LibGuides: Dagger Awards: John Creasey New Blood Dagger

Title Box

Dagger Awards
John Creasy New Blood Dagger

2020-2029

The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood

WINNER

The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Æfiasó

The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir; Victoria Cribb (Translator)
Call Number: FIC AEGIS EVAB CR (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781913193041
Publication Date: 2021-03-01
When a body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she's no stranger to the area. Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her collegues S var and Horour, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman's past that continues to reverberate in the present day. But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries, they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the townspeople's shattered memories, they have to dodge increasingly serious threats, and find justice ... before it's too late.

SHORTLIST

City of Ghosts by Ben Creed
The One That Got Away by Egan Hughes
The Bone Jar by S. W. Kane
Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
Three-Fifths by John Vercher

The Bone Jar (Detective Lew Kirby #1) by S. W. Kane
Call Number: FIC KANE SW K1 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781542018876
Publication Date: 2020-07-01
The body of an elderly woman has been found in the bowels of a derelict asylum on the banks of the Thames. As Detective Lew Kirby and his partner begin their investigation, another body is discovered in the river nearby. How are the two murders connected? Before long, the secrets of Blackwater Asylum begin to reveal themselves. There are rumours about underground bunkers and secret rooms, unspeakable psychological experimentation, and a dark force that haunts the ruins, trying to pull back in all those who attempt to escape. Urban explorer Connie Darke, whose sister died in a freak accident at the asylum, is determined to help Lew expose its grisly past. Meanwhile Lew discovers a devastating family secret that threatens to turn his life upside down. As his world crumbles around him, Lew must put the pieces of the puzzle together to keep the killer from striking again. Only an eccentric former patient really knows the truth--but will he reveal it to Lew before it's too late?

Fortune Favors the Dead (Pentecost & Parker #1) by Stephen Spotswood
Call Number: FIC SPOTS STE P1 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780385546553
Publication Date: 2020-10-27
New York, 1942: Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation. Three years later: Will and Lillian are on a case: Abigail Collins was found bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball following a big, boozy Halloween party at her home; her body in the same chair where her steel magnate husband shot himself the year before - in a locked room. The case involves messages from the dead, a seductive spiritualist, and Becca Collins - daughter of the deceased. When Will and Becca start a relationship, Will discovers she may have become the murderer's next target.

Three-Fifths by John Vercher
Call Number: FIC VERCH JOH T (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781947993679
Publication Date: 2019-09-10
Pittsburgh, 1995. The son of a black father he's never known, and a white mother he sometimes wishes he didn't, twenty-two year-old Bobby Saraceno has passed for white his entire life. Raised by his bigoted maternal grandfather, Bobby has hidden the truth about his identity from everyone, even his best friend and fellow comic-book geek, Aaron, who has just returned home from prison a newly radicalized white supremacist. Bobby's disparate worlds crash when, during the night of their reunion, Bobby witnesses Aaron mercilessly assault a young black man with a brick. Fearing for his safety and his freedom, Bobby must keep the secret of his mixed race from Aaron and conceal his unwitting involvement in the crime from the police. But Bobby's delicate house of cards crumbles when his father enters his life after more than twenty years, forcing his past to collide with his present.

WINNER

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

FINALISTS:

Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani
Repentance by Eloísa Díaz
The Mash House by Alan Gillespie
Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin
How to Kidnap the Rich by Rahul Raina
Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman

WINNER

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor
Call Number: FIC SCRIV HAY DT
ISBN: 9781529080261
Publication Date: 2022
On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home. Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it. Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it, she has seen what people are capable of. She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible. Lewis can believe it too. But he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his secret. Five days later, Esther's buried body is discovered. What do we owe the girl who isn't there?

FINALISTS

Breaking by Amanda Cassidy
The Local by Joey Hartzstone
London in Black by Jack Lutz
No Country for Girls by Emma Styles
Outback by Patricia Wolf

2010-2019

Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson
Call Number: FIC WATSO SJ B (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9780062060556
Publication Date: 2011-06-14
Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle-aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories. Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more unbelievable it seems.

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Call Number: FIC CASH WIL L (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780062088147
Publication Date: 2012-04-17
For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can't help sneaking a look at something he's not supposed to—an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess's. It's a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he's not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil—but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.
A Land More Kind Than Home [Streaming audiobook] by Wiley Cash
Call Number: FIC CASH WIL L Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781481562430
Publication Date: 2012

Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

Norwegian by Night by Miller, Derek B.
Call Number: FIC MILLE DERB NO (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780544292666
Publication Date: 2014-05-06
Three journeys. One road. England, 1348. A gentlewoman is fleeing an odious arranged marriage, a Scottish proctor is returning home to Avignon and a handsome young ploughman in search of adventure is on his way to volunteer with a company of archers. All come together on the road to Calais. Coming in their direction from across the Channel is the Black Death, the plague that will wipe out half of the population of Northern Europe. As the journey unfolds, overshadowed by the archers' past misdeeds and clerical warnings of the imminent end of the world, the wayfarers must confront the nature of their loves and desires.

The Axeman's Jazz (U.S. title: The Axeman : a New Orleans Thriller Based on a True Story) by Ray Celestin

The Axeman : a New Orleans thriller based on a true story (UK Title: The Axeman's Jazz) by Celestin, Ray
Call Number: FIC CELES RAY AX (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781492609162
Publication Date: 2015-09-01
In a town jammed with voodoo and gangsters, a sense of intoxicating mystery often beckons from the back alleys. But when a real serial killer roams the sultry nights, even the corrupt cops can't see the clues. That is, until a letter from the Axeman himself is published in the newspaper, proclaiming that any home playing jazz music will be spared in his next attack.

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
Call Number: FIC HENDE SMI FO (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780062286444
Publication Date: 2014-05-27
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. In this shattering and iconic American novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion, and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions.

Dodgers by Bill Beverly

Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker

Tall Oaks by Whitaker, Chris
Call Number: FIC WHITA CHR T (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780486828459
Publication Date: 2019-03-20
When three-year-old Harry goes missing, the whole of America turns its attention to one small town. Everyone is eager to help. Everyone is a suspect. Desperate mother Jess, whose grief is driving her to extreme measures. Newcomer Jared, with an easy charm and a string of broken hearts in his wake. Photographer Jerry, who's determined to break away from his controlling mother once and for all. And, investigating them all, a police chief with a hidden obsession of his own.

Love, Lola by Melissa Scrivner

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

Scrublands by Hammer, Chris
Call Number: FIC HAMME CHR SC (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781432862930
Publication Date: 2019-04-10
In Riversend, an isolated rural community afflicted by an endless drought, a young priest does the unthinkable, killing five parishioners before being taken down himself. A year later, accompanied by his own demons from war-time reporting, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend. His assignment is simple: describe how the townspeople are coping as the anniversary of their tragedy approaches. But as Martin meets the locals and hears their version of events, he begins to realize that the accepted wisdom--that the priest was a pedophile whose imminent exposure was the catalyst for the shooting, a theory established through an award-winning investigation by Martin's own newspaper--may be wrong. Just as Martin believes he's making headway, a new development rocks the town. The bodies of two German backpackers--missing since the time of the church shootings--are discovered in a dam in the scrublands, deserted backwoods marked by forest fires. As the media flocks to the scene, Martin finds himself thrown into a whole new mystery. What was the real reason behind the priest's shooting spree? And how does it connect to the backpacker murders, if at all? Martin struggles to uncover the town's dark secrets, putting his job, his mental state, and his life at risk as more and more strange happenings escalate around him.

2000-2009

God is a Bullet by Boston Teran

The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones

The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

Mission Flats by William Landay

Amagansett by Mark Mills

Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell

Still Life by Louise Penny

Still Life (Chief Inspector Ganache #1) by Louise Penny
Call Number: Fiction P416g v.1 (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9781250000644
Publication Date: 2012-05-22
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Call Number: FIC FLYNN GIL SH (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 0307341542
Publication Date: 2006-09-26
WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart. Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preakerâs troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camilleâs first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg. Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her familyâs Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory. HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle. As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victimsâa bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.
Sharp Objects [E-Book] by Gillian Flynn
Call Number: FIC FLYNN GIL SH Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780307351487
Publication Date: 2006
Sharp Objects [Streaming Audiobook] by Gillian Flynn
Call Number: FIC FLYNN GIL SH Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780739346808
Publication Date: 2006

The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees

Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin

1990-1999

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

Postmortem [CD] by Patricia Cornwell; C. J. Critt (Narrated by)
Call Number: CD Fiction CO S1
ISBN: 9780788744631
Publication Date: 2002-01-07
Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is trying to unmask a serial killer, but someone is sabotaging her investigation. Worse yet, someone wants her dead.

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
Call Number: FIC MOSLE WAL E1 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780393028546
Publication Date: 1990-06-17
Set in the late 1940s, in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles, Devil in a Blue Dress follows Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Monet, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

The Ice House by Minette Walters

No award

Big Town by Doug J. Swanson

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, Book 1) by Janet Evanovich
Call Number: FIC EVANO JAN P1 (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9780684196398
Publication Date: 1994-08-26
Bail-bonds apprehension agent Stephanie Plum--a New Jersey bounty hunter with an attitude--pursues a former vice cop with whom she shares a sordid history and a powerful chemistry.
One for the Money [CD] (Stephanie Plum, Book 1) by Janet Evanovich; Lori Petty (Read by)
Call Number: CD Fiction EV S1 (Adult CD Audiobooks)
ISBN: 9780743552080
Publication Date: 2006-04-03
One for the Money [E-Book] by Janet Evanovich
Call Number: FIC EVANO JAN P1 Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780684867311
Publication Date: 1999-02-24
One for the Money [Streaming Audio] (Stephanie Plum, Book 1) by Janet Evanovich
Call Number: FIC EVANO JAN P1 Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780743552080
Publication Date: 2004

Dagger Awards

Title Box

2020-2029

The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood

WINNER

The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Æfiasó

SHORTLIST

City of Ghosts by Ben Creed

The One That Got Away by Egan Hughes

The Bone Jar by S. W. Kane

Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood

Three-Fifths by John Vercher

WINNER

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

FINALISTS:

Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani

Repentance by Eloísa Díaz

The Mash House by Alan Gillespie

Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin

How to Kidnap the Rich by Rahul Raina

Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman

WINNER

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor

FINALISTS

Breaking by Amanda Cassidy

The Local by Joey Hartzstone

London in Black by Jack Lutz

No Country for Girls by Emma Styles

Outback by Patricia Wolf

2010-2019

Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

The Axeman's Jazz (U.S. title: The Axeman : a New Orleans Thriller Based on a True Story) by Ray Celestin

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Dodgers by Bill Beverly

Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker

Love, Lola by Melissa Scrivner

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

2000-2009

God is a Bullet by Boston Teran

The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones

The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

Mission Flats by William Landay

Amagansett by Mark Mills

Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell

Still Life by Louise Penny

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees

Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin

1990-1999

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

The Ice House by Minette Walters

No award

Big Town by Doug J. Swanson

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

No award

Body Politic by Paul Johnston

Gamethill by Denise Mina

Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman

1980-1989

Dupe by Liza Cody

The Ludi Victory by James Leigh

The Night the Gods Smiled by Eric Wright

The Ariadne Clue by Carol Clemeau

A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside

The Latimer Mercy by Robert Richards

Tinplate by Neville Steed

Dark Apostle by Denis Kilcommons

Death's Bright Angel by Janet Neel

A Real Shot in the Arm by Annette Roome

1970-1979

Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli

The Big Fix by Roger L. Simon

Acid Drop by Sara George

Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal by Patrick Alexander

The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash

A Running Duck by Paula Gosling