The author behind A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, Holly Jackson, and The Good Daughter novelist Karin Slaughter are among the authors up for top crime writer awards.
Jackson was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) best crime novel category and nominated for the coveted Gold Dagger award for her 2025 adult thriller, Not Quite Dead Yet.
The novel follows 27-year-old Jet Mason, the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont, who suffers a brain injury after being attacked on Halloween. After being given only seven days left to live, she is determined to solve her own murder.
She is up against southern noir crime fiction novelist SA Cosby, known as Shawn Andre Cosby, whose book King Of Ashes has been shortlisted for an unprecedented three Dagger awards, including Gold, the Short Story Dagger and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, which recognises the best thriller of the year.
Completing the Gold category is Abigail Dean’s The Death Of Us, Vaseem Khan’s The Girl In Cell A, Ariel Lawhon with The Frozen and Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s The Art Of A Lie, a novel that also made the Historical Dagger shortlist.
Nadine Matheson, chairwoman of the CWA, said: “This year’s shortlist is a fantastic reflection of the extraordinary breadth and diversity of crime fiction today, and a celebration of authors from debuts to established names, whose creative talents ensure that the genre continues to grow from strength to strength.”
Meanwhile, global bestselling author Slaughter was shortlisted for the best thriller category and nominated for a Steel Dagger award for her novel, We Are All Guilty Here.
The novel follows Emma Clifton as she throws herself into a search for a missing girl, however quickly realises the small town she thought she knew is full of secrets.
Slaughter is up against the standalone thriller, Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W Ihli, which was inspired by the real-life 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping, where three armed men hijacked a school bus and abducted the bus driver and 26 children, who were aged 5 to 14.
Completing the category is Tariq Ashkanani’s The Midnight King, Robert Crais’s The Big Empty, Mark Ezra’s A Sting In Her Tale and Liam McIlvanney’s The Good Father.
Created in 1955, the CWA Dagger awards are the oldest awards in the genre.
According to the CWA, the 2026 shortlisted titles showcase a range and depth from the genre, from historical fiction to thrillers and classic whodunnits, with a mix of established authors of the genre as well as emerging talent.
The 2026 winners to be announced at the CWA gala dinner awards night in July.
