The Crime Writers' Association

Sapere Books Historical Dagger

This Year's Winner

Death in the East
Abir Mukherjee
Harvill Secker

Young constable Sam Wyndham deals with a death in Edwardian Whitechapel that has personal issues for him. Seventeen years later in 1920s Raj-era India, assisted by Sergeant Banerjee, Sam finds himself faced with the same ruthless killer and a fiendishly clever murder.

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This award is for the best historical crime novel, first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period, set in any period up to 50 years prior to the year in which the award will be made. For novels that involve passages set later than this time period, at least three quarters of the book should be set in an earlier period.

Shortlist

The Judges 2021

Janet Laurence

Janet Laurence has written four cookery books and has contributed articles to a number of publications, including a series on historical cooking for Country Life. Under a pseudonym she also writes contemporary women’s fiction and was recently chair of the judging panel for the CWA International Dagger (now Crime in Translation).

Angela Rippon

Angela May Rippon CBE is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Angela presented radio and television news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One’s Nine O’Clock News, becoming a regular presenter in 1975.

Professor Edward James (Chair)

Edward James is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin. He has published numerous papers on the archaeology, art and history of early medieval Europe. He is also an enthusiastic reader of science fiction and fantasy. In 2017 the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts presented him with their Distinguished Scholarship Award.

2020 Shortlist

Title Author Publisher
THE BEAR PIT SG MacLean Quercus Fiction
THE ANARCHISTS’ CLUB Alex Reeve Raven Books
METROPOLIS Philip Kerr Quercus Fiction
THE PAPER BARK TREE MYSTERY Ovidia Yu Constable
IN TWO MINDS Alis Hawkins The Dome Press
DEATH IN THE EAST Abir Mukherjee Harvill Secker

2020 Longlist

Title Author Publisher
THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY Lynne Truss Raven Books
THE KING’S EVIL Andrew Taylor Harper Collins
THE BEAR PIT SG MacLean Quercus Fiction
THE ANARCHISTS’ CLUB Alex Reeve Raven Books
METROPOLIS Philip Kerr Quercus Fiction
THE PAPER BARK TREE MYSTERY Ovidia Yu Constable
THE SERPENT’S MARK SW Perry Corvus
IN TWO MINDS Alis Hawkins The Dome Press
LIBERATION SQUARE Gareth Rubin Michael Joseph
THE BONE FIRE SD Sykes Hodder & Stoughton
SORRY FOR THE DEAD Nicola Upson Faber & Faber
DEATH IN THE EAST Abir Mukherjee Harvill Secker