The CWA Debut Dagger 2009

Sponsored by Orion Publishers

The Shortlist

The Debut Dagger is a new-writing competition open to anyone writing in the English language who has not yet had a novel published commercially. The first prize has been won by Catherine O’Keefe from Canada, with The Pathologist. She wins £500 plus two free tickets to the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards and night’s stay for two in a top London hotel.

CJ Harper was highly commended for Backdrop, which the judges said had A likeable PI protagonist and a solid time slip plot… the 1950 Hollywood setting is sexy… He and the other ten shortlisted entrants are listed below, with more details about them and their entries. They receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries, and were also invited to the Dagger Awards presentations, at a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15.

Highly Commended: CJ Harper - Backdrop (USA)

Judges’ comments: A likeable PI protagonist and a solid time slip plot… the 1950 Hollywood setting is sexy…

C.J. Harper is the pen name of attorney Charlie Rethwisch. Harper’s first novel, The Shadow of the Dead, was shortlisted for the 2007 CWA Debut Dagger Award. Since then he has had three short stories – each starring 1950s L.A. P.I. Darrow Nash – appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Backdrop is his first Darrow Nash novel. He lives in the USA.

Frank Burkett - A View from the Clock Tower (Australia)

Judges’ comments: An interesting first-person portrayal of a murder mystery set in Australia… family betrayals and dark secrets from the past.

Frank is a retired journalist and newspaper publisher who lives in rural Queensland. As a young man he travelled the world, including a year studying for the London University Diploma in Dramatic Art and two years working in land management in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His travels now take him to unexplored parts of the South Pacific and Australia’s remote western coastline. He enjoys living the good life with partner, Patricia, two Dalmatians and Tikkie, the crossbreed.

Aoife Clifford - My First Big Book of Murder (Australia)

Judges’ comments: A crime caper with witty prose and funny visual jokes.

In a desperate attempt to avoid having to use the term ‘homemaker’ as her occupation, Aoife began writing while looking after her small children. In a former life she studied law and worked as a union official. She won the 2007 Scarlet Stiletto, an Australian national crime short story competition, and the Pulpfiction Bookshop Award for Funniest Story in 2008. My First Big Book of Murder will be her first novel.

Madeleine Harris-Callway - The Land of Sun and Fun (Canada)

Judges’ comments: A strong sense of place throughout, coupled with good characterisation and a sense of horror.

Madeleine is an award winning mystery short story writer and member of the Crime Writers of Canada. Her works have been published in the anthologies, Going out with a Bang and Blood on the Holly, in Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, and in the zines, Mouth Full of Bullets and Silvermoon. Formerly a management consultant, she now writes full time. She and her husband share their restored Victorian home in Canada with three ‘rescue’ cats.

Renata Hill - Sex, Death and Chocolate (Canada)

Judges’ comments: An entertaining read with witty dialogue and a quick-moving plot.

Several years ago Renata sent two entries to the Love and Laughter contest held by the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America. One entry won first place, the other tied for second. This development gave her a good excuse to spend more time writing and less time at her day job of painting murals while balancing on frighteningly high scaffolding. With encouragement from her sister, author Harper Allen, Renata is now writing her second Tess Hawkins mystery. Renata and her husband live in Canada, in a mid-century modern house with its own potentially handy bomb shelter.

Mick Laing - The Sirius Patrol (UK)

Judges’ comments: The enclosed feel of the small Greenland community, the characters and tensions within, make fascinating reading.

Mick is 42 years old and married with one son. Since 1999 he has worked in DNA sequencing in Cambridgeshire. Prior to this he made golf clubs (to fund university) and worked in the computer games industry. A history graduate he became the first person in the UK to gain a Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies from the University of the Arctic, which has proved a useful resource for a series of planned novels about a Greenlandic detective.

Susan Lindgren - Forgotten Treasures (USA)

Judges’ comments: Atmospheric, spooky, and absorbing – the heroine is an interesting character with an intriguing background.

Susan was born in New Hampshire and spent her teens and twenties in Phoenix, Arizona. She now lives in California. Over the years her love for New England has gone unrequited leaving her no doubt where her novel would be set. Forgotten Treasures incorporates elements of her background as 911 dispatcher and antiques dealer. Currently she is an investigative aide with the Police Department. She began to write after the September 11 attacks when she realized this dream had been postponed long enough.

Danielle Ramsay - Paterfamilias (UK)

Judges’ comments: Strong plot with good red herrings and a clever twist.

Danielle was drawn to literature by the desire to write the biography of her grandfather – one of the first African-Scottish men in Dundee and a true war hero. After a year living in New England, Danielle returned to UK academia; she lectured in African-American studies at a number of UK universities before scandalously abandoning her PhD weeks from submission – realising that it was her only choice if she was to follow her dream of being a professional writer. Having now achieved her lofty ambition she fills her days with yoga, horse-riding and murder by proxy.

Germaine Stafford - A Vine Time for Trouble (Italy)

Judges’ comments: Nicely written cosy-style murder mystery…with the added enticement of the Italian setting.

Germaine was born and brought up in Scotland but has spent the last seventeen years in Italy. After many years working with US Navy in Naples, she is now a full time writer and journalist, covering the role of sub editor and food and cookery correspondent. As best she can, she combines the things she loves most in life: books, writing, good food and wine and travelling, and is presently amusing herself designing a treehouse-cum-office. This is her second time of being short-listed for the Debut Dagger.

Martin Ungless - Idiot Wind (UK)

Judges’ comments: A clever and ambitious story tackling challenging issues.

Martin grew up North London. He studied Science and Architecture at Cambridge University. He worked in Rome and London before moving to Edinburgh to found an award-winning architectural practice with his wife. They recently relocated to Norfolk, which has enabled Martin to start writing full-time. He was written pieces of architectural journalism, and had successes in short story competitions. Idiot Wind is his first crime novel.

Alan Wright - Murder at the Séance (UK)

Judges’ comments: Convincing settings, atmospheric and with an air of authenticity.

Born in Wigan 1951. Knocked into shape squarely and roundly by the Irish Christian Brothers. Graduate of Leeds University. Taught English in secondary schools up to A Level. GCSE Examiner since 1980. Became one of the first Advanced Skills Teachers in the North West. Author of three musicals; the second, Romancing Mary, published for school study, along with five Christmas plays for Primary Schools, and two books of Secondary School Assemblies. Shortlisted for Crème de la Crime 2007 Search. Proofreader for small educational publisher. Married, with three grown-up, flown-the-nest children. Wallower in all things Victorian!

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The 2009 Debut Dagger Competition ran from 1^st November – 7^th February. Hundreds of aspiring crime novelists sent us the opening chapter(s) – up to 3000 words – and a short synopsis of their proposed crime novel, hoping this would be the deciding step in becoming a published crime writer. The shortlist was submitted to the final judging panel, who are:

Emma Beswetherick - Senior Fiction Editor, Piatkus
Julie Crisp - Senior Commissioning Editor, Macmillan
Sara O'Keeffe - Senior Commissioning Editor, Orion
Euan Thorneycroft - Authors' agent (A M Heath)
Julia Wisdom - Publishing Editor, HarperCollins
Chair: Margaret Murphy, Chair of the CWA

Building on success

Inaugural winner Joolz Denby was short-listed in 2005 for the Orange Prize for Fiction, while 2001 winner Ed Wright was awarded the 2005 Shamus award for best P.I. novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. Allan Guthrie won the 2007 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split, developed from his entry shortlisted in 2001. Barbara Cleverly, shortlisted in 1999, won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2004. Louise Penny, highly commended by the judges of the 2004 Debut Dagger, was awarded the 2006 New Blood Dagger.

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