Congratulations go out to Brighton author Peter James, who has bagged the prestigious Diamond Dagger from the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association for 2016. The award recognises his career producing brilliant crime novels and he is a well-known and well-liked author on the festival scene.

James best-loved books are his Roy Grace detective novels, set in Brighton, which include You Are Dead and Dead Man’s Time, which we’ve reviewed on this site. His books have sold over 16 million copies worldwide and the first in the Roy Grace series, Dead Simple, has been adapted for stage. In February last year, readers of the WH Smith blog voted Peter James the number one crime author of all time, ahead of James Patterson, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Agatha Christie. Quite the accolade.

“Peter James is king of the police procedural,” said the CWA chair Len Tyler. “His books combine up-to-the-minute accuracy with tight plotting and a fast pace. Over the past 30 years or so, Peter has established himself as one of the best-known and best-loved thriller writers in the country.”

You can read a free excerpt from Peter James’ Want You Dead here on our site. His latest book, Billionaire, is a reprint of one of his early pre-Grace releases.

Previous Diamond Dagger winners include Lee Child, Frederick Forsyth, Simon Brett and Val McDermid.