Photo: Brett Carlson

The CWA Short Story Dagger 2009

Prize: £1500

The Crime Writers’ Association is delighted to announce that Sean Chercover has won the 2009 CWA Short Story Dagger with his story One Serving of Bad Luck, taken from from Killer Year, edited by Lee Child and published by Mira. He was presented with his prize and dagger at a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15 2009.

Judges’ comments: Neat, tight and economical, this is a new take on the private eye; the auguries are good for a major crime writing career for this writer.

Formerly a private investigator in Chicago and New Orleans, Sean Chercover now writes full-time. His debut novel, Big City Bad Blood, won the Shamus, Gumshoe, Crimespree, and Lovey awards for best first novel, and was shortlisted for the ITW Thriller, Arthur Ellis, Barry, and Anthony awards. Trigger City, his second novel, received the 2009 Dilys Award. He lives in Toronto and Chicago with his wife and their son.

His web site is www.chercover.com

The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement.

The other shortlisted enties, in alphabetical order, were:

Lawrence Block: Speaking of Lust from Crime Express series (Five Leaves Publications)
Judges’ comments: Four tales of lasciviousness and its fatal aftermath by one of the godfathers of the genre.

Laura Lippman: Cougar from Two of the Deadliest edited by Elizabeth George (Hodder & Stoughton)
Judges’ comments: A serrated knife in the gut of gender politics by an expert practitioner of the genre.

Peter Robinson: The Price of Love from The Blue Religion edited by Michael Connelly (Quercus)
Judges’ comments: A boy finally understands the brutal criminal implications of an incident in his childhood.

Zoë Sharp: Served Cold from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Constable & Robinson)
Judges’ comments: Justice, revenge, danger. All elements of a tale of lost love and its tragic consequences.

Chris Simms: Mother’s Milk from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Constable & Robinson)
Judges’ comments: A deceptively low key story of a thief and a conman who has the tables painfully turned on him.

Judges

Simon Brett is a radio presenter, man of the theatre and writer of civilized and witty crime entertainments.
Ayo Onatade - not content with running the lives of senior judges, she is also a well-connected crime journalist.

This competition was open to any crime short story first published in the UK in English in a publication that pays for contributions, or broadcast in the UK in return for payment, between 1st June, 2008 and 31st May, 2009.