CWA Daggers 2023 Shortlist Announced
12 May 2023
The 2023 shortlists for the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced.
Gold Dagger
This Dagger is given to the overall best crime novel of the year, from thrillers to mysteries, procedurals to psychological suspense.
The Lost Man Of Bombay by Vaseem Khan
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in September 2022.
Bombay, 1950. When the body of a white man is found frozen in the Himalayan foothills near Dehra Dun, he is christened the Ice Man by the national media. Who is he? How long has he been there? Why was he killed? As Inspector Persis Wadia and Metropolitan Police criminalist Archie Blackfinch investigate the case in Bombay, they uncover a trail left behind by the enigmatic Ice Man - a trail leading directly into the dark heart of conspiracy. Meanwhile, two new murders grip the city. Is there a serial killer on the loose, targeting Europeans?
The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in March 2022.
Paris, 1750. A new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds, silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature, perhaps even at the expense of the living... But Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom. Meanwhile, in the streets, children are quietly disappearing - and Madeleine comes to fear that she has stumbled upon a greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the heart of Versailles...
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
The Steel Dagger is for the best espionage, psychological, or adventure thriller novel.
The Botanist by MW Craven
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in July 2022.
Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the insanely brilliant civilian analyst Tilly Bradshaw, his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn, and his nearest neighbour, Victoria. And then there's Estelle Doyle. Her father's murder appears to be an open and shut case, but Estelle has firearms discharge residue on her hands and the only footprints going into the house are hers. Since her arrest she's only said three words: 'Tell Washington Poe.' Meanwhile, a poisoner the press have dubbed the Botanist is sending high profile celebrities poems and pressed flowers. The killer seems to be able to walk through walls and, regardless of the security measures the police take, he seems to be able to kill with impunity . . .
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in September 2022.
When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits - and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways...
ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
Awarded to the best crime novel by a first-time author of any nationality, first traditionally published in the UK in English.
No Country For Girls by Emma Styles
Published in Large Print, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in August 2022.
A man is dead, and now that Charlie and Nao are unwilling accomplices in his murder, there's only one thing to do: hit the road in the victim's pickup, with a bag of stolen gold stashed under the passenger seat. Suddenly criminals with the full weight of the law on their backs, they must make their way across Australia's unforgiving landscape using only their wits to survive. They will be forced to subvert every expectation placed upon them to evade capture, and escape with their lives...
Historical Dagger
This dagger is awarded to a crime novel not originally written in English, and translated into English for UK publication during the judging period.
The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in March 2022.
Paris, 1750. A new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds, silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature, perhaps even at the expense of the living... But Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom. Meanwhile, in the streets, children are quietly disappearing - and Madeleine comes to fear that she has stumbled upon a greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the heart of Versailles...
Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in December 2022.
This is the secret report of disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago, written on the mail ship Tankerville en route to Philadelphia. His mission is to aid the civil servant charged with carrying a vital treaty to Congress that will prevent the Americans from joining with the French in their war against Britain. When the civil servant meets an unfortunate end, Laurence becomes the one person standing between Britain and disaster. It is his great chance to redeem himself - except that his predecessor has taken the secret of the treaty's hiding place to his watery grave. As the ship is searched, Laurence quickly discovers that his fellow passengers all have their own motives to find the treaty for themselves. And as a second death follows the first, Laurence must turn sleuth in order to find the killer before he has an 'accident' of his own.
The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in May 2022.
When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life. But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace - and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene. When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn't as hard as it seems when you have a talent for maths, a head for logic and a doctor for a husband. And she's going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition and intrigue in Bangalore's darkest alleyways...
Dagger For Crime Fiction In Translation
This dagger is awarded to a crime novel not originally written in English, and translated into English for UK publication during the judging period.
The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in September 2022.
1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne's two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them. 1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina's father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina's life in the darkest way imaginable. 2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband - a famous university professor - to death. Detective Maxine Grant,who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism...and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love...
Short Story Dagger
Awarded to the best crime-focused short story of the year published or broadcast in the UK.
The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo from Marple
Published in Large Print in December 2022.
They were meant to be safe on Fleet Ward: psychiatric patients monitored, treated, cared for. But now one of their number is found murdered, and the accusations begin to fly. Was it one of his fellow patients? A member of staff? Or did someone come in from the outside? DC Alice Armitage is methodical, tireless, and she's quickly on the trail of the killer. The only problem is, Alice is a patient too.
Runaway Blues by C.J. Tudor from A Sliver Of Darkness
Published in Large Print in December 2022 and CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in October 2022.
Timeslips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. Eleven captivating and twisted tales of the macabre from a maestro of suspense.
In Final Course, the world has descended into darkness, but a group of old friends make time for one last dinner party. Thwarted love, revenge - and something very nasty stowed in a hat box - all converge in Runaway Blues. Meanwhile, a strange piece of graffiti leads to a terrifying encounter for four school friends in The Lion At The Gate. Butterfly Island tells the story of a group of survivors who wash up on a deserted island and make a horrifying discovery. I'm Not Ted demonstrates how a case of mistaken identity has unforeseen, fatal consequences. And in Gloria, a strange girl at a service station endears herself to a cold-hearted killer - but can a leopard really change its spots?
Dagger In The Library
This Dagger is for a writer whose body of work is popular with library users, and who in turn supports libraries and borrowers.
Sophie Hannah
Mick Herron