Last night at a ceremony in London, Michael Robotham became only the second Australian ever to win the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, for his recent novel Life or Death. The first was Peter Temple with The Broken Shore in 2007.
“It’s nice to win any award but you often win for the one you don’t think is your best. The nice thing about this from my point of view is that I truly believe that Life or Death is the best one I’ve written,” said Robotham.
Host Barry Forshaw also helped present two other 2015 Dagger Awards. Karin Slaughter collected the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Cop Town, and the John Creasey New Blood Dagger went to Smith Henderson for Fourth of July Creek.
Life or Death won a five-star review here on Crime Fiction Lover, and tells the story of a Texan criminal called Audie Palmer, who breaks out of prison one day before he’s due to be released. The question for the police and the FBI is where’s Audie gone, and what happened to that $7 million that was never recovered after the last job Audie was involved in before getting caught. We interviewed Michael Robotham a few years ago, and you can read that here.
Cop Town was also reviewed here on the site by DeathBecomesHer and it won five stars too – as a Steel Dagger winner should! Set in Georgia in the 1970s, the Atlanta Shooter is on the loose and has bagged five police victims so far. The case has the police – sexist and racist as they were at the time – on edge. A difficult time for new officer Kate Murphy to step onto the scene, working with fellow woman officer Maggie Lawson to solve the case.
You can read more about the CWA Daggers, and how to enter for 2016, here.
Sounds as if this is my kind of book!
Am ashamed to admit I’d never heard of Michael Robotham! Will take a look. Peter Temple continues to be excellent.