Sapere Books are proud to be sponsoring the Crime Writers’ Association’s Historical Dagger Award, which is for the best historical crime novel set in any period at least 50 years prior to the year in which the prize is presented.
This year’s judges were Janet Laurence, the author of four cookery books and a series of articles on historical cookery; Angela May Rippon CBE, a television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter; and Professor Edward James, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin.
The 2021 longlist has now been announced. Many congratulations to the following authors and publishers:
Justice for Athena by J M Alvey, Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
Snow by John Banville, Faber
Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan, Hodder & Stoughton
Riviera Gold by Laurie R King, Allison & Busby
The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd, Orion Fiction, The Orion Publishing Group
Execution by S J Parris, HarperFiction, HarperCollins
The Night of Shooting Stars by Ben Pastor, Bitter Lemon Press
The City Under Siege by Michael Russell, Constable, Little, Brown Book Group
Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons by David S. Stafford, Allison & Busby
Chaos by A D Swanston, Bantam Press, Transworld
The Dead of Winter by Nicola Upson, Faber
The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu, Constable, Little, Brown Book Group
Sapere Books are proud to be sponsoring the Crime Writers’ Association’s Historical Dagger Award, which is for the best historical crime novel set in any period at least 50 years prior to the year in which the prize is presented.
This year’s judges were Janet Laurence, the author of four cookery books and a series of articles on historical cookery; Angela May Rippon CBE, a television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter; Professor Edward James, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin; and Andre Paine, former editor of Crime Scene magazine.
The 2020 longlist has now been announced. Congratulations to the following authors and publishers:
THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY by Lynne Truss, Raven Books
THE KING’S EVIL by Andrew Taylor, Harper Collins
THE BEAR PIT by SG MacLean, Quercus Fiction
THE ANARCHISTS’ CLUB by Alex Reeve, Raven Books
METROPOLIS by Philip Kerr, Quercus Fiction
THE PAPER BARK TREE MYSTERY by Ovidia Yu, Constable
THE SERPENT’S MARK by SW Perry, Corvus
IN TWO MINDS by Alis Hawkins, The Dome Press
LIBERATION SQUARE by Gareth Rubin, Michael Joseph
THE BONE FIRE by SD Sykes, Hodder & Stoughton
SORRY FOR THE DEAD by Nicola Upson, Faber & Faber
DEATH IN THE EAST by Abir Mukherjee, Harvill Secker
On Thursday evening, we attended the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City – a starry celebration of the best crime writing of the year in the UK.
We are the proud sponsors of the Sapere Books Historical Dagger Award, which recognises the best historical crime novel of the year. From a shortlist of six, the fabulous Destroying Angel by S. G. MacLean was chosen as the winner!
Set in 1655, Destroying Angel is the third novel in MacLean’s popular and critically acclaimed Seeker series. The first book in the series, Seeker, won the Historical Dagger in 2015, so this is a second win for MacLean’s excellent series.
This third book follows Captain Damian Seeker, a trusted member of Oliver Cromwell’s guard, as he travels to the Yorkshire village of Faithly to enforce the government’s anti-Royalist laws. Upon arrival, Damian is invited to dinner at the home of Faithly’s Puritan commissioner, Matthew Pullan – a tension-filled gathering that ends with Pullan’s young ward, Gwendolen, being fatally poisoned.
With suspicion and bitterness rife in the village, Damian must discover whether Gwendolen’s death was an accident or something more sinister. Atmospheric and full of compellingly unsavoury characters, Destroying Angel’s meticulous historical details and intricate narrative keep the reader absorbed throughout.
We would like to congratulate S. G. MacLean on her well-deserved win and applaud all of the shortlistees for their wonderful work!
You can order all the books in S G MacLean’s Seeker series here.
We would also like to say a massive thank you to CWA Chair Linda Stratmann, Vice Chair Jean Briggs and everyone else on the CWA committee who put in some much hard work organising the event! We are very happy to be building an ongoing relationship with the Association and we can’t wait for next year.
We are the proud publishers of both CWA Chair Linda Stratmann and Vice Chair Jean Briggs’ novels.
Click here to find out more about Linda Stratmann’s Mina Scarletti series.
Click here to find out more about Jean Briggs Charles Dickens Investigations series.
