The Maze in Traquair House Park - 2006

If you like to be told good stories, go to Scotland. Scottish people seem to possess the art of story-telling. Days are long gone by when people used to gather by the fireside, at the hour of the “ceilidh” but there are many other ways today to listen to the story-tellers !

How we came to focus on Scottish crime fiction rather than on other literary genres I still wonder, but we’re finding new good reasons to follow this road everyday…

The popularity of Scottish crime fiction is striking. Just have a look at the titles being published there regularly! Be it due or not to the very special atmosphere we immediately feel on arriving in Scotland, the country seems to be good ground to generate books focusing on the gloomy side of life and to give birth to dark characters in keeping with this atmosphere.

In Scotland the gothic style flourishes as beautifully as the pricky thistle and that’s seems to be a good environment for crime writing. Give a pen to a naturally talented story-teller endowed with a deep sense of place and a gift for empathy, capable of creating true-to life characters constantly oscillating, in lively dialogues, between dark humour and melancholy along the lines of a plot well put together and you may expect to read soon the best crime story ever written. There seems to be many such writers in Scotland. We’ll try to create, in Scotiana, a gallery of these authors and also to establish a list (one more) of their most unforgettable “creatures” : detectives and criminals as well as ordinary people, “l’homme de la rue” as we say in France…

David Ashton

On our blog, we have already introduced Conan Doyle, Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, Denise Mina, Sue Walker and Ann Cleeves who is not Scottish but has become famous for her Shetland Quartet. That’s a good beginning. Let’s go on with David Ashton. This writer, who is also an actor, was born in Greenock, near Glasgow, in 1941 . His best known crime books are featuring an Edinburgh detective who is portrayed after a real detective who was famous in Edinburgh in the Victorian era when Conan Doyle was still a student.

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Shadow of the Serpent

Fall From The Grace

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While investigating in the field of Scottish crime fiction I fell upon a very interesting article written by Sandra Dick and entitled “Meet James McLevy – the original n° 1 detective”. It was published in the Scotsman on 30 May 2007. It begins like this :

LURKING in the eerie closes, the crowded, stinking tenements and along the Old Town’s dark, damp wynds, petty crime, debauchery and all forms of human brutality festered. Pilferers, pickpockets, prostitutes, vagrants, robbers and burglars. And, very often, murderers.

It was Edinburgh in the mid-19th century, the birthplace of the Enlightenment, a respected seat of learning and home to the cream of Scottish society.

But, as Irish farmer’s son James McLevy quickly discovered, Scotland’s capital was also a rich melting pot for its vile, lawless dregs. So it was just as well that he was on the case (…)

“I was doing research for a television play about Conan Doyle and came across a passing mention of James McLevy,” recalls David. “I asked at the British Library and after what seemed like a couple of hours this book appeared, a sorry looking thing, falling to pieces and tied up with a piece of dingy ribbon.　

“I opened it up and it was like entering another world. Here was this person with this wild humour which I liked, a kind of grandiose quality, someone who really fancied himself as a philosopher with a big character.”

heritage.scotsman.com/people/Meet-James-McLevy–the.3291136.jp

Officially named on Edinburgh City Police’s payroll records as their ‘number 1′ detective in a team of six, over three decades McLevy was involved in around 3000 cases. ”

The Edinburgh Detective - James Levy

Indeed I have discovered a book about the famous Edinburgh detective…

and there is even a BBC audio.

The book is introduced by Quintin Jardine, a well-known Scottish crime-writer. You will find below the Amazon review of the book.

The Inspector McLevy Mysteries

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Edinburgh has provided the backdrop to stories of detection for almost a century and a half. In the 1860s, a few years before Conan Doyle began his medical studies at Edinburgh University, there appeared a hugely popular series of books with titles including”Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh, The Sliding Scale of Life and The Disclosures of a Detective. They were all the work of one James McLevy, an Edinburgh policeman. The now largely forgotten, McLevy was one of the first exponents of the crime genre and a likely influence on the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Like Conan Doyle, McLevy had an Irish background. He was born in Co Armagh, the son of a small farmer. Largely self-educated, he joined the Edinburgh police force in 1830 as a night watchman before rising up through the ranks to become a detective. The collection of stories in this book are based on some of the 2,220 cases he dealt with in the course of his career, wonderfully evoking the spirit of the city, and the vivid descriptions of its criminal classes as they moved between the very different worlds of the Old and New Towns. It is introduced by Quintin Jardine.

As a result of our wide-ranging investigations more and more books are piling on our desk everyday, together with lists of authors, biographical notes, literary events calendars and so on and so on… so to get a clearer view of the situation we’ve felt the need to appeal to experts in crime fiction. There are many of them, I can tell you.

The “Daggers” name and Crossed Daggers logo ® are registered Trade Marks of the Crime Writers’ Association.

I’d like to mention first The Crime Writers Association whose prestigious awards are famous all over the world. We are grateful to them for the precious help they kindly gave us, through the intermediary  of a friendly and learned gentleman, Mr Roger Cornwell, who has answered in French to one of our questions :  Le CWA n’a pas de siege social, car c’est une organisation virtuelle. Les membres du comité habite dans des villes differentes. Amitiés !!!

On the CWA website we’ve found very up-to-date and first-hand information about crime fiction and authors. For example, I’ve just learned that on Monday 5 October 2009 Ann Cleeves would be present at the Inverness Book Festival. If only we could be there ! I must confess I have another good reason to like this Association. Didn’t they grant their prestigious CWA International Dagger Award three times in four years to my favourite French crime novelist : Fred Vargas. For those of our readers who could be interested in French crime fiction (but doesn’t such writing go beyond frontiers…) the three books which were granted the prestigious CWA International Dagger Awards are the following ones : The Chalk Circle Man in 2009 (L’homme aux cercles bleus 1991) – Wash this Blood in 2007 (Sous les vents de Neptune 2004) and The Three Evangelists in 2006 (Debout les morts 1995)

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The Three Evangelists

The Chalk Circle Man

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand

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The Origins of the American Detective Story

Today, I fell upon another book entitled The Origins of the American Detective Story whose cover did appeal to me at once. The subject seems to be quite interesting and the book has been written by an eminent Professor who is also an award-winning author. From what I’ve learned in the synopsis of the book, LeRoy Lad Panek, who has written a number of books about crime fiction, focuses in this one on two masters of detective stories : Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle. According to him, with Murders in the Rue Morgue published in 1841, Edgar Allan Poe would be the inventor of the detective story as a literary genre and, forty years later, in 1891, with the publication of The Scandal in Bohemia, Conan Doyle would “reintroduce respectability to detective fiction with his emphasis on logic, reason and methodical thinking.” Quite interesting indeed. I will tell you more as soon as this book  will reach my pile of books to read.

It seems as if crime fiction novels and thrillers are gaining in respectability and are no longer considered as books only written to entertain their readers but as a literary genre in themself. Crime fiction and thrillers may also serve to convey some very important messages about threatening dangers … As I keep saying, especially when I’m reading an unforgettable passage of a book by Fred Vargas : ‘un polar c’est souvent bien plus qu’un polar’.

A bientôt!

But before I disclose the names of the authors who received the ornamental dagger and a £20,000 prize tied to it, let me jot down some ” behind the scenes” facts leading to the biggest award of the planet for new crime fiction writing.

Colin Cotterill, winner of the 2009 CWA Dagger in the Library, with CWA Chair Margaret Murphy. Photo: Fiona Davies

It all started in the year 1955 when The Crime Writer’s Association (CWA) founded The Crossed Red Herring Award to celebrate the best crime novel of the year.

In 1960 the award was renamed The CWA Gold Dagger, and it’s sister, The CWA Silver Dagger, for her part, was introduced in 1970.

The next change was in 2006 when The Duncan Lawrie Private Bank became sponsor of the award, therefore giving it their own name.

They sponsored as well the newly-formed Duncan Lawrie International Dagger which celebrates  the best crime novel translated into English.

A complete chronological listing of each awards and winners is available on the CWA website .

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So, without further ado, let’s drill down the recipients  of the CWA Dagger Awards:

Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award - Best Crime Novel Of The Year

Prize: £20,000 sponsored by Duncan Lawrie Private Bank.

2006 Ann Cleeves Raven Black – The Shetland Quartet Series (Macmillan).
“Ann Cleeves, the winner of the first Duncan Lawrie Dagger, offered “a huge thank you to Duncan Lawrie”, adding:

Ann Cleeves - 2006 Winner

“This prize will make a difference. It’ll save me from being so frantically busy that writing is done on slow Virgin trains and crammed into weekends”.

2007 Peter Temple – The Broken Shore (Quercus)

Peter Temple - 2007 Winner / Photo: Candy Bryce

“This is a well written crime novel with excellent characterisation mingled with a subtle exploration of contemporary Australian landscape and mores. This is a first class read with a sympathetic engrossing police protagonist.”

2008 Frances Fyfield – Blood From Stone – published by Sphere (Little, Brown)

Frances Fyfield

“A subtle and elegantly written exploration of contemporary themes.

Blood From Stone

The mystery behind the death of a troublesome female barrister is explored in ways that illuminate the dark corners of life in Britain today, while detailed attention to costume and dress as aspects of identity resonates with insights into the fabric of society.”

Many other CWA Dagger Awards are presented during the prize-giving ceremonies, and I can tell you right away that I will have a very exciting wishlist for my next visit to the library from the following winning titles:
The CWA International Dagger - Best Crime Novel Translated into English

Prize: £5000 going to the author and £1000 to the translator.

2006 Fred Vargas – The Three Evangelists (Harvill), translated by Siân Reynolds
2007 Fred Vargas – Wash this Blood Clean from my Hand (Harvill Secker), translated by Siân Reynolds
2008 Dominique Manotti – Lorraine Connection – EuroCrime (Arcadia Books), translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz

2009 Fred Vargas - The first in the series of Adamsberg novels, The Chalk Circle Man, translated by Siân Reynolds  ( 3 times in the last 4 years! )

Fred Vargas - 2009 Winner

The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Prize:  £2000 for the best adventure/thriller novel in the vein of James Bond.

2006 Nick Stone – Mr Clarinet (Penguin)
2007 Gillian Flynn – Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
2008 Tom Rob Smith – Child 44 – Simon & Schuster
2009 Coming soon…

The CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

Prize:  £2000 -  awarded this and every even-numbered year.

2006 Linda Rhodes, Lee Shelden and Kathryn Abnett – The Dagenham Murder (The Borough of Barking and Dagenham)

2008 Kester Aspden – Nationality: Wog – The Hounding of David Oluwale – Jonathan Cape (Random House)

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

Prize: £1000 – awarded in memory of CWA founder John Creasey, for first books by previously unpublished writers.

2006 Louise Penny – Still Life (Headline)
2007 Gillian Flynn – Sharp Objects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
2008 Matt Rees- The Bethlehem Murders – Atlantic Books

The CWA Dagger in the Library

Prize: £1500 – awarded to “the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to readers”

2006 Jim Kelly
2007 Stuart MacBride
2008 Craig Russell
2009 Colin Cotterill

The CWA Debut Dagger

Prize: £500 plus night’s stay for two in a top London Hotel after the prize ceremony dinner.

2006 Otis Twelve (pseudonym of US writer D V Wesselmann) with Imp: Being the Lost Notebooks of Rufus Wilmot Griswold In the Matter of the Death of Edgar Allan Poe.
2007 lan Bradley ( from British Columbia in Canada ) The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie.
2008 Amer Anwar( from West London ) Western Fringes.
2009 Catherine O’Keefe – The Pathologist

…..Boy oh boy….what a long title for Otis Twelve’s book! Are you aware of any prize awarded to the longest title given to a novel Mairiuna?

Left-to-right: Colin Cotterill (2009 CWA Dagger in the Library), Catherine O’Keefe (2009 CWA Debut Dagger) Margaret Murphy, Chair of CWA and Sean Chercover,(2009 CWA Short Story Dagger) Photo: Fiona Davies

Does the above not prove that the CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement ?

I sincerely do think so!

And you know what Mairiuna?

Upon signing off this post, I just discovered there is also The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger !!! It celebrates sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing.

Sue Grafton was the winner in 2008 and “previous winners include John Harvey, Elmore Leonard, Ian Rankin, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, Colin Dexter, Ed McBain, Reginald Hill, Ellis Peters, Leslie Charteris, Ruth Rendell, Dick Francis, John Le Carré and PD James”.

Cartier Diamond Dagger Award Photo: David Stuart Davies

Well…well …well…anymore out there of these prolific Dagger Awards? 

The “Daggers” name and Crossed Daggers logo ® are registered Trade Marks of the Crime Writers’ Association.

PS: Main source of information for this blog post  is The Crime Writer Association website and we thank them for their help.

Cheers.

Talk soon.

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So eager were we, on opening our blog, to speak about Scottish people, beautiful landscapes, mysterious castles, towns and villages that if somebody had told me then that we were to devote so much time to Scottish crime fiction, I wouldn’t have believed him. But here we are and here we will go on, trying to cope with our growing pile of detective novels and thrillers to read. Mind you, we’re taking notes. After some hours of suspense, time to reflect!

The atmosphere of the place being a key ingredient in crime fiction recipes, no wonder Scotland is being so successfully chosen as a place for that kind of fiction. So, it is with great enthusiasm that, yesterday, I discovered Ann Cleeves, a British crime fiction writer whose “Scottish sense of place” seems to be particularly developed.

Among other books, Ann Cleeves wrote a collection of four novels entitled The Shetland Quartet . She is not a native of the place nor even of Scotland mainland but having lived some time on Fair Isle, where she met her husband, an ornithologist from the west of England, she knows her subject perfectly.

Each title of The Shetland Quartet evokes a colour which can easily be linked to Scotland : black, white, red and blue while the synopsis of the stories reveal the importance of specific themes : day and night, dark and light, the seasons. Take a look how beautiful and expressive the book jackets are.

As written by Anna Burnside in an article entitled “Ann Cleeves unveils Shetland murder mystery” published in The Sunday Times of 20 April, 2008 : “As a location, it’s perfect – an enclosed community, a dramatic landscape, incomers versus the established community, a summer season of tourists to add new flavours to the mix. It is the traditional village mystery transplanted to the North Sea, with the remnants of the oil industry and vast trawlers as a backdrop.”

Source: Shetlopedia.com & AnnCleeves.com

On her  website the author has included a map of Shetland that was cleverly modified to situate the stories.

Raven Black - Ann Cleeves

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter’s eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance …The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man – loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine’s neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst. Raven Black is a haunting, beautifully crafted crime story, and establishes Ann Cleeves as a rising talent in psychological crime writing …’A riveting read. Ann Cleeves probes beneath the surface of a community to reveal the darkness that can fester when everyone thinks they know each other’s secrets’ -  “Val McDermid”.  Source: Amazon

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White Nights - Ann Cleeves

“It’s midsummer in Shetland, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws a party to launch an exhibition of her work and to introduce the paintings of Fran Hunter. The Herring House, the gallery where the exhibition is held, is on the beach at Biddista, in the remote north west of the island. When a mysterious Englishman bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from, the evening ends in farce. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter in a boathouse on the jetty, a clown’s mask on his face. Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that this is a local murder. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella’s musician nephew is murdered too. But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter clouds his judgement. And this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.” Source: Amazon

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Red Bones - Ann Cleeves

“Spring: a time of rebirth and celebration. And a time of death…for April is the cruellest month. When a young archaeologist studying on a site at Whalsay discovers a set of human remains – the island community is intrigued. Is it an ancient find – or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly is shot on her land in a tragic accident and Jimmy Perez is called in by her grandson – his own colleague Sandy Wilson. He finds two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness has divided the surrounding community. With Fran in London, and surrounded by people he doesn’t know and a community he has no links with – Jimmy finds himself out of depth. Then another woman dies and as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists the two deaths remain shrouded in mystery. ” Source: Amazon

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“Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to the Fair Isles to introduce his fiancee, Fran, to his parents. It’s a community where everyone knows each other, and strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust. Challenging to live on at the best of times, with the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped, tension is high and tempers become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder…When a woman’s body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair, the islanders react with fear and anger. With no support from the mainland and only Fran to help him – Jimmy has to investigate the old-fashioned way. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion – but a murder of cold and calculated intention. With no way off the island until the storms abate – Jimmy knows he has to work quickly. There’s a killer on the island just waiting for the opportunity to strike again…” Source : Amazon

I’ve already bought Raven Black and I’m looking forward to reading it. I had to refrain from buying the first three volumes at the same time but I hope to get and read them before Blue Lightning is published.

On 29 June 2006, Ann Cleeves won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the biggest crime writing prize in the world for Raven Black, published by Macmillan. Peter Ostacchini, Deputy Managing Director, Duncan Lawrie Bank, presented her with the dagger and her £20,000 prize at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony, which took place at the Waldorf Hilton in London’s Aldwych on Thursday 29 June. In all, seven daggers were awarded on that night.

Given our focus on crime fiction it could be interesting to give our readers a list of these awards. Hey Janice, isn’t that a good idea? Let me know.

A bientôt !

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