CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association for best thriller of the year. The award is sponsored by the estate of Ian Fleming.

It is given to a title that fits the broadest definition of the thriller novel; these can be set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction and/or action/ adventure stories. Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller – that “one simply has to turn the pages”; this is one of the main characteristics that the judges will be looking for.

Winners

2020s

2021 (nominations)

• JK Rowling, Troubled Blood
• Michael Robotham, When She Was Good
• Catherine Ryan Howard, The Nothing Man
• Stuart Turton, The Devil and the Dark Water
• Ruth Ware, One by One
• Chris Whitaker, We Begin at the End

2020

• Winner: Lou Berney, November Road
  • Tom Chatfield, This is Gomorrah
  • A. A. Dhand, One Way Out
  • Eva Dolan, Between Two Evils
  • David Koepp, Cold Storage
  • Alex North, The Whisper Man

2010s

2019

• Winner: Holly Watt, To The Lions
  • Megan Abbott, Give Me Your Hand
  • Dan Fesperman, Safe Houses
  • Luke Jennings, Killing Eve: No Tomorrow
  • Stephen Mack Jones, Lives Laid Away
  • Tim Willocks, Memo From Turner

2018

• Winner: Attica Locke, Bluebird, Bluebird
  • Mick Herron, London Rules
  • Emily Koch, If I Die Before I Wake
  • Colette McBeth, An Act of Silence
  • C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man
  • Don Winslow, The Force

2017

• Winner: Mick Herron, Spook Street
  • William Ryan, The Constant Soldier
  • John Hart, Redemption Road
  • J S Carol, The Killing Game
  • Jules Grant, We Go Around in the Night and Are Consumed by Fire
  • Megan Abbott, You Will Know Me

2016

• Winner: Don Winslow, The Cartel
  • Lee Child, Make Me
  • Adrian McKinty, Rain Dogs
  • Mick Herron, Real Tigers
  • Daniel Silva, The English Spy

2015

• Winner: Karin Slaughter, Cop Town
  • Peter Swanson, The Kind Worth Killing
  • Malcolm Mackay, The Night the Rich Men Burned
  • Patrick Hoffman, The White Van
  • Mick Herron, Nobody Walks
  • Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train
  • Sam Hawken, Missing

2014

• Winner: Robert Harris, An Officer and a Spy
  • Louise Doughty, Apple Tree Yard
  • Greg Iles, Natchez Burning

2013

• Winner: Roger Hobbs, Ghostman
  • Stuart Neville, Ratlines
  • Mark Oldfield, The Sentinel
  • Robert Wilson, Capital Punishment

2012

• Winner: Charles Cumming, A Foreign Country
  • Megan Abbott, Dare Me
  • Robert Harris, The Fear Index
  • Neal Stephenson, Reamde

2011

• Winner: Steve Hamilton, The Lock Artist
  • Michael Gruber, The Good Son
  • Craig Smith, Cold Rain
  • S.J. Watson, Before I Go to Sleep

2010

• Winner: Simon Conway, A Loyal Spy
  • Scott Turow, Innocent
  • Henry Porter, The Dying Light
  • Don Winslow, The Gentlemen’s Hour
  • Lee Child, 61 Hours
  • Mo Hayder, Gone
  • Mick Herron, Slow Horses

2000s

2009

• Winner: John Hart, The Last Child
  • Michael Connelly, The Brass Verdict
  • Gillian Flynn, Dark Places
  • Charlie Newton, Calumet City
  • Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules
  • Olen Steinhauer, The Tourist
  • Andrew Williams, The Interrogator

2008

• Winner: Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
  • Mo Hayder, Ritual
  • Gregg Hurwitz, I See You
  • Michael Robotham, Shatter
  • David Stone, The Echelon Vendetta

2007

• Winner: Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
  • Alex Berenson, The Faithful Spy
  • Harlan Coben, The Woods
  • R. J. Ellory, City of Lies
  • Michael Marshall, The Intruders
  • Michael Robotham, The Night Ferry
  • Karin Slaughter, Triptych

2006

• Winner: Nick Stone, Mr Clarinet
  • Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer
  • Jo-Ann Goodwin, Sweet Gum
  • Mo Hayder, Pig Island
  • Daniel Silva, The English Assassin
  • Martyn Waites, The Mercy Seat
  • David Wolstencroft, Contact Zero

2005

• Winner: Henry Porter, Brandenburg
  • G. M. Ford, A Blind Eye
  • Simon Kernick, A Good Day to Die
  • Adrian Matthews, The Apothecary's House
  • Kate Mosse, Labyrinth
  • Joel Ross, Double Cross Blind
  • Daniel Silva, A Death in Vienna

2004

• Winner: Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts
  • Dan Fesperman, The Warlord's Son
  • Joseph Finder, Paranoia
  • Mo Hayder, Tokyo
  • Stephen Leather, Hard Landing
  • Adrian McKinty, Dead I Well May Be
  • Daniel Silva, The Confessor

2003

• Winner: Dan Fesperman, The Small Boat of Great Sorrows
  • Lee Child, Persuader
  • R. J. Ellory, Candlemoth
  • Lucretia Grindle, The Nightspinners
  • Robert Littell, The Company
  • Henry Porter, Empire State
  • Gerald Seymour, Traitor's Kiss

2002

• Winner: John Creed, The Sirius Crossing
  • Tom Bradby, The Master of Rain
  • Lee Child, Without Fail
  • Robert Crais, Hostage
  • Leif Davidsen, Lime's Photograph
  • CC Humphreys, The French Executioner
  • Stephen Leather, Tango One