Vaseem Khan, Simon Mason and W C Ryan were shortlisted in the Gold Dagger category of the 2023 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards.
The awards, which honour the best in the crime-writing genre, are hosted by the CWA, which this year celebrates its 70th platinum jubilee year.
The headline Gold Dagger prize recognises the crime novel of the year, and sees Khan’s The Lost Man of Bombay (Hodder & Stoughton) make the shortlist. It’s the third novel in his historical crime series set in 1950s India. The first in the series, Midnight at Malabar House (Hodder & Stoughton), received the CWA Historical Dagger in 2021.
Khan is pitted against Mason’s A Killing in November (Quercus), and W C Ryan’s gothic mystery, The Winter Guest (Bonnier Books UK). Also up for Gold is Anna Mazzola’s The Clockwork Girl (Orion), praised as “an intoxicating story of obsession” set in Paris.
George Dawes Green is also in contention with The Kingdoms of Savannah (Headline Publishing Group) and Simon Van der Velde’s The Silent Brother (Northodox Press).
The Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, celebrates the thriller of the year and sees Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart (Sphere) up against Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay (HQ). Meanwhile Emma Styles and Jack Lutz go head to head for the ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for best début novel for No Country for Girls (Sphere) and London in Black (Pushkin Vertigo) respectively.
Maxim Jakubowski, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “As always with the Daggers, the titles on the shortlists showcase the very best in the genre, from leading publishing houses to the smaller independents, including fiction in translation, the short story, début and unpublished authors to watch. We are proud to say that no other awards truly showcase the depth and breadth of talent in this enduring genre.”
The Daggers also celebrate unpublished authors with an annual competition for aspiring crime novelists, the Début Dagger, sponsored by ProWritingAid. The winner will receive £500 as well as the attention of agents and editors.
The winners will be announced at the Daggers awards night on 6th July at the Leonardo City hotel in London, with guest speaker author Charlie Higson.
The shortlists in full
Gold Dagger
- The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green (Headline Publishing Group)
- The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
- A Killing in November by Simon Mason (Quercus)
- The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola (Orion)
- The Winter Guest by W C Ryan (Bonnier Books UK)
- The Silent Brother by Simon Van der Velde (Northodox Press)
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
- Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay (HQ)
- Seventeen by John Brownlow (Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Botanist by M W Craven (Constable)
- The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
- Alias Emma by Ava Glass (Century)
- May God Forgive by Alan Parks (Canongate)
ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
- Breaking by Amanda Cassidy (Canelo)
- The Local by Joey Hartstone (Pushkin Vertigo)
- London in Black by Jack Lutz (Pushkin Vertigo)
- Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor (Macmillan)
- No Country for Girls by Emma Styles (Sphere)
- Outback by Patricia Wolf (Embla)
Historical Dagger
- The Darkest Sin by D V Bishop (Macmillan)
- The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola (Orion)
- The Homes by J B Mylet (Viper)
- The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra (Constable)
- Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
- Hear No Evil by Sarah Smith (Two Roads)
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger
- Good Reasons to Die by Morgan Audic, translated by Sam Taylor (Mountain Leopard Press)
- The Red Notebook by Michel Bussi, translated by Vineet Lal (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
- Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean (MacLehose Press)
- Bad Kids by Zijin Chen, translated by Michelle Deeter (Pushkin Vertigo)
- The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson, translated by David Warriner (Orenda Books)
- The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter (Penguin Michael Joseph)
Short Story Dagger
- ‘The Disappearance’ by Leigh Bardugo, in Marple (HarperCollins)
- ‘The Tears of Venus’ by Victoria Dowd & Delilah Dowd, in Unlocked (The D20 Authors)
- ‘The Beautiful Game’ by Sanjida Kay in The Perfect Crime, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski (HarperCollins)
- ‘Paradise Lost’ by Abir Mukherjee in The Perfect Crime, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski (HarperCollins)
- ‘Runaway Blues’ by C J Tudor, in A Sliver of Darkness (Penguin Random House)
- ‘Cast A Long Shadow’ by Hazell Ward, in Cast a Long Shadow, edited by Katherine Stansfield and Caroline Oakley (Honno Press)
ALCS Gold Dagger for non-fiction
- The Poisonous Solicitor by Stephen Bates (Icon Books)
- The Life of Crime by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)
- Unlawful Killings: Life by Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey by Wendy Joseph (Transworld)
- Tremors in the Blood: Murder by Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Amit Katwala (HarperCollins)
- To Hunt a Killer by Julie Mackay and Robert Murphy (HarperCollins)
- About a Son by David Whitehouse (Orion Publishing Group)
Dagger in the Library
- Ben Aaronovitch
- Sophie Hannah
- Mick Herron
Publishers’ Dagger
- Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)
- Mantle (PanMacmillan)
- Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)
- Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin Press)
- Quercus (Hachette)
- Viper (Profile Books)
Début Dagger
- Bulldog Murphy by Chris Corbett
- Male, Unknown by Chris Griffiths
- Sideways by Jeff Marsick
- Heist by James Pierson
- The Line of Least Resistance by Jeff Richards
- Cradle of Storms by Margaret Winslow