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Dagger Of Daggers
The Dagger of Daggers was a special award given in 2005 by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) to celebrate its 50th anniversary. All books that had previously won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year were eligible, and the purpose was to select "the best of the best". The shortlist was selected by a ballot of CWA members, with the winner decided by a second round of voting. Winner *John le Carré - ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' 1963 Shortlist * Anthony Price - ''Other Paths to Glory'' 1974 *Martin Cruz Smith - '' Gorky Park'' 1981 *Peter Lovesey - ''The False Inspector Dew'' 1982 *Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) - ''A Fatal Inversion'' 1987 * Reginald Hill - '' Bones and Silence'' 1990 *Val McDermid - ''The Mermaids Singing ''The Mermaids Singing'' (1995) is a crime novel by Scottish author Val McDermid. The first featuring her recurring protagonist, Dr. Tony Hill, it was adapted into the pilot episode of ITV1's television series based on McDermid's wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. The Association also promotes crime writing of fiction and non-fiction by holding annual competitions, publicising literary festivals and establishing links with libraries, booksellers and other writer organisations, both in the UK such as the Society of Authors, and overseas. The CWA enables members to network at its annual conference and through its regional chapters as well as through dedicated social media channels and private website. Members' events and general news items are published on the CWA website, which also features Find An Author, where CWA members are listed and information provided about themselves, their books and their awards. The CWA publishes a monthly magazine exclusively for members called ''Red Herrings'', edited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gold Dagger
The CWA Gold Dagger is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom since 1960 for the best crime novel of the year. From 1955 to 1959, the organization named their top honor as the Crossed Red Herring Award. From 1995 to 2002 the award acquired sponsorship from The Macallan, Macallan and was known as the Macallan Gold Dagger. In 2006, because of new sponsorship from the Duncan Lawrie Bank, the award was officially renamed as the Duncan Lawrie Dagger, and gained a prize fund of £20,000. It was the biggest crime-fiction award in the world in monetary terms. In 2008, Duncan Lawrie Bank withdrew its sponsorship of the awards. As a result, the top prize is again called the Gold Dagger without a monetary award. From 1969 to 2005, a Silver Dagger was awarded to the runner-up. When Duncan Lawrie acquired sponsorship, this award was dropped. After the sponsorship was withdrawn, this award was not reinstated. Since its inception, the award has bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen. Le Carré's third novel, ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' (1963), became an international best-seller, was adapted as an award-winning film, and remains one of his best-known works. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author. His other novels that have been adapted for film or television include '' The Looking Glass War'' (1965), '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (1974), '' Smiley's People'' (1979), '' The Little Drummer Girl'' (1983), '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' is a 1963 Cold War spy fiction, spy novel by the British author John le Carré. It depicts Alec Leamas, a United Kingdom, British intelligence officer, being sent to East Germany as a faux Defection, defector to sow disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer. It serves as a sequel to le Carré's previous novels ''Call for the Dead'' and ''A Murder of Quality'', which also featured the fictitious British intelligence organisation, "The Circus", and its agents George Smiley and Peter Guillam. ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' portrays Western espionage methods as morally inconsistent with Liberal democracy, Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an international best-seller; it was selected as one of the ''Time's List of the 100 Best Novels, All-Time 100 Novels'' by ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine. In 1965, Martin Ritt directed a The Spy Who Came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Price
Alan Anthony Price (16 August 1928 – 30 May 2019) was an English author of espionage thrillers. Early life Price was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England. He attended The King's School, Canterbury and served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949, reaching the rank of captain. He read history at Merton College, Oxford, from 1949 to 1952, and was awarded an MA in 1956. Career Price was a journalist with the Westminster Press from 1952 to 1988, as well as the editor of the '' Oxford Times'' from 1972 to 1988. He was the author of nineteen novels in the ''Dr David Audley''/''Colonel Jack Butler'' series. These books focus on a group of counter-intelligence agents who work for an organization loosely based on the real MI5. Death Price died in Blackheath, London, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 30 May 2019, at the age of 90. Bibliography Novels *''The Labyrinth Makers'' (1970) UK; (1971) US; winner of Silver Dagger Award. *''The Alamut Ambush'' (1971) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith, born Martin William Smith (November 3, 1942), is an American writer of mystery and suspense fiction, mostly in an international or historical setting. He is best known for his series featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko, so far ten novels, who was introduced in 1981 with '' Gorky Park'' and most recently appeared in ''Independence Square'' (2023). Early life and education Martin William Smith was born in Reading, Pennsylvania to John Calhoun Smith, a jazz musician, and Louise Lopez, an American Indian of Pueblo descent, jazz singer, teacher, Amerindian rights militant, and Miss New Mexico 1939. Martin was educated at Germantown Academy, in Ft Washington, Pennsylvania, then at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964. He is of partly Pueblo, Spanish, Senecu del Sur and Yaqui ancestry. Career Smith worked as a journalist from 1965 to 1969 and began writing fiction in the early 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorky Park (novel)
''Gorky Park'' is a 1981 crime novel written by American author Martin Cruz Smith.O'Brien, Timothy L. ''The New York Times'' (August 6, 2007)"Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series: A trail of clues to the Russian soul"Wroe, Nicholas, ''The Guardian'' (March 26, 2005)"Crime Pays" Set in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, ''Gorky Park'' is the first book in a series featuring the character Arkady Renko, a Moscow homicide investigator. Two subsequent books, '' Polar Star'' and ''Red Square'', are also set during the Soviet era. Seven further books starring Renko take place after the fall of the Soviet Union. These are '' Havana Bay'', set in communist Cuba; '' Wolves Eat Dogs'', which follows Renko in the disaster of Chernobyl; '' Stalin's Ghost'', in which Arkady returns to a Russia led by Vladimir Putin; '' Three Stations''; ''Tatiana''; ''The Siberian Dilemma''; and ''Independence Square''.See, Carolyn, ''The Washington Post'' (September 3, 2010)Three Stations,' the new th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Lovesey
Peter Harmer Lovesey (10 September 1936 – 10 April 2025), also known by his pen name Peter Lear, was a British writer of Historical mystery, historical and Detective fiction, contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian era, Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath, Somerset, Bath. He was also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians. Early life Lovesey was born in Middlesex, England, on 10 September 1936, and attended Hampton Grammar School. He went to Reading University in 1955 but since he did not have the requisite Latin qualification to study English, he chose a degree in Fine Art which included History and English as elective subjects. Two of his English tutors, John Wain (1925–94) and Frank Kermode (1919–2010), thought well enough of Lovesey's essays to get him into the English course after all. He graduated from Read ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The False Inspector Dew
''The False Inspector Dew'' is a 1982 humorous crime novel by Peter Lovesey and his ninth book. It won the Gold Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association in 1982 and has featured on many "Best of" lists since. Plot Set in the 1920s, ''The False Inspector Dew'' tells the story of dentist Walter Baranov and his romantic interest Alma Webster, who plot to murder his wife while aboard the ocean liner RMS Mauretania (1906), ''Mauretania''. Learning from mistakes made by real-life murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen, Dr Crippen, they plan to push Mrs Baranov overboard and have Alma take her place. The dentist takes on the identity of Inspector Walter Dew, Crippen's nemesis, but when a murder occurs aboard the ship, the captain invites "Inspector Dew" to investigate. Literary significance and reception The novel is highly praised by many crime fiction critics and writers. When the book was first published, ''Library Journal'' commended the "delightfully comic story with countless twi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Sixth edition. Ed. by Margaret Drabble. Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 847. . A second string of works was a series of unrelated crime novels that explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. She has sold an estimated 20 million copies. Early life Rendell was born as Ruth Barbara Grasemann in 1930, in South Woodford, Essex (now Greater London). Her parents were teachers. Her mother, Ebba Kruse, was born in Sweden to Danish parents and brought up in Denmark; her father, Arthur Grasemann, was English. As a result of spending Christmas and other holidays in Scandinavia, Rendell learn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Fatal Inversion
''A Fatal Inversion'' is a 1987 novel by Ruth Rendell, written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. The novel won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger in that year and, in 1987, was also shortlisted for the Dagger of Daggers, a special award to select the best Gold Dagger winner of the award's 50-year history. Plot summary In the process of burying a beloved dog in the animal cemetery of Wyvis Hall, a beautiful Suffolk country house, the owner unearths the skeletons of a dead woman and baby. The horrific discovery challenges the buried memories and guilt of a small group of young people who, 10 years earlier, spent the broiling summer of 1976 in a self-indulgently irresponsible idyll at Wyvis Hall, unexpectedly inherited by one of their number. Slowly the facts emerge and the past catches up with them. But which woman is dead? And whose child? Adaptations The BBC adapted the novel for Radio 4 in 1991, and in three episodes for television in 1992 as the first novel to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Hill
Reginald Charles Hill FRSL (3 April 193612 January 2012) was an English crime writer and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1978. Biography Hill was born to a "very ordinary" family. His father, Reg Hill, was a professional footballer. His mother was a fan of Golden Age crime writers, and he discovered the genre while fetching her library books. He passed the eleven plus exam and attended Carlisle Grammar School where he excelled in English. After National Service (1955–57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford (1957–60), he worked as a teacher for many years, becoming a senior lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work to devote himself full-time to writing. Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. The charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |