard, translated by Maya Fowler & Isobel Dixon (World Noir) are up for the CWA International Dagger. Mantle scores its third nomination with The Root of Evil by Håkan Nesser, translated by Sarah Death and faces competition from Gianrico Carofiglio's The Cold Summer, translated Howard Curtis (Bitter Lemon Press). Keigo Higashino's Newcomer, translated by Giles Murray (Little, Brown) and Cay Rademacher's The Forger, translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia Books) round off the category. 

Five authors are up for the CWA Short Story Dagger with Martin Edwards' Strangers in a Pub (No Exit Press) going head to head with Syd Moore's Death Becomes Her (Point Blank Books). Danuta Kot writing as Danuta Reah is nominated for The Dummies’ Guide to Serial Killing (Fantastic Books) with Teresa Solana's I Detest Mozart (Bitter Lemon Press) and Lavie Tidhar's Bag Man (Solaris) also vying for the prize. 

Linda Stratmann, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “The Daggers are unparalleled for their longevity and reputation. Receiving a Dagger award is a something of a holy grail for authors. The CWA prides itself on supporting crime authors by not just recognising established names but as a platform for debut novelists and emerging writers.”

The winners will be announced at the Dagger Award ceremony at the Grange City Hotel, London, on 24th October where Robert Goddard will be awarded the lifetime achievement award.