The Best Crime Fiction: The 2026 Gold Dagger Shortlist

When it comes to crime fiction, I like what I like, and it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. The UK’s Gold Dagger celebrates crime fiction that’s very broadly defined — to include thrillers, mysteries, police procedurals, psychological suspense novels and spy fiction. I’ve been reading the shortlist every year for nearly a decade, and while I don’t always agree with the judges’ choices, it’s a good way of getting a broader view of the crime fiction that’s out there in any given year. I’ve now read all six of the books on the 2026 shortlist and share my thoughts about them below:

The Girl in Cell A by Vaseem Khan

The Girl in Cell A by Vaseem Khan is closer to a traditional whodunnit than a lot of the books on this shortlist, in that you’re wondering who committed a crime, start suspecting people, and in the end there’s a plot twist. That said, there’s violence, there’s incest; this is not a cozy mystery. It’s about a woman who was imprisoned as a girl, accused of a crime she doesn’t remember committing. She lived in a god-fearing community in the US, with a dominant family – for whom her mother was the housekeeper. The book charts her return to find out what happened after she gets out of prison and the resistance she faces from local townspeople.

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

If you’re an S.A. Cosby fan, you won’t be disappointed by his latest, with the story revolving around a family who run a crematorium in a post-industrial town in Virginia. The eldest son, a successful businessman in Atlanta, heads home after his father has an accident. As you read it, there’s the familiar sensation you get with many of Cosby’s main characters – that is, wanting to shout: ‘No! Don’t do it! It’s going to end badly.’ Cosby’s books are sometimes talked about as ‘southern noir,’ and there is some very black humour indeed in this book. It also left me quite curious about what kind of people do run crematoria.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Frozen River is one of two books on the 2026 shortlist that also fall into the historical fiction category. The main character of The Frozen River is based on a real-life midwife, Martha Ballard, who lived in the 18th century along the Kennebec River in what is now Maine. What’s unusual about her is that she kept a diary, so we know many details about her daily life in a frontier town, including her appearance as a witness in a rape trial. Lawhon reimagines her life and thoughts and adds a bit of mystery – who killed the person found dead under the frozen river.

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

The Art of a Lie is another 18th-century historical novel, this time set in London. It features ice cream, which became a popular snack at the time, and also Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones, one of the best 18th-century novels. What’s less well known is that Fielding was also a pioneering magistrate, credited with setting up the earliest professional police force in England, nicknamed the Bow Street Runners. The plot revolves around two charming main characters, neither of whom are what they seem.

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

Holly Jackson made her name as a writer of YA thrillers. Not Quite Dead Yet is her first foray into the adult thriller market, though the main character, Jet, still has a bit of a YA feel to her, figuring out her place in the world and her relationship to her parents. She gets attacked and hit on the head, is told by the doctors she has a week to live, and spends that time trying to work out who murdered her.

The Death of Us by Abigail Dean

🏆 Winner of the 2026 CWA Gold Dagger

The Death of Us was ultimately the winner of the 2026 CWA Gold Dagger, highlighting that the award is not necessarily for traditional mysteries, but for novels about crime. A couple is attacked in their home, and after many years, the perpetrator, a serial offender who ends up killing people, is finally put on trial. The book is about the couple’s relationship, how they (and other victims) feel about the man who is on trial, and what they’ve been through. The judges chose the book for being a “tense and unflinching story of the aftermath of violent crime,” and “an outstanding examination of the effects of trauma, and the power of love.”