Best Crime Books

The Crime Writers’ Association is delighted to announce the shortlists for a number of this year’s Daggers - the prestigious awards that celebrate the very best in crime and thriller writing in 2009.

The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement.

The winners will be announced at a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15. At that event, the shortlist will also be announced for the Gold, John Creasey (New Blood) and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers.

CWA Chair Margaret Murphy said: “The strength of the Daggers shortlists, and even those writers who missed out, shows that crime writing remains in good shape.” 

The first phase of shortlists are as follows:

THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER

For crime, thriller, suspense or spy novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication. £1000 prize money for the author and £500 for the translator

Shortlist

Karin Alvtegen, Shadow, translated from the Swedish by McKinley Burnett, Canongate 2009 [2007]

Judges’ comments: This well-crafted novel of damage repeated from generation to generation infuses melodrama with a meditation on the cost of writing.

Arnaldur Indriðason, Arctic Chill, translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder & Victoria Cribb, Harvill Secker 2008 [2005]

Judges’ comments:  Indriðason employs a recognised police-procedural form to transcend a familiar Scandinavian gloom into something more interesting - an insistent examination of Iceland’s discovery that its apparently tight little island is implicated in a world-wide social problem.

Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (MacLehose Press, Quercus), Trans. From the Swedish by Reg Keeland, MacLehose Quercus 2009 [2006]

Judges’ comments: This second novel of the Millennium trilogy interweaves an unusual range of characters in a plot of remarkable complexity.

Jo Nesbø, The Redeemer, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett, Harvill Secker 2009 [2005]

Judges’ comments: Harry Hole, Nesbø’s series detective, dominates an impressively twisty plot which ranges from his own career to Norway’s past.

Johan Theorin, Echoes from the Dead, translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy, Doubleday 2008 [2008]

Judges’ comments: Working within the genre, Theorin evokes place and social history as well as character, while mastering the balance of clues and plot-twists.

Fred Vargas, The Chalk Circle Man, translated from the French by Siân Reynolds Harvill Secker 2009 [1996]

Judges’ comments: This first Adamsberg novel is already a remarkable demonstration of Vargas’s ability to open with an odd event and follow it into an unhappy past.

Judging Panel:

Ann Cleeves, non-voting chair, is an award-winning crime writer.

MaiLin Li works for Kirklees Libraries and is a freelance literature specialist and promoter.

Ruth Morse teaches English Literature at the University of Paris. She is a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. 

John Murray-Browne is a bookseller. 

CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER

Any crime short story first published in the UK in English in a publication that pays for contributions, or broadcast in the UK in return for payment, between 1^st June, 2008 and 31^st May, 2009.  Prize money £1500.

Shortlist

Speaking of Lust by Lawrence Block from Crime Express series (Five Leaves Publications)

Judges’ comments: Four tales of lasciviousness and its fatal aftermath by one of the godfathers of the genre.

One Serving of Bad Luck by Sean Chercover from Killer Year, Lee Child, ed. (Mira)

Judges’ comments: Neat, tight and economical, this is a new take on the private eye; the auguries are good for a major crime writing career for this writer.

Cougar by Laura Lippman from Two of the Deadliest, Elizabeth George, ed. (Hodder & Stoughton)

Judges’ comments: A serrated knife in the gut of gender politics by an expert practitioner of the genre.

The Price of Love by Peter Robinson from The Blue Religion, Michael Connelly, ed. ( Back Bay Books) 

Judges’ comments: A boy finally understands the brutal criminal implications of an incident in his childhood.

Served Cold by Zoë Sharp from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Maxim Jakubowski, ed. (Constable & Robinson)

Judges’ comments: Justice, revenge, danger. All elements of a tale of lost love and its tragic consequences.

Mother’s Milk by Chris Simms from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Maxim Jakubowski, ed. (Constable & Robinson)

Judges’ comments: A deceptively low key story of a thief and a conman who has the tables painfully turned on him.

Judges

Simon Brett is a radio presenter, man of the theatre and writer of civilized and witty crime entertainments.

Ayo Onatade - not content with running the lives of senior judges, she is also a well-connected crime journalist.

CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Sponsored by The Random House Group

Authors are nominated by UK libraries and Readers’ Groups and judged by a panel of librarians. It is  awarded to an author for a body of work, rather than a single title. Prize money: £1,500, plus £300 to a participating library’s readers’ group.

Shortlisted

Simon Beckett

Judges’ comments: His books are gripping right from the opening line and notable for descriptions of dead and decaying bodies. Excellently hidden twists and turns. Very sympathetic lead character. Bantam

Colin Cotterill

Judges’ comments: An unusual hero in an unusual setting. Quirky, funny and very appealing. His books are a truly beautiful read. Publisher: Quercus

R J Ellory

Judges’ comments: Sensitively written. Full of depth. Multi-layered and with a real sense of place and an understanding, in the widest sense, of political manoeuverings. Orion

Ariana Franklin

Judges’ comments: Original, lively and colourful. Her novels allow the reader to learn effortlessly about little-known historical backgrounds. Harper Collins

Peter James

Judges’ comments: Very authentic police procedurals with realistic settings. Dark and pacy. Pan Macmillan

Michael Robotham

Judges’ comments: Has an ability to write convincingly as varied, authentically-drawn characters. Sphere

Judges’ general comments:
A very strong and varied list from which it was difficult to select the short list - reflecting the vigour and range of contemporary crime writing.

Judging Panel:
Chair: Mark Benjamin, formerly Team Librarian with Northumberland County Council
Vice-Chair: Cheney Gardner, Reading Development Manager, London Borough of Richmond on Thames
Wendy Molyneux, Community Access Librarian, Warrington Borough Council
Jonathan Gibbs, I.T. & Operations Librarian, Barbican Library, City of London
Karen Fraser, Customer Services Librarian, Shetland Library
Helen McNabb, Bibliographic Services Officer, Vale of Glamorgan Council
Deb Ryan, Senior Librarian Reader Services, RNIB National Library Services

CWA DEBUT DAGGER 

Sponsored by Orion

The Debut Dagger is a new-writing competition open to anyone writing in the English language who has not yet had a novel published commercially. First prize is £500 plus two free tickets to the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards and night’s stay for two in a top London hotel. All shortlisted entrants receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries, and are also be invited to the Dagger Awards presentations.

Shortlisted

Frank Burkett - A View from the Clock Tower (Australia)

Judges’ comment:  An interesting first-person portrayal of a murder mystery set in Australia… family betrayals and dark secrets from the past.

Aoife Clifford - My First Big Book of Murder (Australia)

Judges’ comments:  A crime caper with witty prose and funny visual jokes.

CJ Harper - Backdrop (USA)

Judges’ comments:  A likeable PI protagonist and a solid time slip plot… the 1950 Hollywood setting is sexy…

Madeleine Harris-Callway  - The Land of Sun and Fun  (Canada)

Judges’ comments:  A strong sense of place throughout, coupled with good characterisation and a sense of horror.

Renata Hill - Sex, Death and Chocolate (Canada)

Judges’ comments:  An entertaining read with witty dialogue and a quick-moving plot.

Mick Laing - The Sirius Patrol (UK)

Judges’ comments:  The enclosed feel of the small Greenland community, the characters and tensions within, make fascinating reading.

Susan Lindgren - Forgotten Treasures (USA)

Judges’ comments: Atmospheric, spooky,  and absorbing – the heroine is an interesting character with an intriguing background.

Catherine O’Keefe - The Pathologist (Canada)

Judges’ comments:  An uncomfortable, sophisticated,  read that also manages to be suspenseful.

Danielle Ramsay - Paterfamilias  (UK)

Judges’ comments:  Strong plot with good red herrings and a clever twist.

Germaine Stafford - A Vine Time for Trouble (Italy)

Judges’ comments:  Nicely written cosy-style murder mystery…with the added enticement of the Italian setting.  

Martin Ungless - Idiot Wind (UK)

Judges’ comments:  A clever and ambitious story tackling challenging issues.

Alan Wright - Murder at the Séance (UK)

Judges’ comments:  Convincing settings, atmospheric and with an air of authenticity.

Judging panel 

Emma Beswetherick - Senior Fiction Editor, Piatkus
Julie Crisp - Senior Commissioning Editor, Macmillan
Sara O’Keeffe - Senior Commissioning Editor, Orion
Euan Thorneycroft - Authors’ agent (A M Heath)
Julia Wisdom - Publishing Editor, HarperCollins

Chair: Margaret Murphy, Chair of the CWA

Yet another TV serial killer saga from La Plante, who must have slaughtered more prostitutes in her career than  you or I have had warm goats cheese tarts. ‘Above Suspicion’ features the doziest female copper ever seen on the small screen, in the tightest skirt and tightest blouse ever seen in Scotland Yard, all corseted up like some Victorian heroine who actually dates the prime suspect and puts herself in mortal danger.  A right dodgy boiler in fact, but, who you know in the end will solve the case which much smarter police officers haven’t managed to do after twelve years. The  best acting award surprisingly enough was the ex-copper out of ‘Heartbeat’. Above Suspicion? Beneath contempt, more like it. Elvis McBeth

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Cold In Hand by John Harvey

Here we go again, another year older and deeper in debt, literally, if you believe everything you read in the papers. But there are still a lot of great crime novels out there to keep your mind off the credit crunch this winter, so stick around and check out these winners with me.

Kicking off the list in fine style is the latest D.I Faraday novel, The Price Of Darkness by Graham Hurley (Orion H/B £9.99) It all starts off with what looks like a professional hit on a property developer with an interest in an M.O.D. site in Portsmouth which could yield rich pickings if turned into residential homes.  Then a government minister is assassinated. What’s the connection? Also, there’s a problem with ex-copper and Faraday’s old sparring partner Paul Winter who is now working for Bazza Mackenzie, Pompey’s leading crime lord. But has he really left the side of the angels? As I’ve said before, Hurley just gets better and better, and this book is his best so far.

Another writer who rarely disappoints is Jonathan Kellerman, and his new novel , Obsession (Michael Joseph H/B £14.99) featuring psychologist Alex Delaware is no exception. A patient from the past shows up at Alex’s office to try and discover what terrible  secret her mother tried to divulge on her death bed. With the assistance of cop buddy Milo Sturgis, Alex delves deeply into what turns out to be a plot involving the great and the good of Los Angeles high society and the dregs of the city’s low life. A read-in-one-go book.

The same could be said for Eye Of The Beholder by David Ellis (Quercus H/B £14.99) where, again, the past throws up secrets that were better hidden, as attorney Paul Riley discovers that the case that he has built his career on may not have been all it seemed. A serial killer brought to justice fifteen years previously could have had accomplices, as more grisly murders in his style are perpetrated, and the killer has Riley in his sights. Edgar Award winner Ellis delivers the goods from the first to the last page.

Twenty-five years ago, fourteen year old Cynthia Bigges’ family just vanished one night, and twenty-five years later she’s none the wiser as to what happened to them. It was a cause celebre for a while, then forgotten, but not by her, or the man she subsequently married. Then a cold case TV show  highlights her story and suddenly it’s front page news again. People are being murdered left, right and centre, and that’s not all. Mystery piles up on mystery in a striking debut, No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Orion H/B £9.99) If you admire the novels  of Harlen Coben, then this book should be top of your Christmas list.

When Joe Denton, disgraced ex-cop gets out of prison, he finds he’s not welcome back in the town he used to police. His wife and daughter have fled. His mother and father can barely stand him near them, and his old colleagues want him dead or gone, or preferably both. He’s attacked, and then wrongly accused of rape, but Joe just won’t leave things alone, as his life appears to resemble a car crash in slow motion. Violent, but with an edge of graveyard humour, Small Crimes by David Zelserman (Serpents Tail P/B £7.99) shows the author to be the natural successor to Jim Thompson, which as far as I’m concerned can be no greater accolade.

Fans of John Harvey, and there are many, will celebrate the resurrection of Charlie Resnick in Cold In Hand (William Heinemann H/B £12.99) Charlie is now living in harmony with D.I. Lynn Kellogg,until she gets shot and is blamed for the death of a young black girl. Resnick is called into the case which causes some aggro at home, but worse is to come. Much worse, and he goes into decline. Understandably. But eventually all comes clear and he manages to find some peace in a far-off country. Harvey writes what are definitely in the top three police procedurals in the UK, filled with humanity and understanding of the human condition, plus a few sharp words on our immigration policy. No wonder he’s collecting so many awards these days. 

What could be a better time to disappear off the face of the earth than in New York in the aftermath of 9/11? This is the premise of the latest, and finest novel so far featuring Detective-Superintendent Roy Grace by Peter James (Dead Man’s Footsteps -Macmillan H/B £16.99) as the Brighton based copper travels to the Big Apple to investigate the last days of a local businessman who just doesn’t seem to be as dead as he wants the world to believe. Cracking, with a real sting in its tail. 

As Los Angeles burns around them, Elvis Cole and his buddy, Pike roam the city, looking for proof that, seven years ago, the pair didn’t provide tainted evidence that freed  a guilty man on a murder charge, leaving him able to kill and kill again. Crais is among the best of the best, and Chasing Darkness (Orion H/B £12.99) proves it once again. Elvis (Crazy name, crazy guy) has definitely not left the building!

And finally, a reprint that’s been a long time coming but has been well worth the wait. Homicide-A Year on The Killing Streets by David Simon (Canongate P/B £12.99) first published in the early nineties is the big,  fat true crime masterpiece featuring the Baltimore police force that begot the wonderful TV series Homicide-Life On The Streets that begot The Wire. Need I say more?

Happy new year.

The latest D.I. Faraday novel, The Price Of Darkness by Graham Hurley starts off with what looks like a professional hit on a property developer. The dead man was involved in an M.O.D. site in Portsmouth with potentially rich pickings. Then a government minister is assassinated. What’s the connection? Also, there’s a problem with ex-copper and Faraday’s old sparring partner Paul Winter who is now working for Bazza Mackenzie, Pompey’s leading crime lord. But has he really left the side of the angels? Hurley just gets better and better, and this book is his best so far. Elvis McBeth

graham hurley, portsmouth, prince of darkness

Several elements come together to make a good novel: writing style, plot and overall atmosphere. Very occasionally a novel’s unique atmosphere can elevate an OK book into a classic. Take Gerald Kerch’s ‘Night and the City’, possibly the most atmospheric novel about London since Dickens trod the city’s shabby streets and undoubtedly a great book, even if – at times – the story plods along like a lame cart-horse.

The aspect of a novel that elevates it into the bestseller lists is usually its plot. Clive Cussler, David Baldacci and Dan Brown are dull, unimaginative writers whose prose has been known to cause great pain to many discerning readers, but they redeem themselves and write bestselling thrillers by means of superb plotting. Or, as the blurbs have it, they are ‘great storytellers’.
Take this extract from ‘Stone Cold’ by David Baldacci:

“Harry, you OK?”
He stirred. “Just some stuff at work.” There had been no news coverage of the incident, even though the police had been called, because Homeland Security had stepped in to put the kibosh on it. Having Finn exposed in the press would put a severe crimp in the red cell contract work that his company did for Homeland Security, work that was critically important to national security. With DHS in Finn’s corner, the local cops had quickly rolled over. The young security guard had not been charged with anything other than being stupid and undertrained, and his gun had been taken away. He had been reassigned to a desk job and told that if he said anything to anyone about what had happened he would regret it for the rest of his life.”

Just a section taken almost at random from the book I’m reading now. There are many far more guilty authors than David Baldacci and better examples of terrible prose out there, but it hardly seems worth spending time looking for them. The crime most average writers commit is the over-use of adjectives. People speak menacingly, cheerfully and tearfully; ideas are brilliant, inspired and wonderful; the bad guys are tagged as evil, heartless and merciless. And so on and so forth.
Claiming the middle ground is the great Agatha Christie. Possibly the best plotter that ever sat at a keyboard, some of her stories are so clever you want to scream, even if her prose has a tendency to be frothy and her characterisation – especially of ‘types’ such as majors, policemen and domestic staff – is invariably paper-thin. ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ is her undoubted masterpiece. In it, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is drawn out of retirement in order to solve a dastardly crime in the peaceful English village of King’s Abbot. Without giving too much away, this is the novel that turned the art of plotting on its head. All of Christie’s novels are worth reading, and the cream of her output also includes ‘Ten Little Indians’ (’And Then There Were None’), ‘The ABC Murders’ and ‘Murder on the Orient Express’.
Another giant of the ‘Golden Age of Detective Fiction’ was John Dickson Carr, an American who lived in the UK, where most of his historically-flavoured mysteries are set. He was the leading exponent of what was called the ‘locked room mystery’ and when it came to close, intricately plotted puzzles, he had few equals. ‘The Three Coffins’ features Carr’s series character, Dr Gideon Fell, and, typially involves supernatural and historical elements. Chapter 17 is the ‘Locked Room Lecture’ in which Fell famously details the various types of locked-room situations. ‘The Devil in Velvet’ is no ordinary murder mystery, either. Set in 1925, it features Nicholas Fenton, a history don at Cambridge University, who makes a pact with the devil to be transported back to 1675 in order to solve and maybe prevent the murder of Lydia, Lady Fenton, the wife of an eponymous ancestor. If only more of today’s historical fiction could capture the intelligence and vibrancy of Carr’s writing.
More selections from my list of Best Crime Books next time, including novels by Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain and Graham Greene.
Jim Driver

agatha christie, bestseller lists, clive cussler, dan brown, david baldacci, Devil in Velvet, john dickson carr, kerch, locked room mysteries, Mysterious Affair At Styles, night and the city, Ten Little Indians, The ABC Murders, Three Coffins, Murder of Roger Ackroyd

THE BIG SLEEP by RAYMOND CHANDLER

The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler’s masterpiece. The best crime novel ever written bar none. Almost single handedly Chandler invented the genre of the hard drinking, hard smoking, hard loving, sharply dressed, first person, private detective, with a wisecrack for every occasion, and a bullet for every bad guy and gal. Over the last seventy years his hero Philip Marlowe has been the template for dozens of crime writers. Just think Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, Robert B. Parker,  Derek Marlowe, Alan Sharp, Timothy Harris, Roger L. Simon, Robert Crais, and yours truly, plus loads more. (Not all first person I admit, but well in the Chandler groove, and if you don’t know any of these authors, Google them)

The novel opens with a paragraph that has been quoted time and time again as a classic of the genre. I don’t intend to reprint it here, just read the book if you haven’t already. And if you haven’t shame on you.

Simply, the plot of the novel is that a rich old man with two beautiful daughters who make Paris Hilton look tame, is being blackmailed. Enter Marlowe, who cuts a swathe through the Los Angeles demi monde, and solves the case quick fast.

Great plot, great characters, great atmosphere. Just the greatest.

Rarely out of print, Penguin put out a new paperback edition in 2005.

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Mystery Readers International (Mystery Readers Journal) announces the Macavity Award nominations for works published in 2007. The awards will be presented during opening ceremonies at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention (Baltimore, October 2008).

MACAVITY NOMINEES:

Best Mystery Novel
o Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)
o The Unquiet by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton*/Atria)
o Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Ballantine Mortalis)
o Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie (Morrrow)
o What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Mystery
o In the Woods by Tana French (Hodder & Stoughton*/Viking)
o Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Morrow)
o The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)
o Stealing the Dragon by Tim Maleeny (Midnight Ink)
o The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees (Soho)

Best Mystery Short Story
o “A Rat’s Tale” by Donna Andrews (EQMM, Sep-Oct 2007)
o “Please Watch Your Step” by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine, Spring 2007)
o “The Missing Elevator Puzzle” by Jon L. Breen (EQMM, Feb 2007)
o “Brimstone P.I.” by Beverle Graves Myers (AHMM, May 2007)
o “The Old Wife’s Tale” by Gillian Roberts (EQMM, Mar-Apr 2007)

Best Mystery Non-Fiction
o Rough Guide to Crime Fiction by Barry Forshaw (Penguin Rough Guides)
o Chester Gould: A Daughter’s Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland & Company)
o Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower & Charles Foley (HarperPress*/Penguin)
o Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers by Lee Lofland (Howdunit Series, Writers Digest Books)
o The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians, compiled and edited by Roger Sobin (Poisoned Pen Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
o Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen (Penguin)
o Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (Putnam)
o The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin (Faber & Faber*/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
o Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne (Viking*/Penguin)
o The Gravediggers Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (HarperCollins Ecco)
*UK publisher (first edition)

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