The Crime Readers' Association

joy ellis the colour of mysteryJoy Ellis – The Colour of Mystery

29th February 2024

Three nice people. Three terrible crimes. What made them do these awful things? It’s the night shift worker who finds them. Huddled in a hospital store cupboard is elderly Edith Higgins. Knifed to dea...

Submitting for CWA Competitions: In at the Kill

20th February 2024

The deadline’s getting close! So here’s some last-minute advice for you on the practicalities of submitting. Please remember the rule: if you have any problems with your Debut Dagger submission, you m...

Notes on Word Count for CWA Writing Competitions

20th February 2024

Different competitions have different rules – and different levels of rigour in the way they apply them. For the Debut Dagger we are super-strict. We ask for entries not to exceed 3,000 words (1,500 w...

Debut Dagger Writing Tips

19th February 2024

Here are tips from recent newsletters compiled for you by Dea Parkin, the CWA’s Competitions Coordinator (and professional editor). If you’re at the stage where your entry is finished and you’re into...

Katherine Black — A Most Malicious Messenger

1st February 2024

Menacing texts lead to murder in an English village, in this unmissable, witty mystery by the Dagger Award–nominated author of A Most Unusual Demise. May Morrigan is in her bookshop one morning when s...

Faith Martin – Murder by Candlelight

2nd January 2024

One suspicious death. Two amateur sleuths. And an utterly impossible crime. The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings out: lady of the h...

EC Bateman — Murder Most Antique

1st December 2023

  Who knew a harmless town fair could be so polarising – or so deadly? When auctioneer Felicia Grant’s best friend, Stamford Mayor Cassandra Lane, talked her into helping with the town’s annual G...

Image by christoph_mschrd via PixabayMargery Allingham Short Story Competition

14th November 2023

A lot of readers are writers, too. Whether you’re a bestselling author or an aspiring wordsmith, if you have a short mystery in the works, the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition wants to...

Nicola Upson – Shot With Crimson

31st October 2023

September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Then a shocking act of violence reawakens...

Edward Marston – The Danger of Defeat

1st October 2023

February, 1918. In the small hours of a cold morning, a burglary in Limehouse has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detec...

Jim Eldridge – Murder at the Tower of London

1st September 2023

London 1899. The dead body of a Yeoman Warder  is discovered at the Tower of London inside a suit of armour belonging to Henry VIII. He had been run through with a sword. The Prince of Wales, fearing...

Helena Dixon – Murder at the Village Fair

31st July 2023

Kitty Underhay is riding a carousel… with death. Summer 1935. Enjoying a belated honeymoon visiting her new husband Matt’s family in the rolling Yorkshire hills, Kitty strolls through a village fair....

2023 Dagger Awards Winners Announced

6th July 2023

2023 CWA Dagger Awards Announced The winners of the 2023 CWA Daggers, which honour the very best in the crime writing genre, have been announced. The prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagge...

“The Red Death” by Abraham Kawa

4th July 2023

‘THE RED DEATH’ BY ABRAHAM KAWA 1970. After a disturbing murder case left DI Chris Bates’ mental health shattered, he spends time recovering in an asylum before being released to a halfway house. When...

National Crime Reading Month off to a blazing start!

8th June 2023

National Crime Reading Month kicked off with simultaneous launches in London, Belfast and Edinburgh – appropriately in one of Waterstones flagship stores in Piccadilly; No Alibis, an independent...

This Wild, Wild Country

2nd June 2023

1933. Cornelia Stover is headstrong and business-minded – not the kind of woman the men of Boldville, New Mexico, expect her to be. Then she stumbles upon a secret hidden out in the hills . . ....

Vaseem Khan elected new Chair of the CWA

31st May 2023

Vaseem Khan has been elected as the new Chair of the CWA at the association’s AGM earlier this month, taking over from Maxim Jakubowski, who ably steered the CWA Chair for three years. Vaseem is...

CWA Daggers Shortlist 2023 announced

30th May 2023

The 2023 shortlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced at Crime Fest in Bristol. 2023 marks...

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