The CWA Gold Dagger Awards have been around for more than half a century showcasing the best books to read but how many of these award winning crime novels are you actually familiar with let alone have read?
Well if you are anything like me you would have read a smattering but perhaps not as many as you might expect from a list of top crime fiction. If you mostly read bestselling books then you may have read not so many at all. Take note not a James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child, Kathy Reichs or Elizabeth George novel anywhere to be seen.
There are authors on this honours roll I simply haven't heard of. How is it that a crime novelist can win an award of this magnitude and still manage to drift off into obscurity one may ask?
Between 1969 and 2005 there was also a Silver Dagger awarded to the runner up but unfortunately this was dropped from 2006 onwards. Twice the number of recipients didn't necessarily mean twice the amount of exposure in this case.
The CWA Gold Dagger Award has been through a series of different names due to changes in sponsorship but the concept of the Gold Dagger has prevailed. Each year crime novelists get shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and one lucky author gets chosen by a panel of judges.
Love or hate the judges decisions of this prestigious award but it can't be denied that it has the potential to crank up some pretty heavy duty book sales for the award winning novelist. Let's hope that the publicity machine these days will ensure that most if not all of the winning crime writers from here on in get the kind of readership they deserve from winning this award.
Below is a handy list of CWA Gold and Silver Dagger winners since the inaugural award in 1955. If you would like a checklist you can also download a CWA Gold Dagger list of the winners since 1987 in pdf format and mark off the crime novels you have read already and the ones you intend to read. Enjoy!
2024
Tell Me What I Am - Una Mannion
2023
The Kingdoms of Savannah - George Dawes Green
2022
Sunset Swing - Ray Celestin
2021
We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker
2020
Good Girl Bad Girl - Michael Robotham
2019
The Puppet Show - M. W. Craven
2018
The Liar - Steven Cavanagh
2017
The Dry - Jane Harper
2016
Dodgers - Bill Beverly
2015
Life or Death - Michael Robotham
2014
This Dark Road to Mercy - Wiley Cash
2013
Dead Lions - Mick Herron
2012
The Rage - Gene Kerrigan
2011
Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
2010
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
2009
A Whispered Name (Little, Brown) - William Brodrick
2008
Blood From Stone (Sphere) - Frances Fyfield
2007
The Broken Shore (Quercus) - Peter Temple
2006
Raven Black (Pan Macmillan) - Ann Cleeves
2005
Gold: Silence of the Grave (The Harvill Press) - Arnaldur Indridason
Silver: Deadly Web (Headline) - Barbara Nadel
2004
Gold: Blacklist (Hamish Hamilton)- Sara Paretsky
Silver: Flesh and Blood (Heinemann)- John Harvey
2003
Gold: Fox Evil (Macmillan) - Minette Walters
Silver: Half-Broken Things (Hodder & Stoughton) - Morag Joss
2002
Gold: The Athenian Murders (Abacus) - Jose Carlos Samoza
Silver: The Final Country (HarperCollins) - James Crumley
2001
Gold: Sidetracked (The Harvill Press) - Henning Mankell
Silver: Forty Words for Sorrow (HarperCollins) - Giles Blunt
2000
Gold: Motherless Brooklyn (Faber & Faber) - Jonathan Lethem
Silver: Friends in High Places (Heinneman) - Donna Leon
1999
Gold: A Small Death in Lisbon (HarperCollins) - Robert Wilson
Silver: Vienna Blood (Cape) - Adrian Mathews
1998
Gold: Sunset Limited (Orion) - James Lee Burke
Silver: Manchester Slingback (Picador) - Nicholas Blincoe
1997
Gold: Black And Blue (Orion) - Ian Rankin
Silver: Three to get Deadly (Viking) - Janet Evanovich
1996
Gold: Popcorn - Ben Elton
Silver: Bloodhounds (LittleBrown) - Peter Lovesey
1995
Gold: The Mermaids Singing - Val McDermid
Silver: The Summons (LittleBrown) - Peter Lovesey
1994
Gold: The Scold's Bridle - Minette Walters;
Silver: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow Peter Hoeg
1993
Gold: Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell;
Silver: Fatlands - Sarah Dunant
1992
Gold: The Way Through the Woods - Colin Dexter;
Silver: Bucket Nut - Liza Cody
1991
Gold: King Solomon's Carpet - Barbara Vine;
Silver: Deep Sleep - Frances Fyfield
1990
Gold: Bones and Silence - Reginald Hill;
Silver: The Late Candidate Mike Phillips
1989
Gold: The Wench is Dead - Colin Dexter;
Silver: The Shadow Run - Desmond Lowden
1988
Gold: Ratking - Michael Dibdin;
Silver: Toxic Shock Sara Paretsky
1987
Gold: A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine;
Silver: Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow
1986
Gold: Live Flesh - Ruth Rendell;
Silver: A Taste for Death - PD James
1985
Gold: Monkey Puzzle - Paula Gosling;
Silver: Last Seen Alive - Dorothy Simpson
1984
Gold: The Twelfth Juror - B.M.Gill;
Silver: The Tree of Hands Ruth Rendell
1983
Gold: Accidental Crimes - John Hutton;
Silver: The Papers of Tony Veitch - William McIlvanney
1982
Gold: The False Inspector Dew - Peter Lovesey;
Silver: Ritual Murder - ST Haymon
1981
Gold: Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith ;
Silver: The Dead of Jericho - Colin Dexter
1980
Gold: The Murder of the Maharajah - H.R.F.Keating;
Silver: Monk's Hood - Ellis Peters
1979
Gold: Whip Hand - Dick Francis;
Silver: Service of all the Dead - Colin Dexter
1978
Gold: The Chelsea Murders - Lionel Davidson;
Silver: Waxwork - Peter Lovesey
1977
Gold: The Honourable Schoolboy - John le Carre;
Silver: Laidlaw - William McIlvanney
1976
Gold: A Demon in my View - Ruth Rendell;
Silver: Rogue Eagle - James McClure
1975
Gold: The Seven per cent solution - Nicholas Meyer;
Silver: The Black Tower - PD James
1974
Gold: Other Paths to Glory - Anthony Price;
Silver: The Grosvenor Square Goodbye - Francis Clifford
1973
Gold: The Defection of A.J.Lewinter - Robert Littell;
Silver: A Coffin for Pandora - Gwendoline Butler
1972
Gold: The Levanter - Eric Ambler;
Silver: The Rainbird Pattern - Victor Canning
1971
Gold: The Steam Pig - James McClure;
Silver: Shroud for a Nightingale - PD James
1970
Gold: Young Man I Think You're Dying - Joan Fleming;
Silver: The Labyrinth Makers - Anthony Price
1969
Gold: A Pride of Heroes - Peter Dickinson;
Silver: Another Way of Dying - Francis Clifford
1968: Skin Deep (The Glass-sided Ants' Nest)
1967: Murder Against the Grain - Emma Lathen
1966: A Long Way to Shiloh - Lionel Davidson
1965: The Far Side of the Dollar - Ross Macdonald
1964: The Perfect Murder - H.R.F.Keating
1963: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - John le Carre
1962: When I Grow Rich - Joan Fleming
1961: The Spoilt Kill - Mary Kelly
1960: The Night of Wenceslas - Lionel Davidson
1959: Passage of Arms - Eric Ambler
1958: Someone from the Past - Margot Bennett
1957: The Colour of Murder - Julian Symons
1956: The Second Man - Edward Grierson
1955: The Little Walls - Winston Graham
The complete list of all the CWA Gold Dagger winners since the awards inception. Use this reading list as a guide to some of the best crime fiction available.
Well if you are anything like me you would have read a smattering but perhaps not as many as you might expect from a list of top crime fiction. If you mostly read bestselling books then you may have read not so many at all. Take note not a James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child, Kathy Reichs or Elizabeth George novel anywhere to be seen.
There are authors on this honours roll I simply haven't heard of. How is it that a crime novelist can win an award of this magnitude and still manage to drift off into obscurity one may ask?
Between 1969 and 2005 there was also a Silver Dagger awarded to the runner up but unfortunately this was dropped from 2006 onwards. Twice the number of recipients didn't necessarily mean twice the amount of exposure in this case.
The CWA Gold Dagger Award has been through a series of different names due to changes in sponsorship but the concept of the Gold Dagger has prevailed. Each year crime novelists get shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and one lucky author gets chosen by a panel of judges.
Love or hate the judges decisions of this prestigious award but it can't be denied that it has the potential to crank up some pretty heavy duty book sales for the award winning novelist. Let's hope that the publicity machine these days will ensure that most if not all of the winning crime writers from here on in get the kind of readership they deserve from winning this award.
Below is a handy list of CWA Gold and Silver Dagger winners since the inaugural award in 1955. If you would like a checklist you can also download a CWA Gold Dagger list of the winners since 1987 in pdf format and mark off the crime novels you have read already and the ones you intend to read. Enjoy!
2024
Tell Me What I Am - Una Mannion
2023
The Kingdoms of Savannah - George Dawes Green
2022
Sunset Swing - Ray Celestin
2021
We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker
2020
Good Girl Bad Girl - Michael Robotham
2019
The Puppet Show - M. W. Craven
2018
The Liar - Steven Cavanagh
2017
The Dry - Jane Harper
2016
Dodgers - Bill Beverly
2015
Life or Death - Michael Robotham
2014
This Dark Road to Mercy - Wiley Cash
2013
Dead Lions - Mick Herron
2012
The Rage - Gene Kerrigan
2011
Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
2010
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
2009
A Whispered Name (Little, Brown) - William Brodrick
2008
Blood From Stone (Sphere) - Frances Fyfield
2007
The Broken Shore (Quercus) - Peter Temple
2006
Raven Black (Pan Macmillan) - Ann Cleeves
2005
Gold: Silence of the Grave (The Harvill Press) - Arnaldur Indridason
Silver: Deadly Web (Headline) - Barbara Nadel
2004
Gold: Blacklist (Hamish Hamilton)- Sara Paretsky
Silver: Flesh and Blood (Heinemann)- John Harvey
2003
Gold: Fox Evil (Macmillan) - Minette Walters
Silver: Half-Broken Things (Hodder & Stoughton) - Morag Joss
2002
Gold: The Athenian Murders (Abacus) - Jose Carlos Samoza
Silver: The Final Country (HarperCollins) - James Crumley
2001
Gold: Sidetracked (The Harvill Press) - Henning Mankell
Silver: Forty Words for Sorrow (HarperCollins) - Giles Blunt
2000
Gold: Motherless Brooklyn (Faber & Faber) - Jonathan Lethem
Silver: Friends in High Places (Heinneman) - Donna Leon
1999
Gold: A Small Death in Lisbon (HarperCollins) - Robert Wilson
Silver: Vienna Blood (Cape) - Adrian Mathews
1998
Gold: Sunset Limited (Orion) - James Lee Burke
Silver: Manchester Slingback (Picador) - Nicholas Blincoe
1997
Gold: Black And Blue (Orion) - Ian Rankin
Silver: Three to get Deadly (Viking) - Janet Evanovich
1996
Gold: Popcorn - Ben Elton
Silver: Bloodhounds (LittleBrown) - Peter Lovesey
1995
Gold: The Mermaids Singing - Val McDermid
Silver: The Summons (LittleBrown) - Peter Lovesey
1994
Gold: The Scold's Bridle - Minette Walters;
Silver: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow Peter Hoeg
1993
Gold: Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell;
Silver: Fatlands - Sarah Dunant
1992
Gold: The Way Through the Woods - Colin Dexter;
Silver: Bucket Nut - Liza Cody
1991
Gold: King Solomon's Carpet - Barbara Vine;
Silver: Deep Sleep - Frances Fyfield
1990
Gold: Bones and Silence - Reginald Hill;
Silver: The Late Candidate Mike Phillips
1989
Gold: The Wench is Dead - Colin Dexter;
Silver: The Shadow Run - Desmond Lowden
1988
Gold: Ratking - Michael Dibdin;
Silver: Toxic Shock Sara Paretsky
1987
Gold: A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine;
Silver: Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow
1986
Gold: Live Flesh - Ruth Rendell;
Silver: A Taste for Death - PD James
1985
Gold: Monkey Puzzle - Paula Gosling;
Silver: Last Seen Alive - Dorothy Simpson
1984
Gold: The Twelfth Juror - B.M.Gill;
Silver: The Tree of Hands Ruth Rendell
1983
Gold: Accidental Crimes - John Hutton;
Silver: The Papers of Tony Veitch - William McIlvanney
1982
Gold: The False Inspector Dew - Peter Lovesey;
Silver: Ritual Murder - ST Haymon
1981
Gold: Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith ;
Silver: The Dead of Jericho - Colin Dexter
1980
Gold: The Murder of the Maharajah - H.R.F.Keating;
Silver: Monk's Hood - Ellis Peters
1979
Gold: Whip Hand - Dick Francis;
Silver: Service of all the Dead - Colin Dexter
1978
Gold: The Chelsea Murders - Lionel Davidson;
Silver: Waxwork - Peter Lovesey
1977
Gold: The Honourable Schoolboy - John le Carre;
Silver: Laidlaw - William McIlvanney
1976
Gold: A Demon in my View - Ruth Rendell;
Silver: Rogue Eagle - James McClure
1975
Gold: The Seven per cent solution - Nicholas Meyer;
Silver: The Black Tower - PD James
1974
Gold: Other Paths to Glory - Anthony Price;
Silver: The Grosvenor Square Goodbye - Francis Clifford
1973
Gold: The Defection of A.J.Lewinter - Robert Littell;
Silver: A Coffin for Pandora - Gwendoline Butler
1972
Gold: The Levanter - Eric Ambler;
Silver: The Rainbird Pattern - Victor Canning
1971
Gold: The Steam Pig - James McClure;
Silver: Shroud for a Nightingale - PD James
1970
Gold: Young Man I Think You're Dying - Joan Fleming;
Silver: The Labyrinth Makers - Anthony Price
1969
Gold: A Pride of Heroes - Peter Dickinson;
Silver: Another Way of Dying - Francis Clifford
1968: Skin Deep (The Glass-sided Ants' Nest)
1967: Murder Against the Grain - Emma Lathen
1966: A Long Way to Shiloh - Lionel Davidson
1965: The Far Side of the Dollar - Ross Macdonald
1964: The Perfect Murder - H.R.F.Keating
1963: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - John le Carre
1962: When I Grow Rich - Joan Fleming
1961: The Spoilt Kill - Mary Kelly
1960: The Night of Wenceslas - Lionel Davidson
1959: Passage of Arms - Eric Ambler
1958: Someone from the Past - Margot Bennett
1957: The Colour of Murder - Julian Symons
1956: The Second Man - Edward Grierson
1955: The Little Walls - Winston Graham
The complete list of all the CWA Gold Dagger winners since the awards inception. Use this reading list as a guide to some of the best crime fiction available.
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