The Gold Dagger is a UK crime writers’ award for made for the best crime novel originally written in English and published in the UK. Peter Temple won it in 2007 for The Broken Shore.
- This year the shortlist is:
Conman Richard Asplin
Blacklands Belinda Bauer
Blood Harvest S J Bolton
Rain Gods James Lee Burke
Shadowplay Karen Campbell
The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge Patricia Duncker
Still Midnight Denise Mina
The Way Home George Pelecanos
Interestingly Amanda Flood, writing in the Guardian, notes that this year two of the shortlisted books have 12 year-old protagonists – Belinda Bauer’s Blacklands, in which a boy writes to the serial killer suspected of murdering his uncle and S J Bolton’s Blood Harvest, which has 12 year-old Tom as a main character in the action.
It is also interesting to note that Australian Gabrielle Lord, a gritty crime writer, has now made the move to write young adult crime with a “Conspiracy 365” series (it’s going to be 12 books in 12 months – now that’s series fiction). Of course there’s a difference between writing for a YA readership and having a young protagonist in an adult novel.
Not being a big gritty crime follower (I prefer those snootily referred to as “cosies”) I like the sound of The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge from those above concerning a suicide sect in France, with the writing having, by all accounts, a philosophical bent. The winner will be announced on 8 October.
The Australian equivalent of the Daggers is the Ned Kelly Awards. You can see the nomination list here. (It’s way too long to include here). The winners will be announced as part of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival on 3 September.
Peter Temple graciously withdrew the nomination for Truth for the Ned Kellys to “clear some small space” for other writers. Temple has won 5 times before and, anyway, Truth took out the Miles Franklin in June.