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Mike Ripley is always interesting in his Getting Away with Murder column at Shots Magazine.
He comments with reference to the International Dagger short list that it “reflects the love affair between Nordic crime and the chattering classes with five out of the six books being from authors of Scandinavian origin.”
I have no argument with the quality of the six nominees but looking back it does seem that there is a danger that the International Dagger is becoming a cosy club with the same authors being nominated regularly to the exclusion of others.
I find the criteria for the various CWA daggers confusing with rules that they have to have been published in English between certain dates and nominated by a UK publisher. The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for instance states in the preamble that the broadest definition of the thriller is used and they can be set in any period and include but are not limited to spy and or action/adventure books.
Could an historical thriller be also considered for both the Ian Fleming and the Ellis Peters? Yes, according to these criteria.
The limitation that the books must have a UK publisher means that an excellent book such as A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell which would be a certain nominee for the Ellis Peters Award may be ineligible.
At the moment I am in the middle of another brilliant historical crime fiction novel End Of The World In Breslau by Marek Krajewski, an author who I interviewed last year here and here.
You can read my review of the first book in his Eberhard Mock series Death in Breslau here.
Here is Fiona Walker’s Euro Crime review of the End of The World in Breslau.
I will discuss Marek Krajewski’s book next week.
But returning to the subject of the International Dagger here is a list of some of the authors who have NOT been nominated during the four years the dagger has been awarded.
Boris Akunin, Niccolo Ammaniti, Philippe Claudel, Karin Fossum, Mari Jungstedt, Henning Mankell, Natsuo Kirino, Andrea Maria Schenkel, Carlo Lucarelli, Leonardo Padura, Deon Meyer, Yrsa Sigurdadottir, Hans Werner Kettenbach, Camilla Lackberg, Helene Tursten, Liza Marklund, Inger Frimansson and Marek Krajewski.
A formidable list.
CRIME SCRAPS REVIEW 