Settling in for a busy couple of work months, and following up on my musings, I bought all the CWA Gold Dagger winners in history (with a few exceptions). The awards began in 1955, and I purchased used copies of all the winners through 2019. The winners I did not purchase were due either to not being in stock (in one case) or that the book in question had been made into a movie or TV series I was already acquainted with (for example, a Wallander novel, or the first Aurelio Zen novel). Disparate arrival times, so while my original plan was to read them in chronological order, I don’t know if I will be able to hold myself to that as the packages reach my doorstep.
I hope these will provide a useful distraction, and by writing about them I can (perhaps) gain some insight into what makes them so successful for their genre.
smq.world 