Libraries are now voting for the winner of the Dagger in the Library 2018, after Mari Hannah took the award in 2017. The CWA’s Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admire. It is one of the most prestigious crime writing awards in the UK and previous winners besides Mari include Elly Griffiths, Christopher Fowler, Sharon Bolton, Belinda Bauer, Mo Hayder, Colin Cotterill, Craig Russell, Stuart MacBride, Jake Arnott, Alexander McCall Smith, Stephen Booth, Peter Robinson and Lindsey Davis.

The rules have changed a little for this year; while library staff members remain the only ones who can nominate, they are asked to vote for living authors whose first book was published in 2008 or earlier and who have published 10 crime books or more – novels, true crime or non-fiction. The CWA hopes to see authors nominated who have given most pleasure to readers over the years – and a further criterion, to be evaluated by the judges, is for those authors who have helped support the cause of libraries over their careers.

Uniquely among crime writing awards, only library staff are able to nominate authors – up to three votes per library. To vote, librarians need to visit http://daggerreads.co.uk/dagger-in-the-library/ before the end of February.

The Dagger in the Library is intended to promote crime fiction in general and, in particular, the longlisted authors. The judges will select a longlist from the nominations, to be announced at CrimeFest in mid May, and the CWA will work with The Reading Agency, libraries and the Crime Readers’ Association to promote the longlisted authors and their books to readers across the country in the following months.

Meanwhile, crime readers are invited to enter their own competition: if they leave a review of one of 2017’s Dagger Award shortlisted titles before the end of February, they will be entered into a competition to win two tickets for CrimeFest 2018 – where the Dagger longlists for 2018 will be announced – and a copy of the latest anthology from both the CWA and CrimeFest. Check out the Dagger shortlisted books and leave a review at http://daggerreads.co.uk/readers/