This weekend saw the announcement of the 2024 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger Awards. At the CWA annual conference in Brighton on the 20th April the longlists were made public. 

For over 50 years the CWA Daggers have been known for celebrating the very best in the crime-writing genre, with awards, or Daggers, honouring best crime novel, thriller, debuts, aspiring crime writers, non-fiction, historical, crime fiction in translation, short stories, crime & mystery publishers. The Dagger in the Library award is voted for by Librarians and Library users for the author’s body of work and their support of libraries. 

Firstly we have to offer our congratulations to our very own expert reviewer Matt Johnson. His book, written with John Murray, No Ordinary Day has been nominated for the ALCS Dagger for Non-Fiction. This book is intricately detailed and exacting, you can feel the years of detailed research and work that has gone into the pages. It’s challenging and compelling and is a LoveReading Star Book.

CWA Chair and former LoveReading Guest Editor Vaseem Khan also appears amongst this year's list of nominees. Nominated for The Dagger in the Library Award and the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year with Death of a Lesser God. The Gold Dagger has a prestigious list of previous winners including Ian Rankin, Ruth Rundell, Reginald Hill and John Le Carré. Up with Khan for the Gold Dagger are LoveReading favourites Mick Heron and Chris Hammer with their titles The Secret Hours and Dead Man’s Creek.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller of the year is also hotly contested. LoveReading Book of the Month After That Night, the latest books to feature the beloved Will Trent and Sara Linton by Karin Slaughter features in this longlist alongside former Debut author of the Month Femi Kayode with Gaslight, former Guest Ed Linwood Barclay with The Lie Maker and David Baldacci with Simply Lies to name just a few. 

Kate Foster’s The Maiden, a LoveReading Star Book gets an ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger nomination and S.G. Maclean’s The Winter List is in contention for the Historical Dagger. It’s great to see so many books that our team have been reading and recommending get the spotlight they deserve with these nominations. 

Vaseem Khan, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: "As ever, the announcement of the CWA Daggers longlist is greeted with immense excitement in the crime and thriller writing world. Once again, our independent panels of expert judges have mulled, cogitated, debated, and, when all else has failed, challenged each other to duels, in their sterling efforts to pick longlists from the incredible array of books submitted to each Dagger. The Daggers are the gold standard of awards in the genre, and Dagger recognition has often served as a stepping stone for careers. More importantly, a Dagger longlisting means that genre readers can be assured of quality. Buy these books. You will not be disappointed." 

Keep scrolling for the full 2024 CWA Dagger Awards Longlist.

Gold Dagger

Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans

Dead Man’s Creek by Chris Hammer

A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins

Night Will Find You by Julia Haeberlin

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron

The White Lie by J G Kelly

Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Tell me What I Am by Una Mannion

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Black River by Nilanjana Roy

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Simply Lies by David Baldacci

The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay

All the Sinners Bleed by S A Cosby

Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor

The House Hunt by C M Ewan

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper

The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka

Gaslight by Femi Kayode

77 North by D L Marshall

Drowning by T J Newman

After that Night by Karin Slaughter

The Man in the Corduroy Suit by James Wolff

ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

A Most Unusual Demise by Kathryn Black

In The Blink of An Eye by Jo Callaghan

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

Murder By Natural Causes by Helen Erichsen

The Maiden by Kate Foster

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell 

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

Obsessed by Liza North

Go Seek by Michelle Teahan

The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell

The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh

Historical Dagger

Clara & Olivia by Lucy Ashe

The Lock-Up by John Banville

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke

Murder in the Bookshop by Anita Davison

Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare

A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins

Viper's Dream by Jake Lamar

The Winter List by S.G. MacLean

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead

Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass

Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry

Lady MacBethad by Isabelle Schuler

Crime Fiction in Translation

The Snow Girl by Javier Castillo, translated by Isabelle Kaufeler

Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado, translated by Nick Caistor

The Girl By The Bridge by Arnaldur Indridason, translated by Philip Roughton

The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa 

The Sins Of Our Fathers by Asa Larsson, translated by Frank Perry

Thirty Days Of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan E.Turney

Nothing Is Lost by Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis

The Murder Of Anton Livius by Schneider Hansjörg, translated by Astrid Freuler

The Consultant by Im Seong-sun, translated by An Seong Jae

Not Russian by Mikhail Shevelev, translated by Brian James Baer & Ellen Vayner

The Prey by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

My Husband by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

G-Man by Beverly Gage

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

No Ordinary Day by Matt Johnson with John Murray

Chasing Shadows by Miles Johnson

The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe

Devil’s Coin by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson

No Comment by Jess McDonald

Seventy Times Seven by Alex Mar

How Many More Women? by Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

Murder at Home by David Wilson

Short Story Dagger

Three Ways to Die by Rachel Amphlett from No W.W.M.  - Thrill Ride #3 edited by M. L. "Matt" Buchman

Safe Enough by Lee Child from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens

The Last Best Thing by Mia Dalia from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook

Slap Happy by Andrew Humphrey from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook

The Also-Rans by Benedict J Jones from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook

The Divide by Sanjida Kay from The Book of Bristol edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks

The Spendthrift and the Swallow by Ambrose Parry

Drive by DG Penny from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens

Best Served Cold by FD Quinn from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens

Revenge is Best Served Hot by Robert Scragg from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens

Dagger in the Library

Louise Candlish

MW Craven

Lucy Foley

Cara Hunter

Anthony Horowitz

Vaseem Khan

Angela Marsons

Kate Rhodes

LJ Ross

Diane Saxon

Publishers’ Dagger

Bitter Lemon Press

Canelo

Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)

Harvill Secker (PenguinRandomHouse)

Headline (Hachette)

Joffe Books

Michael Joseph (PenguinRandomHouse)

Pushkin Press

Raven (Bloomsbury)

Simon & Schuster

Debut Dagger Sponsored by ProWritingAid

Burnt Ranch by Katherine Ahlert

Unnatural Predators by Caroline Arnoul

Vilomah by Matt Coot

Good Criminals by Judy Hock

Vigilante Love Song by JR Holland

Bluebirds by Alan Jackson

Makoto Murders by Richard Jerram

Long Way Home by Lynn McCall

Not a Good Mother by Karabi Mitra

The Last Days of Forever by Jeremy Tinker

A Politician’s Guide to Murder by James Tobin

The Blond by Megan Toogood

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the CWA Gala dinner on July 4th.