The 2022 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced.

Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

Past winners of the prestigious Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the crime novel of the year, include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell.

Bestselling names in contention for Gold this year include Mark Billingham, Paula Hawkins and Imran Mahmood.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, the Fleming family-owned company that looks after the James Bond literary brand, showcases the thriller of the year. Past winners including Gillian Flynn and Robert Harris. The longlist for 2022 includes MW Craven, who credited the CWA Debut Dagger competition in 2013 for opening the door to his career as an author. He’s up against stalwarts of the genre including Laura Lippman, Belinda Bauer and Linwood Barclay.

Long-time friend and colleague of LoveReading, Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “The CWA Dagger awards are unparalleled for their reputation and longevity and celebrate the very best of the genre. This year’s longlists showcase authors – established and new – at the top of their game. The sheer diversity of the titles on these longlists illustrates how the genre can entertain and thrill but also provide healthy arguments for much societal debate. In a year when more crime and mystery titles were issued than ever before, our independent judges found making choices difficult, and winnowing these titles down to a forthcoming shortlist will prove fascinating."

The much-anticipated John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels. Among the rising stars of 2022 is Janice Hallett with her debut The Appeal, which was a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, praised as a “dazzlingly clever cosy crime novel”.

Booker Prize winner John Banville is a heavyweight contender on the Historical Dagger longlist. The prizewinning novelist and literary polymath is in the running for April in Spain. Banville is up against established names including Simon Scarrow, Andrew Taylor and Crime Cymru organiser, Alis Hawkins.

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger sees the award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen with The Rabbit Factor and the French author Victor Jestin, for his dark coming-of-age-novel Heatwave, among the longlist.

The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story. This year sees the bestselling Norwegian juggernaut Jo Nesbⱷ on the longlist with his story ‘London’ from his first book of short stories, The Jealousy Man. Novelists Caroline England and Bryony Pearce are other names on the list.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction features The Jigsaw Murders, the debut book by Jeremy Craddock who worked as journalist and crime reporter for over 20 years, tracing the true story of the shocking 1930s murder case.

The Dagger in the Library is voted on exclusively by librarians, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year sees firm favourites from the genre including Mark Billingham, Susan Hill, Lin Anderson and Cath Staincliffe.

The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits big publishing houses including Harper Fiction against independent publishers such as Titan Books and the Amazon imprint, Thomas & Mercer.

The Daggers also celebrate unpublished authors with its annual competition for aspiring crime novelists. The competition to find the best new voices in the genre has been going for over 20 years. The winner will receive £500 as well as the attention of leading agents and top editors; over two dozen past winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger authors have been signed to date.

The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring each year and in 2022 it was awarded to C.J. Sansom.

The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced on 13 May at CrimeFest. The awards ceremony will be held at the Leonardo City hotel in London on 29 June, coinciding with National Crime Reading Month, which takes place throughout June.

The Longlists in Full:


Gold Dagger
Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah 
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham
City of Vengeance by DV Bishop
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby
The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg
The Unwilling by John Hart
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
Lightseekers by Femi Kayode
I Know What I Saw by Imran Mahmood
The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee
The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
The Trawlerman by William Shaw
Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
A Beginner's Guide to Murder by Rosalind Stopps
Brazilian Psycho by Joe Thomas

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames
Find You First by Linwood Barclay
Exit by Belinda Bauer
The Pact by Sharon Bolton
The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby
Dead Ground by MW Craven
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Dream Girl by Laura Lippman
Rizzio by Denise Mina
The Lonely Ones by Håkan Nesser

John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani
Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan
Repentance by Eloísa Díaz
Hunted by Antony Dunford
The Mash House by Alan Gillespie
Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Falling by T. J. Newman
Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
How to Kidnap the Rich by Rahul Raina
A Mumbai Murder Mystery by Meeti Shroff-Shah
The Source by Sarah Sultoon
Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman

Historical Dagger
April in Spain by John Banville
City of Vengeance by D. V. Bishop
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Crow Court by Andy Charman
Not One Of Us by Alis Hawkins
The Drowned City by K. J. Maitland
Where God Does Not Walk by Luke McCallin
Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry
Blackout by Simon Scarrow
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor
The Cannonball Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger
Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribb
Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward 
Riccardino by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli
Seat 7a by Sebastian Fitzek translated by Steve Anderson
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka translated by Sam Malissa
Heatwave by Victor Jestin translated by Sam Taylor
Oxygen by Sacha Naspini translated by Clarissa Botsford
People Like Them by Samira Sedira translated by Lara Vergnaud
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen translated by David Hackston
The Scorpion's Head by Hilde Vandermeeren translated by Laura Watkinson

Short Story Dagger
Blindsided by Caroline England in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe
The Victim by Awais Khan in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe
New Tricks by Matt Wesolowski in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess
London in The Jealousy Man and other stories by Jo Nesbⱷ edited by Robert Ferguson
With the Others by TM Logan in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess
The Clifton Vampire by TE Kinsey in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess
Flesh of a Fancy Woman by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe
Changeling by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe
The Way Of All Flesh by Raven Dane in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe
When I Grow Up by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction
The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion by Dr Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne
The Seven Ages of Death by Dr Richard Shepherd
The Jigsaw Murders by Jeremy Craddock
The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris
What Lies Buried by Kerry Daynes
The Unusual Suspect by Ben Machell
The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro
The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice by Julia Laite
We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire by Julie Kavanagh

Dagger in the Library
Ben Aaronovitch
Lin Anderson
Mark Billingham
Susan Hill
Edward Marston
Kate Rhodes
Sara Sheridan
Cath Staincliffe
Rebecca Tope

Publisher's Dagger
Faber & Faber
HarperCollins Harper; Fiction
Pan Macmillan; Mantle
Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph
Oneworld Publications; Point Blank Pushkin
Press; Pushkin Vertigo
Hachette UK; Quercus
Bloomsbury; Raven Books
Amazon; Thomas & Mercer
Titan Books
Profile Books; Viper

Debut Dagger Sponsored by ProWritingAid
Henry’s Bomb by Kevin Bartlett
Lufkin, Texas by Katherine Futers
Holloway Castle by Laura Aston Hill
The 10:12 by Anna Maloney
The Mercy Seat by Rachel Nixon
The Two Murders at Manor Park by Elizabeth Opalka
Blood Caste by Shylashri Shankar
Dead Reckoning by Jennifer Slee & Jessica Slee
The Dead of Egypt by David Smith
The Dieppe Letters by Liz Rachel Walker