The 2001 CWA Debut Dagger

2001: a triple crowned vintage

July 19th 2007:
ALLAN GUTHRIE has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split. This first saw the light as his entry in the 2001 Debut Dagger, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) award for unpublished writers of crime fiction. Then called Blithe Psychopaths, it was credited to Allan under his real name of Allan Buchan and was shortlisted for the prize. This is the third success for authors in the 2001 competition.

EDWARD WRIGHT was the winner with Clea's Moon, the first of three John Ray Horn mysteries so far published. In 2005 he was awarded the Shamus award for best P.I. novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. The runner up, EDWIN THOMAS, was very highly commended by the judges for his excellent entry, The Blighted Cliffs. He too now has a successful career writing both as Edwin Thomas and Tom Harper.

CLEA'S MOON

John Ray Horn is a western movie actor who lost his lucrative career some years ago after a stint in jail. Left by his wife, blacklisted by the studios, he makes ends meet by collecting debts for a gambler. When Scotty Bullard, an old friend, contacts him to warn him that his stepdaughter, Clea, was the victim of a rape, and then Scotty dies, Horn shakes himself free from his black mood of cynicism and self-pity. And soon he is dragged into the depths of the 1940s Los Angeles underworld.

Edward Wright was born in Arkansas and spent some time in the US Navy before working as a journalist for many years. He entered the competition after seeing it advertised while on holiday in Ireland. He flew over from California to receive his prize at the Dead on Deansgate Gala Dinner. Subsequently he signed a deal with Orion (in the UK) and Clea's Moon was published on February 20, 2003. The U.S. publisher is Putnam, where it was published on 24 April 2003.

Website: www.edwardwrightbooks.com

Also shortlisted for the 2001 Debut Dagger were:

Allan Buchan (Allan Guthrie)
Robert Cockburn
Benjamin Creasey
HR Giltrow
Diane Janes
Jim Latter
Adrian Magson

Gerry Maron
Maureen Myant
Louise Oliver
Amanda Schiff
Peter Sutton
Edwin Thomas

Adrian Magson and Diane Janes have also gone on to become published crime writers. Diane was highly commended in the 2006 competition.

The Debut Dagger competition runs each year. Entrants submit the first 3,000 words and a 500-word plot outline of their crime novel.

The 2001 competition was sponsored by publishers Orion, LittleBrown, Headline and Hodder & Stoughton and by The Times. Previous winners include Joolz Denby (HarperCollins) and Caroline Carver (Orion).

The judges were CWA Chairman Russell James, agent Jane Conway-Gordon, Publishing Director of Allison & Busby, David Shelley, Editorial Director of Hodder & Stoughton, Philippa Pride, and the Publishing Director of The Orion Publishing Group, Jane Wood.

The Debut Dagger competition organiser for 2000 and 2001 was crime novelist Michael Jecks, author of the Templar series of medieval murder mysteries (Headline). He comments:
"The standard of entries was extraordinarily high this year, and it is very pleasing to see that many of the short-listed authors are already talking to publishers. I am sure that Edward Wright will be a very successful author. I am also sure that Edwin Thomas, the runner up highly commended by the judges, has a strong future as a novelist."

Edwin Thomas has indeed begun a successful writing career, starting with the publication of The Blighted Cliffs, the first of what became series of historical adventures set in the Napoleonic wars. As Tom Harper he has written a trilogy of Demetrios Askiates novels set in the First Crusade. He organised the CWA's Debut Dagger competition in 2005 and 2006, introducing the online submission of entries.

Websites: www.edwin-thomas.com and www.tom-harper.co.uk

Allan Guthrie signs his book for Michael Jecks (Photo: Roger Cornwell)

Allan Guthrie, who was shortlisted in 2001 for an entry that eventually became Two Way Split, has won the 2007 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Michael Jecks, organiser of the 2001 Debut Dagger, was also shortlisted and in the run-up to the announcement, when all six contenders were interviewed, Allan Guthrie said that what really got him started as a published writer was when Mike phoned him up and told him he was on the Debut Dagger shortlist.

Allan entered using his actual surname, Buchan, and with the title Blithe Psychopaths which, he explained later, has actually been the working title of all his novels to date. Two Way Split is published by Birlinn.