CWA Announce Longlists for Prestigious Crime Writing Daggers
The Crime Writers’ Association announced the much anticipated longlists for the annual Dagger awards at a reception during CrimeFest in Bristol on the evening of Friday 18 May.
Several titles appear on more than one list: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic both appear on the longlist for the CWA Gold Dagger and the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, while A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee is on the Gold and the Historical longlists. Meanwhile London Rules by Mick Herron appears on the Gold and the Ian Fleming Steel longlists – he won the Ian Fleming last year with Spook Street, just as Mukherjee won the Historical with A Rising Man.
For the CWA International Dagger, names like Fred Vargas, Pierre Lemaitre and Dolores Redondo again make an appearance together with Lilja Sigurdardottir and the late Henning Mankell, while the late Philip Kerr also appears on the Historical longlist. So do plenty of other stars including Nicola Upson, LC Tyler and Frances Brody.
Lee Child makes three appearances on the CWA Short Story Dagger longlist, and Christine Poulson also appears there with her story ‘Accounting for Murder’ from the CWA’s own anthology, Mystery Tour – she was also shortlisted for the Margery Allingham Short Story prize, awarded at the same event.
Chair of the CWA and President of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards, is longlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction with The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books and he also appears on the longlist for the Dagger in the Library, together with other stand-out names such as Sophie Hannah, Peter May, Martina Cole and several others – it’s an exceptionally strong list this year.
The CWA Daggers, which are the probably the awards crime authors and publishers alike most wish to win, are awarded every year in 10 categories. The Diamond Dagger, for a career’s outstanding contribution to crime fiction as nominated by CWA members, was announced earlier in the year and has been awarded to best-selling author Michael Connelly.
Here are the CWA Dagger longlists for 2018.
The CWA Gold Dagger 2018 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| Ross Armstrong | Head Case | HQ |
| Steve Cavanagh | The Liar | Orion |
| Mick Herron | London Rules | John Murray |
| Dennis Lehane | Since We Fell | Little Brown |
| Laura Lippman | Sunburn | Faber & Faber |
| Attica Locke | Bluebird, Bluebird | Serpent’s Tail |
| Imran Mahmood | You Don’t Know Me | Michael Joseph |
| Abir Mukherjee | A Necessary Evil | Harvill Secker |
| Stuart Turton | The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle | Raven Books |
| Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Pushkin Vertigo |
The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2018 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adam Brookes | The Spy’s Daughter | Sphere |
| Joseph Finder | The Switch | Head of Zeus |
| Mick Herron | London Rules | John Murray Publishers |
| Emily Koch | If I Die Before I Wake | Harvill Secker |
| Attica Locke | Bluebird, Bluebird | Serpent’s Tail |
| Colette McBeth | An Act of Silence | Wildfire |
| Abir Mukherjee | A Necessary Evil | Harvill Secker |
| Gin Phillips | Fierce Kingdom | Doubleday |
| C J Tudor | The Chalk Man | Michael Jospeh |
| Don Winslow | The Force | HarperFiction |
The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| William Boyle | Gravesend | No Exit Press |
| Joe Ide | I.Q. | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Greg Keen | Soho Dead | Thomas & Mercer |
| Danya Kukafka | Girl In Snow | Picador |
| Melissa Scrivner Love | Lola | Point Blank |
| Khurrum Rahman | East Of Hounslow | HQ |
| John Steele | Ravenhill | Silvertail |
| Gabriel Tallent | My Absolute Darling | Fourth Estate |
| Stuart Turton | The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle | Raven Books |
| Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Pushkin Vertigo |
The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction 2018 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| Piu Eatwell | Black Dahlia Red Rose | Coronet |
| Martin Edwards | The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books | British Library |
| David Grann | Killers of the Flower Moon | Simon & Schuster |
| Thomas Harding | Blood on the Page | Heinemann |
| Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich | The Fact of a Body | Macmillan |
| T. Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong | A False Report | Hutchinson |
| Matthew Sweet | Operation Chaos | Picador |
| Laura Thompson | Rex v Edith Thompson | Head Of Zeus |
| Nick Triplow | Getting Carter | No Exit |
| Carla Valentine | Past Mortems | Sphere |
The CWA International Dagger 2018 Longlist
| Title | Author | Translator | Publisher |
| Zen and the Art of Murder | Oliver Bottini | Jamie Bulloch | MacLehose |
| The Shadow District | Arnaldur Indriðason | Victoria Cribb | Harvill Secker |
| Three Days and a Life | Pierre Lemaitre | Frank Wynne | MacLehose |
| After the Fire | Henning Mankell | Marlaine Delargy | Harvill Secker |
| The Frozen Woman | Jon Michelet | Don Bartlett | No Exit Press |
| Offering to the Storm | Dolores Redondo | Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzía | HarperCollins |
| Three Minutes | Roslund & Hellström | Elizabeth Clark Wessel | Quercus/riverrun |
| Snare | Lilja Sigurdardóttir | Quentin Bates | Orenda |
| The Accordionist | Fred Vargas | Sian Reynolds | Harvill Secker |
| Can You Hear Me? | Elena Varvello | Alex Valente | Two Roads/John Murray |
The CWA Historical Dagger 2018 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| Abir Mukherjee | A Necessary Evil | Harvill Secker |
| Frances Brody | Death in the Stars | Piatkus |
| L. C. Tyler | Fire | Constable |
| Thomas Mullen | Lightning Men | Little Brown |
| Mark Ellis | Merlin at War | London Wall Publishing |
| Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy | Money in the Morgue | HarperCollins |
| Nicola Upson | Nine Lessons | Faber & Faber |
| Rory Clements | Nucleus | Zaffre Publishing |
| Philip Kerr | Prussian Blue | Quercus Fiction |
| Jessica Fellowes | The Mitford Murders | Sphere |
The CWA Short Story Dagger 2018 Longlist
The Corpse on the Copse by Sharon Bolton
“The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2 Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)
The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle by Chris Brookmyre
Bloody Scotland ( Historic Environment Scotland)
Too Much Time by Lee Child
No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories (Bantam Press)
Second Son by Lee Child
No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories (Bantam Press)
Authentic Carbon Steel Forged by Elizabeth Haynes
Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women Edited by Sophie Hannah (Head of Zeus)
Smoking Kills by Erin Kelly
“The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2 Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit by Denise Mina
Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)
Accounting for Murder by Christine Poulson
Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories Edited by Martin Edwards (Orenda Books)
Faking a Murder by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child
Match Up Edited by Lee Child (Sphere)
Trouble is a Lonesome Town by Cathi Unsworth
Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women Edited by Sophie Hannah (Head of Zeus)
CWA Dagger In The Library 2018 Longlist
| Selected by nominations from libraries.
Simon Beckett |
| Martina Cole |
| Martin Edwards |
| Nicci French |
| Sophie Hannah |
| Simon Kernick |
| Edward Marston |
| Peter May |
| Rebecca Tope |
Debut Dagger 2018 Longlist
For the opening of a crime novel from a writer without a traditional publishing contract.
| Title | Author |
| The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon | Bill Crotty |
| The Infant of Prague | Nicole Wells |
| Sharps and Flats | Chris Dixon |
| Orange612 | Martin Ungless |
| Grabbed | Peter Lewenstein |
| The Last Googling of Beth Bailly | Luke Melia |
| Riverine Blood | Joseph James |
| Death Be Drammed | Coleen Steele |
| Original Sins | Linda McLaughlin |
| Trust Me, I’m Dead | Sherryl Clark |
Shortlists for the Daggers will be announced in July and the winners will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on 25 October, for which tickets are now available. Visit www.thecwa.co.uk for more information or email admin@thecwa.co.uk .
