On May 10, the shortlists for The Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Awards categories were announced. The Diamond Dagger winners for lifetime achievement in crime writing were also announced. This year, writers Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke each won the coveted Diamond Dagger. The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) holds the Dagger Awards every year for great contributions in crime and mystery writing. Winners of the shortlisted categories will be announced on July 4 in London. There are 13 different categories. This list gathers together all long-listed titles owned by ICPL.
Flags on the bayou: a novel
Burke, James Lee, 1936- author.
MYSTERY Burke James
"In the fall of 1863, the Union Army is in control of the Mississippi River. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate Army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed--and did--as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle's plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah."--
Scorched grace
Douaihy, Margot, author.
MYSTERY Douaihy, Margot
"When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos. Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn't satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past"--
Simply lies
Baldacci, David, author.
FICTION Baldacci David
"Two women-a former detective and a dangerous con artist-go head-to-head in a twisting game of cat and mouse"--
Red queen
Gómez-Jurado, Juan, author.
FICTION Gomez-Jurado, Juan
"Introducing Antonia Scott-the most compelling and original detective since Lisbeth Salander-in Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen, the #1 international award-winning bestseller thriller that has taken the world by storm. Antonia Scott-the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother-has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment. Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao-disgraced, suspended, and about to face criminal charges-is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case. The case is a macabre, ritualistic murder-a teen-aged boy from a wealthy family whose body was found without a drop of blood left in it. But the murder is just the start. A high-ranking executive and daughter of one of the richest men in Spain is kidnapped, a crime which is tied to the previous murder. Behind them both is a hidden mastermind with even more sinister plans. And the only person with a chance to see the connections, solve the crimes and successfully match wits with the killer before tragedy strikes again...is Antonia Scott"--
The lock-up: a novel
Banville, John, author.
FICTION Banville John
In 1950s Dublin, renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI John Strafford investigate the murder of a young history scholar with the help of her journalist sister, and as they close in on the killer, their personal lives put the case, and the lives of everyone involved, in danger.
The secret hours
Herron, Mick, author.
FICTION Herron Mick
"Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, an auditing of the British Secret Service "to investigate historical over-reaching." Monochrome's mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer--and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5's formidable First Desk did not become Britain's top spy by accident, and she has succeeded thwarting the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that brought Monochrome into being has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust--and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects swirl down the drain in the pounding London rain. Until the eve of Monochrome's shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a highly classified operation in 1994 Berlin--an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history"--
The Mantis : A Novel
Isaka, Kōtarō, 1971- author.
From the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of Bullet Train and Three Assassins, The Mantis is a propulsive thriller set in Tokyo's criminal underworld about the intrigue and tensions a family man faces as he tries to hide his secret life as a hitman. Kabuto is a highly skilled assassin eager to escape his dangerous profession and the hold his handler, the sinister Doctor, has over him. The Doctor, a real physician who hands over Kabuto's targets as "prescriptions" in his regular appointments with him, doesn't want to lose Kabuto as a profitable asset, but he agrees to let him pay his way out of his employment with a few last jobs. But the most lucrative jobs involve taking out other professional assassins, and Kabuto's final assignment puts him and his family-who have no idea about his double life-in danger. The third book in a loose trilogy set in Kotaro Isaka's imagined Tokyo criminal underworld, The Mantis features all the hallmarks of his work that readers have come to crave-assassins with quirky codenames and modi operandi, page-turning action sequences, madcap energy, and razor-sharp humor-making the novel a frenetic, unputdownable read that hurtles readers toward a thrilling climax.
Ozark dogs
Cranor, Eli, 1988- author.
MYSTERY Cranor Eli
"After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in a junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt. Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide and intersect to provide a personal, gripping look into the reality of life in the Ozark Mountains. Eli Cranor, author of the critically acclaimed Don't Know Tough, drew from a murder in his Arkansas hometown to craft this atmospheric, immersive story about family and how far some will go to protect it, honor it-or in some cases-destroy it"--
The golden gate
Chua, Amy, author.
MYSTERY Chua Amy
"Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change. In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris's sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth-not the powerful influence of Bainbridges' grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley's district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings-Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion. Chua's page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history"--
The lie maker : a novel
Barclay, Linwood, author.
FICTION Barclay Linwood
In this twisty, fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Take Your Breath Away, a man desperately tries to track down his father--who was taken into witness protection years ago--before his enemies can get to him. Your dad's not a good person. Your dad killed people, son. These are some of the last words Jack Givins' father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could. Years later, Jack is a grown man with problems of his own. He's a talented but struggling author, barely scraping by on the royalties from his moderately successful first book. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he's in no position to turn them down. They're recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection, people like Jack's father. The coincidence is astonishing to Jack at first, but he soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. Only there's one problem, Jack's father hasn't made contact with his handlers recently, and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger, and Jack may be the only one who can find him. But how will he find a man he's never truly known? A man who has done terrible things in his lifetime and made some deadly enemies in the process, enemies who wouldn't think twice about using his own son against him.
Night will find you
Heaberlin, Julia, author.
FICTION Heaberli Julia
"Vivvy Bouchet, daughter of a known psychic, was ten when she saved a boy's life by making an impossible prediction. Now she's an astrophysicist in Texas, devoted to science, but the boy she saved has become a cop who continues to believe she can see things no one else can. When he begs for help on the high-profile cold case of a kidnapped girl, Vivvy steps back into the ocean of voices that once nearly drowned her. She is forced to team up with detective Jesse Sharp, a skeptic of anything but fact. When Vivvy becomes the target of a conspiracy theorist podcaster, she fights back with both her scientific mind and her inexplicable gifts, hoping to lure a kidnapper, find a child who haunts her, and lay some of her own ghosts to rest. Sharply relevant, Julia Heaberlin's Night Will Find You explores the mysterious nature of belief-in psychic power, in science, in conspiracies, in a higher power-and the delicate dance between scientific truth and the things we can't explain"--
Harlem after midnight
Hare, Louise, author.
MYSTERY Hare Louise
"A body falls from a town house window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo...in this evocative, twisting new novel from the author of Miss Aldridge Regrets. Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she'd be there with her father. But now he's dead, and she's newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman-the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England-offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining. Will's friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she's falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town"--
Gaslight
Kayode, Femi (Fiction writer), author.
FICTION Kayode Femi
"Philip Taiwo returns to solve a missing-persons case, and in so doing, uncovers dark secrets the church has worked tirelessly to hide"--
My husband: a novel
Ventura, Maud, author.
FICTION Ventura Maud
"A beautiful forty-year-old French woman is pathologically obsessed with her husband, even after fifteen years together"--
Small mercies : a novel
Lehane, Dennis, author.
FICTION Lehane Dennis
"One night Mary Pat's teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn't come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched--asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don't take kindly to any threat to their business"--
Tell me what I am
Mannion, Una, author.
FICTION Mannion Una
"Nessa Garvey's sister Deena vanished without a trace in Philadelphia in 2004. In all that time, Nessa has never once doubted what her instincts told her: her sister's ex-husband has gotten away with an unspeakable crime. Nessa's niece, Ruby, is raised by her father, the man Nessa suspects, in rural Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ruby learns how to hunt, how the plants and trees grow, how to avoid making her father angry. The one question she longs to ask is the one she knows she cannot voice: What really happened to her mother? Over fourteen years, four hundred miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the family history of insidious power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways. But can they reach each other in time?"--
Homecoming: a novel
Morton, Kate, 1976- author.
FICTION Morton Kate
Called home to care for her grandmother after a fall, Jess, a journalist, discovers a book chronicling the police investigation into an old unsolved murder that has a shocking connection to her family.
Drowning: the rescue of Flight 1421: a novel
Newman, T. J. (Novelist), author.
FICTION Newman, T. J.
When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time run out.
The murder wheel
Mead, Tom, author.
MYSTERY Mead Tom
"When a sensational killing rocks 1938 London, local newspaper ads offer a hefty sum to the person who can say whodunnit. A man has been shot dead at the top of a Ferris wheel, and his wife--the only other person in their carriage--insists on her innocence. But who else could have fired the deadly bullet and escaped unseen? The sheer implausibility of the claim is enough to whip the press into a frenzy and, for young and idealistic Edmund Ibbs, the lawyer representing the accused, that frenzy may be his only hope at discovering the truth of the mysterious murder. As he digs into the case, Ibbs unwittingly enters a shadowy web of conspiracy and murder, soon finding himself implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes. First, a corpse appears out of thin air during a performance by a famed illusionist, then a second victim is mortally wounded in a locked dressing room backstage. Edmund is in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, attracting the suspicion of Scotland Yard inspector George Flint. His only hope at freedom comes in the form of retired stage magician Joseph Spector, a man steeped in the art of misdirection, who happens to be in the audience for the deadly show. Spector's mastery of illusion is capable of piercing the veil of deceit, but will his deductive powers be strong enough to explain this utterly confounding series of crimes?"--
Not Russian
Shevelev, Mikhail, author.
FICTION Shevelev Mikhail
"One evening in 2015, the journalist Pavel Vladimirovich and his wife Tatyana are at home when the news breaks that there has been a terrorist attack. Over a hundred people have been taken hostage in the Church of the Epiphany in the village of Nikolskoye near Moscow. As they watch, on the TV screen appears the face of one of the terrorists: Vadim Petrovich Seryegin, an old friend of Pavel's. The friendship between the two men evolved through periods of conflict, war, peace, emigration, and isolation. Pavel may be one of Vadim's only friends, and when others realize this, he is asked to negotiate with Vadim. The Church is horrifyingly silent when Pavel enters. Vadim welcomes Pavel but refuses to capitulate. As the stakes get higher and higher, Vadim's story including his connection to the wars in Chechnya and the Ukraine is revealed and it becomes clear that the first meeting between the two men was not all it first seemed to be to Pavel. Back in the church, Pavel learns that the terrorists have one and only one demand, and that it concerns the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin."--
West heart kill
McDorman, Dann, author.
MYSTERY Mcdorman Dann
"An irresistible murder mystery set at a genteel private club where everyone is a suspect, including the erratic detective on the scene-a remarkable debut that gleefully upends the rules of the genre and marks the arrival of a major new talent "The writer of murder, like all writers, must be a miser, conceding revelations bit by bit; for every novel is a puzzle, and every reader a sleuth." A remote, old-money hunting lodge. A raging storm. A locked room. Three corpses, discovered within four days. A cast of monied, scheming, unfaithful characters. When Detective Adam McAnnis joins an old college friend for the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, he finds himself among a set of not-entirely-friendly strangers. Then the body of one of the members is found at the lake's edge; hours later, a major storm hits. By the time power is restored on Sunday, two more people will be dead. The elements of the classic murder mystery are all present in West Heart Kill, but it's the daring structure and mischievously subversive narration that set this debut apart. This is no ordinary whodunit. Both an homage to the masters of the genre, and a wholly original spin on the form, it's a sheer delight from start to finish"--
The girl by the bridge
Arnaldur Indriðason, 1961- author.
MYSTERY Arnaldur Indridason
"An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention. A brilliant, chilling tale of broken dreams and children who have nowhere to turn"--
Everybody knows
Harper, Jordan, author.
MYSTERY Harper Jordan
After her boss is gunned down at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Mae Pruett, a "black-bag" publicist working at LA's most powerful crisis PR firm protecting the rich and depraved, decides to investigate, running afoul of the whole system.
Viper's dream : a novel
Lamar, Jake, author.
MYSTERY Lamar Jake
"Harlem, 1936. Clyde "The Viper" Morton boards a train from Alabama to Harlem to chase his dreams of being a jazz musician. When his talent fails him, he becomes caught up in the dangerous underbelly of Harlem's drug trade. In this heartbreaking novel, one man must decide what he is willing to give up and what he wants to fight for. Viper's Dream is a fast-paced story that is charged with suspense. A snappy, provocative voice and a stark look at Viper's Black American experience weave with endless plot twists to offer readers a stunningly original, achingly beautiful read."--
The sins of our fathers
Larsson, Åsa, 1966- author.
MYSTERY Larsson Asa
Forensic pathologist Lars Pohjanen has only a few weeks to live when he asks Rebecka Martinsson to investigate a murder that has long since passed the statute of limitations. A body found in a freezer at the home of the deceased alcoholic, Henry Pekkari, has been identified as a man who disappeared without a trace in 1962: the father of Swedish Olympic boxing champion Ḇrje Stṟm. Rebecka wants nothing to do with a fifty-year-old case - she has enough to worry about. But how can she ignore a dying man's wish? When the post-mortem confirms that Pekkari, too, was murdered, Rebecka has a red-hot investigation on her hands. But what does it have to do with the body kept in his freezer for decades? Meanwhile, the city of Kiruna is being torn down and moved a few kilometres east, to make way for the mine that has been devouring the city from below. With the city in flux, the tentacles of organized crime are slowly taking over.
The golden spoon : a novel
Maxwell, Jessa, author.
MYSTERY Maxwell, Jessa
"When production for the tenth season of the hit cooking competition Bake Week begins at the gothic estate of the show's host and founder, celebrity chef Betsy Martin, everything seems normal. The six contestants are eager to prove their culinary talents over the course of five days, while Betsy struggles for control of the show with her new co-host, the brash and unpredictable Archie Morris. But as the baking competition gets under way, things begin to go awry. At first it's merely sabotage--sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high--but then someone shows up dead and suddenly everyone's a suspect"--
After that night
Slaughter, Karin, 1971- author.
MYSTERY Slaughte Karin
Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton's life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her. Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who's been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper's assault is uncannily linked to Sara's. And it seems the past isn't going to stay buried forever.
The other half
Vassell, Charlotte, author.
MYSTERY Vassell Charlott
"Rupert's 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's-catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about aristocrats and Classics degrees, Instagram influencers and whose father knows who. Or is it 'whom'? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and thoroughly modern-he discovers Clemmie's body on his early morning jog. As he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxurious life of these London socialites, a wall of staggering wealth and privilege threatens to shut down his investigation before it's even begun. Can Caius peer through the tangled mess of connections in which the other half live-and die-before the case is wrenched from his hands? Bitingly funny, full of shocking twists, and all too familiar, The Other Half is a stunning debut from your next favorite crime writer"--
The tumbling girl
Walsh, Bridget, 1964- author.
MYSTERY Walsh Bridget
"1876, Victorian London. Minnie Ward, a feisty scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall, is devastated when her best friend is found brutally murdered. She enlists the help of private detective Albert Easterbrook to help her find justice. Together they navigate London, from its high-class clubs to its murky underbelly. But as the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they're going to track down the killer - and make it out alive . . . The first in a sharp, witty series of Victorian mystery novels, The Tumbling Girl is sure to delight fans of Sarah Waters, Elizabeth Macneal, and Miss Scarlet and the Duke."--