The Crime Writers’ Association

2019 shortlisted story

Slipher’s Rail - Sherry Rankin One summer in Arkansas, I fell in love with my cousin. When I first told Marta, she said, “How original” in that dry, measured tone of hers. “That’s a disgusting stereotype with absolutely no basis in...


2018 winning story

The Value of Vermin Control - Russell Day I took my hat off and cleared my throat. The young man behind the armour glass and the steel bars didn’t look up, even though I was his only customer. I wasn’t especially surprised. In my experience, p...


2017 winning story

Box Clever - Sam Hepburn I’ve always been a dreamer – the nerdy kid hunched over his Playstation dreaming of being popular, the geeky teenager in sweaty boxers dreaming of hitting the big time with his latest bit of software, the broke student...


2016 winning story

A Box-Shaped Mystery - Peter Guttridge ‘The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.’ Margery Allingham P...


2016 shortlisted story

The Blockage - Ian Cowmeadow Fine drops of rain bloomed on the van’s windscreen. The engine clicked as the heat drifted from it and Shelly Wrench was beginning to feel the cold. Across the street, a strip light flickered behind a frosted window ...


2015 winning story

Game Over - Lesley Mace The feel of the skateboard rumbles up through the bones of his feet. He is enclosed within the sound of wheels. He concentrates on contracting muscles, on making his body into the correct shape to fly over the top of the co...


Kate Ellis headlines at Crediton Literary Festival with a crime focus

A one-day Literary Festival on Saturday 5 June presented online via Zoom. Sixteen authors are speaking on a range of genres throughout the day, with a 10pm crime panel, Victoria Dowd at 1.30pm and Kate Ellis headlining in the afternoon. Tickets are f...


Emerging Author Dagger

Emerging Author Dagger The Emerging Author Dagger (formerly the Debut Dagger), sponsored by Fiction Feedback Editorial Consultancy, is an international competition, open to any unpublished writer in the world writing in English, for a crime novel op...


A Detective’s Take on Crime Fiction

CWA Scotland — A Detective's Take on Crime Writing 27 June 2024 at 7 pm with Iain Souter. Iain is a second-generation copper from a crop of three who followed their father into the service in Northern Constabulary… pre-Police Scotland. He...


Whodunnit Dagger

Whodunnit Dagger 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. Bo...


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