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Mazzola, Galbraith, Coben and Benn on CWA Dagger longlists
The 2023 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards longlists have been revealed, with Anna Mazzola, Robert Galbraith, Harlan Coben and Tom Benn among those named. Honouring the very best in crime writing, the annual awards are the oldest in the genre.
Benn is up for the headline Gold Dagger, awarded for the crime novel of the year, for Oxblood (Bloomsbury) alongside Mazzola for The Clockwork Girl (Orion Fiction), which is also longlisted in the Historical Dagger category. Also up for the Gold Dagger are Galbraith for The Ink Black Heart (Orion) – which also appears on the Ian Fleming Steel award longlist – and S G McClean, whose The Bookseller of Inverness (Quercus) is also up for the Historical Dagger.
Other writers on the prestigious 12-strong list are: William Boyle for Shoot the Moonlight Out (No Exit Press); George Dawes Green for The Kingdoms of Savannah (Headline); Vaseem Khan for The Lost Man of Bombay (Hodder & Stoughton); Simon Mason for A Killing in November (riverrun); W C Ryan for The Winter Guest (Zaffre); Faye Snowdon for A Killing Rain (Flame Tree Press); N E Solomons for The Bone Road (Polygon) and Simon Van der Velde for The Silent Brother (Northodox Press).
In contention for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for “thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction, psychological thrillers and action/adventure stories”, are the likes of Harlan Coben, for The Match (Century); Linwood Barclay for Take Your Breath Away (HQ) and Danya Kukafka for Notes on an Execution (Phoenix).
Blackstone Fell (Head of Zeus) by 2020’s Diamond Dagger winner Martin Edwards features on the Historical Dagger longlist, while his non-fiction book The Life of Crime (HarperCollins) is longlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction. Also on the non-fiction list is The Life Inside (Picador) by Andy West, who teaches philosophy in prisons.
D V Bishop contends with Edwards and MacLean for the Historical Dagger with The Darkest Sin (Pan Macmillan) as do Gretta Mulrooney with Death at the Dolphin (Joffe Books) and Jack Jewers with The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys (Moonflower Books).
In the short story category, as well as being on the Gold Dagger longest, Khan features as co-editor with Maxim Jakubowski of several longlisted stories from The Perfect Crime (Harper Collins) anthology, including his own story, Death in Darjeeling. Abir Mukherjee’s Paradise Lost in the same anthology is also on the longlist, together with stories by novelists C J Tudor, Laura Lippman and John Grisham in other anthologies, and a mother-daughter team of Victoria and Delilah Dowd with The Tears of Venus in Unlocked (The D20 Authors).
The Dagger in the Library, for an author popular with borrowers and notable for supporting libraries, features names such as Ben Aaronovitch, Sophie Hannah and, for the first time on the list, Mick Herron with his Jackson Lamb novels. The Dagger for the Best Crime & Mystery Publisher features the likes of Simon & Schuster, Penguin Michael Joseph, Canelo and Bitter Lemon Press. The 2023 Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement has gone to Walter Mosley.
The shortlists will be announced at CrimeFest in Bristol on 12th May – together with the winner of the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize, a competition the CWA run in partnership with the Margery Allingham Society.
It has also been announced that International Literary Properties is the new sponsor for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, which this year sees authors including Patricia Wolf (Outback, Bonnier Books UK), Amen Alonge (A Good Day to Die, Quercus) and Rosemary Hennigan (The Truth Will Out, Orion) longlisted.
Emma Bell, s.v.p. creative and brand and executive producer for ILP said: “John Creasey was a truly original talent. His tenacity and flair is an inspiration for writers everywhere and so it is fitting that his spirit is celebrated annually through the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Working closely with his son, Richard, to introduce his timeless stories and characters to new global audiences is a privilege.”
The full longlists can be found here.
