Alan Parks shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger at the CWA Daggers 2023

Credit: CWA

Congratulations to Alan Parks, whose novel MAY GOD FORGIVE has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger at the Crime Writers’ Association annual Daggers Awards! The Steel Dagger recognises the best espionage, psychological, or adventure thriller of the year, and sees Alan nominated alongside Linwood Barclay, John Brownlow, M. W. Craven, Robert Galbraith and Ava Glass. The winner will be picked by a jury chaired by Corinne Turner, the managing director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, and announced at the CWA’s gala dinner on 6 July.

The Crime Writers’ Association is this year celebrating its 70th anniversary, and the Daggers are the oldest awards of the genre and among the most prestigious.

MAY GOD FORGIVE is the fifth title in Alan Parks’ highly acclaimed Harry McCoy series. It won the McIlvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year award and was recently longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (for which voting is still open to the public until this Thursday, 18 May).

After a fatal arson attack leaves tempers frayed in Glasgow, McCoy finds himself in a race against time to find the suspects before they turn up dead one by one. In 2022 MAY GOD FORGIVE was published in the UK by Canongate and in the US by Europa. The series is sold in more than ten countries around the world and the paperback was published in the UK last month. The next book in the series, TO DIE IN JUNE, will be released in the UK on 25 May.

Praise for MAY GOD FORGIVE

‘MAY GOD FORGIVE is the fifth instalment in a remarkable series that began with BLOODY JANUARY. The novels, as someone once said, can be read in any order; the important thing is to read them all.’ – Mark Sanderson, The Times

‘MAY GOD FORGIVE is a bleak and violent book, full of grisly details not for the squeamish, but also tenderness, poignance and hard-earned wisdom.’ – Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

‘Noir has long been the dominant colour in the palette of such Scottish writers as Ian Rankin and Denise Mina, but Parks manages to find a deeper shade of black, only slightly attenuated by Harry's willingness to go far off the grid to extract a wee bit of justice. A must for those who take their noir straight, no chaser; others should keep the Pepto handy.’ – Bill Ott, Booklist

‘Enjoyably readable… Parks is a gifted story-teller’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman

‘Harry McCoy is the brightest dark star on the Tartan Noir scene for some time and in future critics of Scottish crime fiction will surely be referring to the triumvirate of Laidlaw, Rebus and McCoy … MAY GOD FORGIVE is crime fiction which pulls no punches, powerfully told and, at times, heartbreakingly poignant. One of the crime novels of 2022.’ – Mike Ripley, Getting Away With Murder

About Alan Parks

Credit: Euan Robertson

Alan Parks worked in the music industry for over twenty years before turning to crime writing.

His debut BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, the Prix Mystère de la critique in the foreign fiction category, and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel and THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The latest Harry McCoy book, MAY GOD FORGIVE, was published in April 2022 and won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2022. It has also been shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award . The Harry McCoy series is optioned for television.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city as well as spending time in London.

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THE LAST THING TO BURN by Will Dean longlisted for CWA Gold Dagger Award

We are delighted that THE LAST THING TO BURN by Will Dean has been longlisted for The Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger. The Gold Dagger is an award for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally published in the UK.  The shortlist will be revealed on 13th May 2022 at CrimeFest in Bristol, and winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 29th June 2022 in London.

THE LAST THING TO BURN is Will Dean’s first standalone thriller, published by Hodder in January 2021 in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US.  A word-of-mouth sensation, it garnered praise from readers and reviewers alike. THE LAST THING TO BURN was a pick of the year in multiple publications, including  New Statesman, Daily Express and Culturefly. It was also voted International Book of the Year by the Rick O’Shea Book Club. 

Will’s most recent standalone, FIRST BORN, was published by Hodder on 14th April 2022. He is also the author of the Tuva Moodyson Mysteries, a crime series set in Sweden and published by Oneworld.

THE LAST THING TO BURN
He is her husband. She is his captive. Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name. She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen. Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished.

For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting . . .

Praise for THE LAST THING TO BURN

'Brilliantly written... Terrifying' — Ruth Ware

‘Outstanding. The best thriller in years’ — Martina Cole

‘A short, sharp shocker, burning with righteous anger, intended to highlight the evils of human trafficking.’ — The best crime fiction for January 2021, Mark Sanderson, The Times

‘The tone remains unremittingly grim throughout, but this is a true nail-biter; you’ll be rooting for the astonishingly resilient heroine all the way.’ — Guardian

‘You will not so much read as breathlessly inhale this standalone novel from the author of the Tuva Moodyson mystery series... What happens over the course of this book will haunt you long after you finish reading it. Brilliant - and one of the best books of 2021.’ — Isabelle Broom, Women & Home

About Will Dean

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

DARK PINES, the first in the Tuva Moodyson series, was published to huge critical acclaim in 2018, was shortlisted for Not the Booker prize, selected for Zoe Ball’s TV Book Club and named as a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. He is currently writing his third standalone novel for Hodder.

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DOUBLE CRIME WRITING AWARD LONGLISTING FOR PAUL FINCH

We are delighted to announce that Blake Friedmann author Paul Finch has been longlisted for two CWA Dagger Awards. The first, the Dagger In The Library Award, is a prize for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries. It also rewards authors who have supported libraries and their users.

His short story, ‘The New Lad’ (featured in EXIT WOUNDS, an anthology published by Titan Books) has been longlisted for the Short Story Dagger.

The winners will be announced on 22nd October 2020.

Paul Finch’s next stand-alone thriller, ONE EYE OPEN will be published by Orion in August 2020.

Praise for Paul Finch

‘Wonderfully dark…Finch is a born storyteller.’ — Peter James

‘Edge-of-the-seat reading…Heck is formidable – a British Alex Cross.’ – The Sun

‘Avon’s big star…part edge-of-the-seat, part hide-behind-the-sofa! An excellent series.’ – The Bookseller

‘An explosive thriller that will leave you completely hooked on Heck.’ – We Love This Book

‘Lucy Clayburn is a brilliant new character and one that I know readers are going to love. Strangers delves into the darker side of some of the small towns surrounding Manchester and takes the reader on a fast-paced, terrifying journey. The story is wonderfully original and brilliantly written… a terrific book.’ – Rachel Abbott, author of ONLY THE INNOCENT

About Paul Finch
A former cop and journalist, Paul was a writer for British TV crime drama, ‘The Bill’. Paul’s crime debut, STALKERS, was a number one ebook best seller in 2013, followed by the sequel, SACRIFICE, in July 2013 which was the most pre-ordered book in HarperCollins history. In 2016, Paul introduced readers to DC Lucy Clayburn. STRANGERS, the first novel in the series, was an immediate success, reaching the top ten in the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

Winner of the British Fantasy Award 2002 & 2007, and the International Horror Guild Award 2007, he has also written four Doctor Who audio dramas and his Doctor Who novel, HUNTER'S MOON, was published by Woodland Books in 2011. Paul has also written scripts for several horror movies.

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WEEPING WATERS BY KARIN BRYNARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER AWARD 2019

Credit: Europa Editions

Blake Friedmann is delighted to announce that Karin Brynard’s WEEPING WATERS has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger Award 2019. The prize recognises crime novels not originally written in English but translated for UK publication. WEEPING WATERS was translated by Karin’s agent Isobel Dixon along with Maya Fowler, and is published in the UK and US by Europa Editions and in Italy by E/O.

The CWA Award winners will be announced at an award ceremony at the Grange City Hotel in London on 24 October 2019. See more information on the International Dagger shortlist here.

In WEEPING WATERS, Inspector Albertus Beeslaar is a traumatized cop who has abandoned tough city policing and a broken relationship in Johannesburg for a backwater post on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered by the repeated attacks of a brutally efficient crime syndicate, as he struggles to train and connect with rookie local cops, Ghaap and Pyl, who resent his brusqueness and his old-school ways.

The original Afrikaans edition was published by Human & Rousseau as PLAASMOORD and won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize for Fiction and the M-Net Literature Award, Film Category. Film and TV rights in the Albertus Beeslaar series are optioned to Three River Studios. Karin has completed two more novels in the series, OUR FATHERS and HOMELAND, published in Afrikaans and English in South Africa by Penguin Books. Formerly a political and investigative journalist, Karin Brynard is now one of South Africa’s most successful authors, a bestseller in her home country, with her work translated in Dutch, French, German and Italian.

Praise for Karin Brynard

‘Karin Brynard has established herself as one of a handful of great thriller writers in South Africa. The fact that she has won many literary awards attests to the depth and staying power of her work. … Brynard’s observations of people are subtle and deep; she reads the small things.’ – Jane Rosenthal, Mail & Guardian

'The queen of South African crime fiction is Karin Brynard... Her journalism background is tangible in the way she fills out her characters and storylines with relevant factual details in a subtle yet effective way.’ — Dey There, 12 South African Crime Writers to Add to Your Reading List

Praise for WEEPING WATERS

'Brooding. Riveting. Brilliant.' — Deon Meyer

‘WEEPING WATERS is brimming with authenticity. A lucent tale of farm murder and rural society in the vice of social pressures, with the translation beautifully done by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon.’ – William Saunderson-Meyer, Sunday Times, 2014 Best Reads

‘Karin Brynard's WEEPING WATERS is that rare crime fiction novel that transcends the genre.  The heir apparent to J.M. Coetzee's DISGRACE, Brynard's book, set in South Africa, unfurls over the reader with glorious, sensuous prose in a tremendous translation.  We see, feel, and smell the locations and are transported to another world.  The many characters are three-dimensional and spring to life with crackling dialogue that has the ring of verisimilitude. Though a gripping whodunnit, WEEPING WATERS is geologically layered with complex interpersonal relationships, the backdrop of South Africa's fraught post-Apartheid politics, and a main character in Inspector Beeslaar – world-weary, fiercely independent – who anchors the book, and through whom Brynard paints a country's history, past and present, with the accretion of nuanced details.  Built for a blockbuster miniseries.  The best novel I've read all year.’ — Rex Pickett, author of SIDEWAYS

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FEVER CITY, TIM BAKER'S EXHILARATING DEBUT THRILLER NOMINATED FOR 2017 SHAMUS AWARD.

Critically acclaimed debut novel, FEVER CITY, by Tim Baker (UK, Faber & Faber; US, Europa) has been shortlisted for the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) 2017 Shamus Awards, in the ‘Best First Private Eye Novel’ category to be announced in September.

An extract of FEVER CITY was previously shortlisted, and ‘highly commended’ for the CWA Debut Dagger, and the published novel (UK, Faber 2016) was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey dagger.The novel has also been published in Italy (Mondadori), and in Japan (Shogakukan).

FEVER CITY is a searing counter-factual conspiracy thriller with three intertwining narratives. Nick Alston, a Los Angeles private investigator, is hired to find the kidnapped son of America's richest and most hated man; Hastings, a gun-for-hire in search of redemption, is also linked to the case. But both men soon become ensnared by a sinister cabal that spreads from the White House all the way to Dealey Plaza and the assassination on JFK. Decades later in Dallas, Alston's son stumbles across evidence that might link his father to the shot heard round the world.

Faber will publish Tim’s next novel, CITY WITHOUT STARS, in January 2018

Praise for FEVER CITY:

‘[A] remarkable first novel …inspired writing, memorable characters and an exhilarating, all but overpowering story.’ – Patrick Anderson, Washington Post

‘Ambitious debut… a bare knuckle take… a noirish storm of corruption, violence and depravity…’ —The New York Times, USA

An inventive take on the great American conspiracy theory...’ —The Sunday Times, Crime Club Newsletter January Picks 2016

‘Sprawling, ambitious and atmospheric…this debut author is the natural successor to such hallowed crime writers as Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy.’—Stylist UK

'Tim Baker paints a lurid, sinister portrait of mid-century America, skilfully layering fact and fiction in a way that will forever change the way you think about the Kennedy assassination. An impressive debut.' – Peter Swanson

‘Another mighty impressive debut by a British author...Baker has the audacity to revisit the web of conspiracies surrounding the JFK assassination and despite the sterling previous contributions to the fictional subject by James Ellroy, Don De Lillo and even Stephen King, comes up trumps.’ – Maxim Jakubowski, LoveReading.com

‘Phenomenal. It's a brilliantly conceived and executed thriller that deftly combines smack-you-in-the-mouth intensity with imagery and prose to die for. It's beautifully stark, brutal when it needs to be, and thoroughly engrossing. There have been some truly great books written about the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination, and Fever City can stand with any of them.’ – Rob Reynolds, author of THE DARK INSIDE