What Happens in the Dark
Kia Abdullah
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
HarperCollins – HQ Fiction

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. This award is for the best psychological thriller, suspense thriller, or work of domestic noir, first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period. Psychological thrillers include domestic psychological thrillers, dark psychological thrillers, workplace psychological thrillers, and supernatural psychological thrillers. They do not include crime thrillers or police procedurals that focus on the inner workings of criminal investigations, legal thrillers that take place in the courtroom or behind the closed doors of powerful institutions, adventure thrillers that track a hero on a life-changing journey, spy thrillers, or cosy crime/murder mysteries or whodunnits which feature the gentler subset of crime writing.
Kia Abdullah
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
HarperCollins – HQ Fiction
Nicci Cloke
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
Penguin Random House UK – Harvill
Fiona Cummins
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
Pan Macmillan – Macmillan
Carole Hailey
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
Atlantic Books – Corvus
Sam Lloyd
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
Transworld – Bantam
Sarah Pinborough
Twisted Dagger
2026 | Shortlisted
Orion Fiction
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Kia Abdullah | What Happens in the Dark | HarperCollins |
| Nicci Cloke | Her Many Faces | Penguin Random House UK |
| Fiona Cummins | Some of Us are Liars | Pan Macmillan |
| Fflur Dafydd | The House of Water | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Abigail Dean | The Death of Us | HarperCollins |
| Alice Feeney | Beautiful Ugly | Pan Macmillan |
| Carole Hailey | Scenes From A Tragedy | Atlantic Books |
| Lisa Jewell | Don’t Let Him In | Penguin Random House |
| Sam Lloyd | The Bodies | Transworld |
| Liam McIlvanney | The Good Father | Bonnier Books UK |
| Sarah Pinborough | We Live Here Now | Orion Fiction |
| Holly Seddon | 59 Minutes | Orion Publishing Group |

Tracy Fenton (Voting Chair)
Tracy is the founder of THE Book Club on Facebook, an online group of over 14k members which is widely considered one of the most influential book groups in the UK. Described as a “powerhouse” and “indefatigable” by authors and publishers, Tracy has her own blog, Compulsive Readers, where she regularly reviews books in between arranging blog tours for many publishers and authors.

Stuart Cummins
Stu is a lifelong reader, but discovered book reviewing/blogging in 2020, during a period of shared parental leave. Then when the pandemic hit, like many others, he immersed himself in fictional worlds to escape the horrors of reality. During this time he got chatting to lots of authors and other bloggers via social media, who all welcomed him into this wonderful community. Since then he’s spent as much of his spare time reading, reviewing, attending bookish events and generally shouting about books he loves! He mainly reads crime/thrillers and is obsessed with psychological suspense, but challenges himself to try and read outside of the genre occasionally. He lives on the South Coast with his wife, two daughters and a TBR pile that’s taller than them all put together…

Lynda Checkley
Lynda is retired and lives in Thornbury, a market town between Gloucester and Bristol. She has always been an avid reader but only started reviewing and blogging during Covid lockdown. She shares her reviews on a number of SM sites but her main page is lyndas_bookreviews on Instagram.

Linda Moore
Linda is a library assistant on the West Coast of Scotland near the site of the infamous Massacre of Glencoe. A regular attendee of crime festivals and author events, she has been been reading and writing about crime fiction for more than 50 years and has enjoyed watching the genre grow and develop.

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