Sapere Books Historical DaggerThis 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 (fifty) 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.
To see the titles that have been nominated for the Dagger so far in 2019/2020, please scroll down.
Janet Laurence (Chair)Janet Laurence. She 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 International Dagger.
Angela RipponAngela May Rippon CBE is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon 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 JamesEdward 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.
Andre PaineAndre is a former editor of Crime Scene magazine and has reviewed crime and thriller fiction for Metro newspaper. He is also a longstanding music critic for the Evening Standard. While studying for a history degree at the University of Warwick, he became a committed crime fiction devotee — the bookish habit began in childhood with the Sherlock Holmes stories — and continues to read widely in the genre.
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| S.D. Sykes | The Bone Fire | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Bella Ellis | The Vanished Bride | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Rory Clements | Hitler’s Secret | Zaffre |
| Elizabeth Macneal | The Doll Factory | Picador |
| James Lovegrove | Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon | Titan Books |
| Jess Kidd | Things in a Jar | Canongate Books |
| Louise Hare | This Lovely City | HQ |
| Faith Martin | A Fatal Secret | HQ |
| S.G.MacLean | The Bear Pit | Quercus Fiction |
| Philip Kerr | Metropolis | Quercus Fiction |
| Jessica Fellowes | The Mitford Scandal | Sphere |
| Claire Evans | The Graves of Whitechapel | Sphere |
| Ben Fergusson | An Honest Man | Little,Brown |
| Frances Brody | The Body on the Train | Piatkus |
| Ovidia Yu | The Paper Bark Tree Mystery | Constable |
| Michael Russell | The City in Flames | Constable |
| Nancy Bilyeau | Dreamland | Endeavour Quill |
| TP Fielden | Dead and Gone to Devon | HQ |
| Anita Frank | The Lost Ones | HQ |
| Howard Linskey | Ungentlemanly Warfare | No Exit Press |
| John Larison | Whiskey When We’re Dry | No Exit Press |
| Sulari Gentill | A Few Right Thinking Men | Crime & Mystery Club |
| Sue Lawrence | The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange | Contraband |
| Fiona Kidman | This Mortal Boy | Gallic Books |
| Amy Stewart | Kopp Sisters on the March | Scribe UK |
| S.W. Perry | The Serpent’s Mark | Atlantic Books – Corvus |
| B.W. Black | The Secret Guests | Viking |
| Sara Collins | The Confessions of Frannie Langton | Viking |
| Cassandra Clark | Murder at Whitby Abbey | Severn House |
Murder, treachery and a reckoning with his past await Captain Damian Seeker in Yorkshire in this gripping historical epic set during rising disillusionment with Cromwell’s government in 17th century England.
