Shortlist announced for 2008 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd sponsors the Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; an annual award for the best thriller published in the UK. The winner author is awarded £2000 and also receives a unique 'steel dagger', which is handcrafted and based on the weapon used by Special Forces during World War II.

The shortlist for the prize were announced at a reception at the British Library on 3rd June.

Mo Hayder - Ritual (Transworld)
Gregg Hurwitz - I See You (Little, Brown)
Michael Robotham - Shatter Sphere (Little, Brown)
Tom Rob Smith - Child 44 (Simon & Schuster)
David Stone - The Echelon Vendetta (Penguin)

The 2007/2008 steel dagger judges are Simon Robertson, Waterstone's, Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond books, Gordon Wise, Literary Agent, Mike Jecks, crime novelist, and Zoe Watkins, Publishing Manager of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. The panel is chaired by Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.

Overall the judges commented: ‘Amongst an avalanche of formulaic and derivative submissions, it was refreshing to find a core of distinctive and genuinely thrilling novels.’

Debate as to the precise nature of thrillers is never-ending but the guiding criterion, as explained by Fleming himself in his 1962 article How to Write a Thriller, is 'that one simply has to turn the page.'

Click here for further details on the nominees.

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