CWA Daggers Longlist Announced
18 April 2022
The 2022 long lists for the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced.
Gold Dagger
Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in August 2021.
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.
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
Published in large print in August 2021.
When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city's latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim. Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice Lee's body by the Hudson River. From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life - and death. And Ruby - struggling to forget what she saw that morning - finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.
The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean
Published in large print in August 2021 and published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in February 2021.
He is her husband. She is his captive. Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name. She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen. Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished. For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting...
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
Published in large print in September 2021.
Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She's seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous. Miriam knows that, just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, it doesn't mean she's a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace? Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
Published in large print, CD and MP3CD audiobook and uLIBRARY eAudiobook in December 2021
In Cobb, a small town in the Australian outback, the local schoolteacher is found stoned to death.
On the town's northern outskirts, the large new immigration detention centre is viewed by the locals with suspicion. Tensions are high: between whites and Aboriginals, between immigrants at the refugee detention centre and the townies.
Still mourning the recent death of his father, Detective Sergeant Giorgios 'George' Manolis returns to his childhood hometown to investigate. He soon realises that the place where he grew up has changed. Cobb once thrived, but is now poor and derelict. As Manolis negotiates the simmering anger of a community destroyed by alcohol and drugs, the ghosts of his past flicker to life.
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
Exit by Belinda Bauer
Published in large print in March 2022.
Meet Felix Pink - the most unlikely murderer you'll ever have the good fortune to spend time with. When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he's there to perform an act of charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath. But just fifteen minutes later, he's on the run from the police after making the biggest mistake of his life. Now his world is turned upside down as he must find out if he's really to blame for a man's death - or if something much more sinister is at play. All while staying one shaky step ahead of the law...
The Pact by Sharon Bolton
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in July 2021.
A golden summer, and six talented friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures - until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed. Eighteeen-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a 'favour', payable on her release from prison. Twenty years later Megan is free. Let the games begin...
The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in October 2021.
Randal Korn has sent more men to their deaths than any district attorney in the history of the United States. When a young woman, Skylar Edwards, is found murdered in Buckstown, Alabama, a corrupt sheriff arrests the last person to see her alive, Andy Dubois. It doesn't seem to matter to anyone that Andy is innocent. Everyone in Buckstown believes Andy is guilty. And the local defence attorney assigned to represent him has disappeared. New York lawyer Eddie Flynn travels south to fight fire with fire. He plans to destroy the prosecutor's case, find the real killer and save Andy from the electric chair. But the murders are just beginning.
Dead Ground by MW Craven
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in July 2021.
Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. As Poe and the socially awkward programmer Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case, they are faced with seemingly unanswerable questions: why does nothing in the victim's background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene - and why did someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed bank heist three years earlier?
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in November 2021.
Dear Reader - enclosed are all the documents you need to solve a case. It starts with the arrival of two mysterious newcomers to the small town of Lockwood, and ends with a tragic death. Someone has already been convicted of this brutal murder and is currently in prison, but we suspect they are innocent. What's more, we believe far darker secrets have yet to be revealed. Throughout the Fairway Players' staging of All My Sons and the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick's life-saving medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. Yet we believe they gave themselves away. In writing. The evidence is all here, between the lines, waiting to be discovered. Can you uncover the truth?
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
Published in large print, CD and MP3CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in December 2021
In Cobb, a small town in the Australian outback, the local schoolteacher is found stoned to death.
On the town's northern outskirts, the large new immigration detention centre is viewed by the locals with suspicion. Tensions are high: between whites and Aboriginals, between immigrants at the refugee detention centre and the townies.
Still mourning the recent death of his father, Detective Sergeant Giorgios 'George' Manolis returns to his childhood hometown to investigate. He soon realises that the place where he grew up has changed. Cobb once thrived, but is now poor and derelict. As Manolis negotiates the simmering anger of a community destroyed by alcohol and drugs, the ghosts of his past flicker to life.
Historical Dagger
Blackout by Simon Scarrow
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in May 2021.
Berlin, December 1939. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sun sets. When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under immense pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Treated with suspicion by his superiors for his failure to join the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line. The discovery of a second victim confirms Schenke's worst fears. As the investigation takes him closer to the sinister heart of the regime, Schenke realises there is danger everywhere - and the warring factions of the Reich can be as deadly as a killer stalking the streets...
ALCS Gold Dagger For Non Fiction
The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in February 2022.
Dublin, November 1856. George Little, the chief cashier of the Broadstone railway terminus, is found dead, lying in a pool of blood beneath his desk. There is no sign of a murder weapon, and the office door is locked, apparently from the inside. Thousands of pounds in gold and silver are left untouched at the scene of the crime. Augustus Guy, Ireland's most experienced detective, teams up with Dublin's leading lawyer to investigate the murder. But the mystery defies all explanation. Five suspects are arrested then released, with every step of the salacious case followed by the press, clamouring for answers. But then a local woman comes forward, claiming to know the murderer...
Dagger For Crime Fiction In Translation
Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
Published in large print in August 2021, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in July 2021 and eBook in May 2021.
When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she's taken her own life...until her body is found in the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected 15-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister? Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy. Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna's past - and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others...
Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in April 2021.
Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley is celebrating a birthday with friends in a hotel bar when twelve heavily armed men pull out guns, and take everyone hostage. Among the hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the hotel owner, who is being targeted by a man whose life - and family - have been destroyed by Hoogsmart's actions. With the police looking on from outside - their colleagues' lives at stake - and Chastity on the inside, increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation and a devastating outcome for the team...all live streamed in a terrifying bid for revenge.
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
Published in large print in January 2022 and CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in October 2021.
What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the last decimal. And then, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother - its troubling financial problems included. The worst of these issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters...and dangerous men are keen to get their money back. But what Henri really can't compute is love. He meets Laura, an artist with a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to lengths to collect their debts, Henri finds himself in situations that cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets...
Dagger In The Library
The Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by an established crime writer which has long been popular with borrowers from libraries. It also rewards authors who have supported libraries and their users.
The Dagger in the Library is awarded to an author writing in Britain and nominated by libraries in the UK.