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...
WRITERS’ BLOCK by Sarah Rayne
We’ve all been there. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the best-selling lists, or just starting out with a hopeful eye on the CWA Debut Dagger as a stepping-stone to great things (which, of course, it can often be) – we’ve all sat dismally in...
Bookshop of the Month – August 2022: Imagined Things Bookshop
Georgia Eckert from Imagined Things Bookshop in conversation with William Shaw. In 2018, Imagined Things Bookshop, in Harrogate, became known as the bookshop that was saved by a tweet. On 25 June 2018, bookshop owner, Georgia Eckert, let the wor...
Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition
The Margery Allingham Short Mystery CompetitionThe competition is open to all - both published and unpublished authors from all over the world. The competition is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, written in English. All that we ask is that the...
2022 CWA Dagger Awards Announced
Ray Celestin, MW Craven, Janice Hallett and Mark Billingham awarded 2022 CWA Daggers. The winners of the 2022 CWA Daggers, which honour the very best in the crime writing genre, have been announced. [For photos of the event, see: https://thecw...
Staying Accountable
Even writers don’t feel like writing all of the time. When you’re part-way through your book and the rest of it stretches out ahead of you like an insurmountable task, the temptation to do something else instead can become strong, and if you’ve...
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