Double Dagger longlisting

A lovely sur-prize

Welcome to the free newsletter of David (D. V.) Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Italy. This time: positive affirmations.

A Divine Revelation

Last Wednesday I was in a consultation meeting at the university where I teach four days a week, trying not to look at my phone. Sneaking a peak at your mobile while those in charge talk is never a good idea, but it was tempting as April 16^th was announcement day for the 2025 Dagger longlists.

For decades the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain has been awarding a variety of prizes to recognise excellence within the field. There are now thirteen different Dagger awards in categories ranging from thrillers (the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger) to cosy (the Whodunnit Dagger), from non-fiction to best publisher.

Three years ago, my first Cesare Aldo novel City of Vengeance was longlisted for two Daggers – the Historical award, and the best-in-show Gold Dagger prize. It didn’t make the shortlist for either, but being considered in just one category was beyond my expectations so getting longlisted for two was a massive triumph.

The following year I was longlisted again for my second Aldo novel The Darkest Sin, but just in one category this time: the Historical Dagger. Happily, it went on to make the shortlist in 2023. Then, to my utter amazement, The Darkest Sin actually won the Historical Dagger! I still pinch myself sometimes, not sure that happened, but it did.

Last year my third Aldo novel Ritual of Fire didn’t make any of Dagger longlists, but it won the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel so I was still a very happy author. Fast forward to last Wednesday and the CWA announcing which novels had been longlisted for 2025. Would my fourth Aldo novel A Divine Fury make the cut this year?

Spoiler alert: it did

If you read the title above, you know the answer to my question: A Divine Fury was longlisted in two categories – Historical Dagger, and the prestigious Gold Dagger. That means it has matched City of Vengeance from three years ago, which is very gratifying. I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of validation for their efforts?

As you’ll see from the graphic below, the longlists in both categories are absolutely stacked with amazing books so being among those is a huge honour for me.

Whether A Divine Fury makes the shortlist for either award is out of my hands, obvs. Those will be announced at the end of May, with winners revealed at a gala dinner in July. I’d love Fury to go further but am delighted with what the novel has already achieved, such as being a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize in Scotland last year.

As noted in a past newsletter, most book prizes don’t lead to an immediate sales spike. Big literary awards like the Booker or the Women’s Prize for Fiction can add tens of thousands of sales. The Daggers are more about recognition and prestige, though being awarded the Gold Dagger certainly give a novel and its author a healthy boost.

They’re also noticed by foreign publishers and can lead to books being translated into other languages. The Darkest Sin winning the Historical Dagger in 2023 was followed by my first two Aldo novels appearing in Croatian. City of Vengeance is called Grad Osvete in Croatia if you want to go looking for it in the bookshops of Zagreb or Split!

It was a delight to see Anna Mazzola also on the 2025 Historical and Gold Dagger longlists for her stunning novel The Book of Secrets. We’ve shared many a panel at crime fiction festivals over the years, and Anna was shortlisted for both Daggers in 2023 with The Clockwork Girl. Alas, A Darkest Sin pipped that to the Historical prize. We’ll see next month whether either of our books makes one of the shortlists.

Not much else to report

After a break from drafting Aldo book six, work has now resumed on what should be my 2026 novel. Getting the machinery moving again is a slow, painful process but I am slowly rebuilding the momentum I had before pressures of work away from the book unfortunately forced me to step back from it for the first half of April.

That means I’m behind schedule with the novel. In an ideal world the draft would have hit 60,000 words by the end of this month. Now, if I fight my way to 50,000 words before May I’ll be a happy author – and anything beyond will be a complete bonus. All things being equal, I should still reach my early July delivery target for Aldo book six.

I would dearly love to finish it being going to London for the Dagger Awards dinner on July 3^rd. It may sound presumptuous that I was already going, but it’s because I’m a board member of the CWA and co-ordinator for the Best Publisher prize. It would be great to travel south knowing Aldo six is pretty much done – fingers crossed!

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