Announcements

Nominations For The 2025 Daggers (except for the Emerging Author Dagger) Are Now Closed.

The Emerging Author Dagger is still open for entry, with a deadline of 28 February 2025. For more information, please see this page.
The Margery Allingham Short Story Competition is still open for entry, with a deadline of 28 February 2025. For more information, please see this page.
The longlist for the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition will be announced on 12 April at the CWA Northern Symposium. The shortlist and winner will be announced at a time and date to be determined.
The longlists for the Daggers will be announced on 16 April, time and location to be determined.
The shortlists for the Daggers will be announced on 29 May, time and location to be determined.
To view the 2024 winners, click on individual Daggers below.
Should you require further assistance, please contact dagger.liaison@gmail.com – except for the Debut Dagger and the Dagger in the Library, in which case contact comps@thecwa.co.uk

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners!

On 4 July, the 2024 Daggers winners were announced at the annual Dagger Awards’ Dinner in London at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City.

To learn more about each award and its 2024 winner, please click on the individual Daggers below.

Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in Crime Writing – Lynda LaPlante and James Lee Burke

Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year – Una Mannion for Tell Me What I am

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – Jordan Harper for Everybody Knows

ILP John Creasey New Blood Dagger – Jo Callaghan for In the Blink of an Eye

Historical Dagger – Jake Lamar for Viper’s Dream

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction – Nicholas Shakespeare for Ian Fleming: the Complete Man

Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation – Maud Ventura for My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan

Short Story Dagger – Sanjida Kay for The Divide

Dagger for the Best Crime & Mystery Publisher – Pushkin/Vertigo

Debut Dagger – Richard Jerram for Makoto Murders

Dagger in the Library – Anthony Horowitz

The Daggers

We award thirteen Daggers in total. Nine of these are for books and short stories and are judged independently by industry professionals.

Starting in 2024, in addition to the coveted Dagger trophy, Dagger winners will receive a one-year membership in the CWA.

Diamond Dagger

The most prestigious Dagger of all, awarded for a lifetime contribution to English-language crime writing.

Gold Dagger

This Dagger is given to the overall best crime novel of the year, from thrillers to mysteries, procedurals to psychological suspense.

The Whodunnit Dagger celebrates books where the sex, swearing, and bloodletting take place offstage–books that focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery, and which revolve around often quirky characters. Books in this category include cosy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age-inspired mysteries.

Twisted Dagger

The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers, dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail. Books in this category include psychological thrillers (set in any period), suspense thrillers, and domestic noir.

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications, the Steel Dagger is for the best espionage, psychological, or adventure thriller novel.

ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger

Awarded to the best crime novel by a first-time author of any nationality, first traditionally published in the UK in English.

Historical Dagger

Awarded to the best historical crime novel set in any period up to 50 years prior to the year in which the award will be made. The Historical Dagger is sponsored by Morgan Witzel in memory of Dr. Marilyn Livingstone.

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

Non-fiction is important to the genre, from true crime and biography to critical studies and literature. This Dagger is for the best such book.

Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation

This dagger is awarded to a crime novel not originally written in English, and translated into English for UK publication during the judging period.

Sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski.

Short Story Dagger

Awarded to the best crime-focused short story of the year published or broadcast in the UK.

Dagger for the Best Crime & Mystery Publisher

Also called the “Publisher’s Dagger”, this is given to the best publisher or imprint for their contribution to the genre throughout the year.

Emerging Author Dagger

This international competition, open to anyone in the world writing in English, is for the opening of a crime novel (max. 3,000 words) and synopsis (max. 1,500 words). The crime novel – of any subgenre; including but not limited to thriller, noir, cosy mystery, suspense, police procedural; spy story and crossover of any kind – should be suitable for adults or young adults. The Emerging Author Dagger is sponsored by Fiction Feedback.

Dagger in the Library

This Dagger is for a writer whose body of work is popular with library users, and who in turn supports libraries and borrowers.

Self-Nominate your Books

Don’t forget our eligibility criteria now allows traditionally published authors to nominate their own titles for a Dagger. Self-published authors who are members of the CWA are also welcome to do so. Titles must be published and nominated in 2023 for the 2024 Daggers. Please see this page for full details, including eligibility criteria and deadlines.