2025 CWA Dagger Awards Shortlists Revealed

It is time for the Crime Writers’ Association’s annual Dagger Awards shortlists!

The Daggers are to celebrate the best in crime and thriller writing over the previous year. The awards are one of the longest running literary awards of any kind, having first been awarded in 1955.

The Gold Dagger is to represent the best crime novel of the year. Other awards include the Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award), Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (best thriller), New Blood Dagger (debut), Historical Dagger, Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, Non-Fiction, Short Story, Whodunnit (cozy/traditional mysteries), and Twisted Dagger (psychological/suspense).

The CWA Daggers will be awarded on Thursday, July 3rd, 2025 during the Daggers Award Dinner at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

Here are the nominees:

Diamond Dagger Award

• Mick Herron (Winner)

Gold Dagger Award

• A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop
• I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel
• The Bell Tower by R.J. Ellory
• The Hunter by Tana French
• Guide Me Home by Attica Locke
• The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award

• Dark Ride by Lou Berney
• Nobody’s Hero by M.W. Craven
• Sanctuary by Garry Disher
• Hunted by Abir Mukherjee
• Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville
• City in Ruins by Don Winslow

New Blood Dagger Award

• Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner by Jessica Bull
• Knife River by Justine Champine
• Three Burials by Anders Lustgarten
• A Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder by Gay Marris
• Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney
• All Us Sinners by Katy Massey

Historical Dagger Award

• The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West
• A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop
• Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd
• The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola
• Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award

• Dogs and Wolves by Hervé Le Corre
• Going to the Dogs by Pierre Lemaitre
• The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani
• The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Rämö
• Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Non-Fiction Dagger Award

• Unmasking Lucy Letby: The Untold Story of the Killer Nurse by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz
• The Lady in the Lake by Jeremy Craddock
• Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey
• The Criminal Mind by Duncan Harding
• Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming
• The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale

Short Story Dagger Award

• The Glorious Twelfth by SJ Bennett
• A Date on Yarmouth Pier by J.C. Bernthal
• Why Harrogate? by Janice Hallett
• City Without Shadows by William McCormick
• A Ruby Su by Meeti Shroff-Shah
• Murder at the Turkish Baths by Ruth Ware

Whodunnit Dagger Award

• A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett
• Murder at the Christmas Emporium by Andreina Cordani
• The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall
• A Good Place to Hide a Body by Laura Marshall
• A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah
• Murder at the Matinee by Jamie West

Twisted Dagger Award

• Emma, Disappeared by Andrew Hughes
• Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings
• The Stranger in Her House by John Marrs
• The Trials of Marjorie Crowe by C.S. Robertson
• Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
• Look In the Mirror by Catherine Steadman

Congratulations to all of the nominees, and to Mick Herron for his lifetime achievement award!

For more information, please visit the CWA Daggers website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Based near Toronto, Brandon is a news writer and Book Specialist for Book Notification who covers the world of books, maintains author pages, writes a variety of content, and is an avid reader of non-fiction and biographies.

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