The world-famed Crime Writers’ Association launches National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) this June a major initiative designed to celebrate the genre and get the nation reading.

Running in collaboration with national reading charity, The Reading Agency, bestselling authors have been appointed as regional ambassadors of NCRM across the British Isles and Ireland.

Ambassadors include authors Steve Cavanagh, MW Craven, Elly Griffiths, Alis Hawkins, Anthony Horowitz, Vaseem Khan, Nadine Matheson, Louise Phillips, Ian Rankin, LJ Ross, Robin Stevens and Sarah Ward.

NCRM will be an inclusive initiative celebrating diversity in the genre at every level, with events both in person and virtual to ensure accessibility. Whether it’s a Crime Fact and Fiction walk through London, or an online workshop, there will be events for everyone.

The high-profile initiative is encouraging bookshops, libraries, museums, book-clubs and schools to get involved with their own events in the month-long celebration, under the #PickUpAPageTurner hashtag. And LoveReading will be joining in!

Spearheaded by CWA board member, the bestselling crime writer Sam Blake, NCRM will be launched at an event at Waterstones Piccadilly on June 1 featuring authors Abir Mukherjee, Lisa Jewell, LJ Ross, Nadine Matheson, and Vaseem Khan.

Sam Blake said: “This is a fantastic project that I hope will demonstrate the full breadth of the crime genre and bring new readers to discover books and authors they haven’t read before crime isn’t just police procedurals but includes Young Adult, mystery and thrillers, as well as books that have become celebrated films like Ian Fleming’s iconic Bond. We want everyone to #PickUpAPageTurner in June and try something new.”

Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA and Friend of LoveReading, said: "National Crime Reading Month is one of The Crime Writers Association’s most ambitious initiatives and its growth this year is unprecedented. We want to encourage more people to read books in the crime genre, and mystery and thrillers are a popular gateway into reading. It’s a winning combination.”

Now, yes, we know we are still in May, but being huge fans of crime and thriller novels we couldn’t resist sharing just a few of the fabulous books we’ve read that have been winners of the various CWA Dagger Awards over the last few years.

For 2020, 2021 and 2022, I have sat on the judging panel for the Gold Dagger Award and for 2023 I moved to Crime Fiction in Translation. Sitting as a judge is not an easy job, in fact at times it can be a heartbreaking experience, as inevitably some of your own favourite novels can be lost along the way, however, I am convinced that the books included on the long and short lists contain some truly fabulous books, and here are some of the eventual winners: