The Crime Writers’ Association

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller, ‘one simply has to turn the pages’. Eligible books in this category are thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction, psychological thrillers and action/adventure stories.


2024 shortlist


2024 longlist

 

Author Title Publisher
David Baldacci Simply Lies Macmillan (Pan Macmillan)
Linwood Barclay The Lie Maker HQ (HC)
S A Cosby All the Sinners Bleed Headline (Hachette)
Eli Cranor Ozark Dogs Headline (Hachette)
C M Ewan The House Hunt Macmillan (Pan Macmillan)
Jordan Harper Everybody Knows Faber & Faber
Kotaro Isaka The Mantis Harvill Secker (PRH)
Femi Kayode Gaslight Raven Books (Bloomsbury)
D L Marshall 77 North Canelo
T J Newman Drowning Simon & Schuster
Karin Slaughter After that Night HarperCollins
James Wolff The Man in the Corduroy Suit Bitter Lemon Press

Sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications.

 

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2023 Winner


John Brownlow

Agent Seventeen

Hodder & Stoughton

This ‘roller-coaster’ tale from the point of view of a cynical hitman is an absolute blast.  What on the surface seems like a blockbuster thriller is deceptively layered and full of personality. The twists and turns work like clockwork.  … More


The 2025 Judges

Corinne Turner (Chair)


Corinne has managed and helped develop authors’ literary estates for around 30 years. She is Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd and also owns and manages the literary estate of children’s author, Willard Price.

Helena Baser

Helena Baser has worked in publishing for almost two decades. She has a longstanding love of crime fiction that began when she was a teenager reading her parents’ collection of Golden Age detective novels.

Lisa Moylett

Lisa Moylett has worked in publishing for almost 30 years and founded Coombs Moylett Maclean Literary Agency in 1997. She represents an eclectic list of authors and writers Her client list includes: continuation 007 Bond author John Gardner, creator of Lovejoy; Jonathan Gash, and best-selling crime writers Lisa Hall, Simon Brett, and Catriona McPherson. On the non-fiction front she represents lexicographer and foremost authority on Anglophone slang, Jonathon Green; Journalist, author and broadcaster Malachi O’Doherty, and political pundit Ian Dunt.

Dierdre O’Brien

Deirdre O’Brien has worked as a journalist for twenty five years, specialising in features and with a particular interest in books. Currently the Entertainment Editor of Best Magazine, she has a monthly book review column, and has previously been the book  reviewer for the Sunday Mirror and the fiction previewer for The Bookseller magazine. She has a particular enthusiasm for crime fiction, which is a life long passion. Born and raised in King’s Lynn, she now lives in London. 

Craig Sisterson 

Craig Sisterson is the author of the non-fiction crime book, Southern Cross Crime. Craig is a features writer and crime fiction expert from New Zealand who writes for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. He’s been a judge of the McIlvanney Prize and Ned Kelly Awards, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir.

Simon Ward


Simon Ward is the Publishing Manager at Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. He has written books on cinema and contributed many essays, reviews and commentaries on cinema history. As of this writing, Simon is reading Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? and watching Call My Agent!

David Wilkerson

David was a Commercial Manager at the British Library in London; specialising in Publishing and Retail. Until he retired, he worked for over thirty-five years in the book industry, primarily as a bookseller, and has spent almost a lifetime reading crime novels.


Ian Fleming Publications – Sponsors of the Steel Dagger

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd is the Fleming family-owned company that looks after the James Bond literary brand, by promoting and making available all of Ian Fleming’s 007 books across the world. They also keep the brand alive through the publication of new stories by authors such as Anthony Horowitz, William Boyd, Jeffery Deaver, Sebastian Faulks, Raymond Benson, John Gardner, Kingsley Amis, Steve Cole and Charlie Higson. Alongside James Bond publishing, the company also manages the rights for Fleming’s two non-fiction books and his only children’s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

www.ianfleming.com

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