The 2026 Dagger Awards were presented on July 2, 2026, in London. The Dagger Awards are presented by The Crime Writer’s Association to celebrate the best in crime and thriller writing. Listed are the winners (listed first in bold) and the finalists. All of the 2026 Dagger Awards finalists would be great to add to your reading lists.
Based in the United Kingdom, The Crime Writer’s Association was founded in 1953 to promote and celebrate crime fiction and non-fiction. The CWA authors are of all ages and from all over the world.
Let me remind you why I post these lists each year, including the 2026 Dagger Awards. Following the lists for the different awards is a great way to find new books and authors that you might enjoy. The Dagger Awards represent writers from all over the world. The nominees for all of the awards have been vetted by their judges and placed in the appropriate category. It’s not always easy to determine a book’s genre by the title or its cover. Even these categories are not always fixed in stone, but they are a great start. And a great way to discover a new read before your friends.
The Diamond Dagger for a lifetime contribution to English-language crime writing
Mark Billingham
The Gold Dagger for the overall best crime novel of the year
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Johnson
The Girl in Cell A by Vaseem Khan
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
The Whodunnit Dagger celebrates books
where the sex, swearing, and violence is offscreen and focuses in the intellectual challenge
A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant
Little Secrets by Victoria Goldman
Etiquette for Lovers & Killers by Anna Fitzgerald Healy
A Queer Case by Robert Holton
Bad Influence by CJ Wray
The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers
We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
What Happens in the Dark by Kia Abdullah
Her Many Faces by Nicci Cloke
Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins
The Bodies by Sam Lloyd
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best espionage, noir, or adventure thriller novel.
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
The Big Empty by Robert Crais
A Sting in her Tale by Mark Ezra
Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W. Ihli
The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney
We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
The ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger
The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey
The Peak by Sam Guthrie
The Lost Detective by Elspeth Latimer
The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin
Coram House by Bailey Seybolt
Holy City by Henry Wise
Historical Dagger for the best historical crime novel set 50 years prior or before
A Granite Silence by Nina Allan
Barvick Falls by Rob McInroy
The Devil’s Draper by Donna Moore
Gunner by Alan Parks
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith
The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction
That Dark Spring by Susannah Stapleton
Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland by Aine Cain and Kevin Greenlee
The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB by Gordon Corera
The Murder Game by John Curran
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
The Illegals by Shaun Walker
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger for the crime novel not originally written in English and translated into English for UK Publication
The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen
Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse
The Lake by Jorn Lier Horst
Red Water by Jurica Pavicic
Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann
Strange Pictures by Uketsu
The 2026 Dagger Awards presented from the Crime Writers Association in London @OpeningaMystery #Mysteries #Awards @The_CWA Share on X
Short Story Dagger for the best crime-focused short story of the year
“The Apple Falls Not Far” by Ambrose Parry
“Split Your Silver Tongue” By S.A. Cosby (Birds, Strangers, and Psychos)
“The Karpman Drama Triangle” by Denise Mina (Birds, Strangers and Psychos)
“Full Circle” by Abir Mukherjee (Playing Dead: Short Stories by Members of the Detective Club)
“Strangers on a School Bus” by Peter Swanson (Birds, Strangers, and Psychos)
“Waiting” by Michael Wood (Criminal Pursuits: This Is Me)