The CWA Debut Dagger 2009

Sponsored by Orion Publishers

The Winner

The 2009 Debut Dagger competition has been won by Catherine O’Keefe with The Pathologist. The judges described it as An uncomfortable, sophisticated, read that also manages to be suspenseful.

Catherine had flown over from Canada and was awarded with her dagger at the Dagger Awards presentations, during a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15.

CJ Harper was highly commended for Backdrop, which the judges said had A likeable PI protagonist and a solid time slip plot… the 1950 Hollywood setting is sexy…

The Debut Dagger is a new-writing competition open to anyone writing in the English language who has not yet had a novel published commercially. First prize is £500 plus two free tickets to the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards and night’s stay for two in a top London hotel. Click here for news of the 2010 competition.

Catherine O’Keefe was born in the interior of British Columbia, Catherine spent most of her teens in Europe and completed a degree in Political Science at the University of Lancaster before settling down in Canada to become a vocational dinosaur – a stay-at-home mother of three. She began writing seven years ago, has completed two manuscripts, and is working on her third, The Pathologist. Her only claim to expertise in criminal matters comes vicariously through her husband, David, who recently retired after a 32-year career as a forensic scientist.

CJ Harper is the pen name of attorney Charlie Rethwisch. Harper’s first novel, The Shadow of the Dead, was shortlisted for the 2007 CWA Debut Dagger Award. Since then he has had three short stories – each starring 1950s L.A. P.I. Darrow Nash – appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Backdrop, which was highly commended by the judges, is his first Darrow Nash novel. He lives in the USA.

There were ten other entries on the shortlist this year. All shortlisted entrants receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries, and were also invited to the awards ceremony. They described in greater detail on the shortlist page. Those on the shortlist were:

Frank Burkett - A View from the Clock Tower (Australia)
Aoife Clifford - My First Big Book of Murder (Australia)
Madeleine Harris-Callway - The Land of Sun and Fun (Canada)
Renata Hill - Sex, Death and Chocolate (Canada)
Mick Laing - The Sirius Patrol (UK)
Susan Lindgren - Forgotten Treasures (USA)
Danielle Ramsay - Paterfamilias (UK)
Germaine Stafford - A Vine Time for Trouble (Italy)
Martin Ungless - Idiot Wind (UK)
Alan Wright - Murder at the Séance (UK)

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The 2009 Debut Dagger Competition ran from 1^st November – 7^th February. Hundreds of aspiring crime novelists sent us the opening chapter(s) – up to 3000 words – and a short synopsis of their proposed crime novel, hoping this would be the deciding step in becoming a published crime writer. The shortlist was submitted to the final judging panel, who are:

Emma Beswetherick - Senior Fiction Editor, Piatkus
Julie Crisp - Senior Commissioning Editor, Macmillan
Sara O'Keeffe - Senior Commissioning Editor, Orion
Euan Thorneycroft - Authors' agent (A M Heath)
Julia Wisdom - Publishing Editor, HarperCollins
Chair: Margaret Murphy, Chair of the CWA

Building on success

Inaugural winner Joolz Denby was short-listed in 2005 for the Orange Prize for Fiction, while 2001 winner Ed Wright was awarded the 2005 Shamus award for best P.I. novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. Allan Guthrie won the 2007 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split, developed from his entry shortlisted in 2001. Barbara Cleverly, shortlisted in 1999, won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2004. Louise Penny, highly commended by the judges of the 2004 Debut Dagger, was awarded the 2006 New Blood Dagger.

To receive news of the shortlist and eventual winner, as well as useful hints and tips for the 2009 competition, sign up for our free mailing list. There's a form at the foot of this page. More help and guidance can be found on our What to Write and Style Guide pages. If you have any questions, please first check the frequently asked questions page to see if your query is answered there.

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