The Gold Dagger is awarded each year by the Crime Writers’ Association for the best crime novel of the year, and is the most prestigious prize in British crime writing. First given in 1955, as the Crossed Red Herring Award, it has gone to spy novels and police procedurals, psychological thrillers and historical mysteries alike - from John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves and Mick Herron. This list collects the winning novels by year.
The Death of Us
Abigail Dean
The Book of Secrets
Anna Mazzola
Tell Me What I Am
Una Mannion
The Kingdoms of Savannah
George Dawes Green
Sunset Swing
Ray Celestin
We Begin at the End
Chris Whitaker
Good Girl, Bad Girl
Michael Robotham
The Puppet Show
M. W. Craven
The Liar
Steve Cavanagh
The Dry
Jane Harper
Dodgers
Bill Beverly
Life or Death
Michael Robotham
This Dark Road to Mercy
Wiley Cash
Dead Lions
Mick Herron
The Rage
Gene Kerrigan
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Tom Franklin
Blacklands
Belinda Bauer
A Whispered Name
William Brodrick
Blood from Stone
Frances Fyfield
The Broken Shore
Peter Temple
Raven Black
Ann Cleeves
Silence of the Grave
Arnaldur Indriðason
Blacklist
Sara Paretsky
Fox Evil
Minette Walters
The Athenian Murders
José Carlos Somoza
Sidetracked
Henning Mankell
Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem
A Small Death in Lisbon
Robert Wilson
Sunset Limited
James Lee Burke
Black and Blue
Ian Rankin
Popcorn
Ben Elton
The Mermaids Singing
Val McDermid
The Scold’s Bridle
Minette Walters
Cruel and Unusual
Patricia Cornwell
The Way Through the Woods
Colin Dexter
King Solomon’s Carpet
Barbara Vine
Bones and Silence
Reginald Hill
The Wench Is Dead
Colin Dexter
Ratking
Michael Dibdin
A Fatal Inversion
Barbara Vine
Live Flesh
Ruth Rendell
Monkey Puzzle
Paula Gosling
The Twelfth Juror
B. M. Gill
Accidental Crimes
John Hutton
The False Inspector Dew
Peter Lovesey
Gorky Park
Martin Cruz Smith
The Murder of the Maharajah
H. R. F. Keating
Whip Hand
Dick Francis
The Chelsea Murders
Lionel Davidson
The Honourable Schoolboy
John le Carré
A Demon in My View
Ruth Rendell
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Nicholas Meyer
Other Paths to Glory
Anthony Price
The Defection of A. J. Lewinter
Robert Littell
The Levanter
Eric Ambler
The Steam Pig
James McClure
Young Man, I Think You’re Dying
Joan Fleming
A Pride of Heroes
Peter Dickinson
Skin Deep
Peter Dickinson
Murder Against the Grain
Emma Lathen
A Long Way to Shiloh
Lionel Davidson
The Far Side of the Dollar
Ross Macdonald
The Perfect Murder
H. R. F. Keating
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré
When I Grow Rich
Joan Fleming
The Spoilt Kill
Mary Kelly
The Night of Wenceslas
Lionel Davidson
Passage of Arms
Eric Ambler
Someone from the Past
Margot Bennett
The Colour of Murder
Julian Symons
The Second Man
Edward Grierson
The Little Walls
Winston Graham
