The Quaker
Liam McIlvanney
Harper Fiction
Sapere Books Historical Dagger
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.
The winner for the Historical Dagger will be announced at the glamorous CWA Dagger Awards Gala Dinner at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City on 24 October 2019. To book your place at the premiere crime writing awards ceremony of the year, fill in the booking form here. Hurry! The tickets are selling like hot cakes.
Shortlist
Destroying Angel
S G MacLean
Quercus Fiction
Smoke and Ashes
Abir Mukherjee
Harvill Secker
The House on Half Moon Street
Alex Reeve
Raven Books
Tombland
C J Sansom
Mantle
Blood & Sugar
Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Mantle
The judges
Eileen Roberts (Chair)
Eileen is the co-founder and was the organiser of the annual St Hilda’s Mystery & Crime Weekend for 23 years. She was Director of Alumnae Relations at St Hilda’s College from 1991 until 2007 and is now Project Consultant to its Development & Alumnae Office. Previously, she spent 20 years (1970-90) in Cleveland, Ohio, where she was the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. She has been an avid reader and admirer of crime & mystery novels since childhood, especially the ‘golden agers’.
Louisa Service OBE
Louisa is a graduate of St Hilda’s College Oxford and comes from a literary family. More than thirty books have been published by her immediate family (father, brother, husband and nephew). Her working life was spent in the field of periodical publishing – including fourteen years as Chairman of Glass’s Guide Service to the motor industry. She was a magistrate for many years and Chairman of Youth and Family Proceedings courts for twenty-five of them. She was awarded her OBE for her work in music for young people. Latterly she has been President for six years of the Commonwealth Countries League – the umbrella organisation for women’s organisations in the fifty-two countries of the commonwealth. She is a great reader and in particular of crime fiction.
Jon Coates
Jon is the deputy news editor of the Sunday Express and a reviewer of crime fiction for the Daily Express. An avid reader since childhood, he has worked as a journalist for 20 years after completing a history degree at the University of York, where he developed a strange fascination with witchcraft accusations in England in the 16th and 17th century.
Andre Paine
Andre 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.
Doreen Innes
Doreen C. Innes is a Fellow in Classics at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford.
2019 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| Laura Shepherd-Robinson | Blood & Sugar | Pan Macmillan – Mantle |
| S.G. Maclean | Destroying Angel | Quercus Fiction |
| Martin Edwards | Gallows Court | Head of Zeus |
| Abir Mukherjee | Smoke and Ashes | Harvill Secker |
| C.J. Sansom | Tombland | Pan Macmillan – Mantle |
| S.W. Perry | The Angel’s Mark | Corvus |
| Alex Reeve | The House on Half Moon Street | Raven Books |
| Jim Kelly | The Mathematical Bridge | Allison & Busby |
| Ray Celestin | The Mobster’s Lament | Pan Macmillan – Mantle |
| Liam McIlvanney | The Quaker | Harper Fiction |
SUBMISSIONS FOR APRIL 01, 2019 TO MARCH 31, 2020
| Author | Title | Publisher |
| 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 |
Current holder
Nucleus
Rory Clements
Zaffre Publishing
On the eve of war in 1939, Professor Tom Wilde investigates a conspiracy to steal the top secret work of physicists trying to create the first nuclear bomb at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory after one of their finest minds is murdered.
