Peter Temple Wins the Duncan Lawrie Dagger

The CWA Dagger Awards for 2007 were awarded last night and capping off what has been a stellar couple of years, Peter Temple has taken out the 2007 Duncan Lawrie Dagger for his superb novel The Broken Shore.

This has topped off an impressive run for the book, winning such awards as the Ned Kelly (joint winner) and the Colin Roderick Award and has been nominated for an the Australian Book Industry Award. Chuck in a longlisting for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award for good measure. As well as a nifty looking dagger, the prize also includes a cheque for £20,000 (converted to Aussie dollars - that's a bloody lot of money).

Heartfelt congratulations to Temple for the much deserved recognition and accolades.

Australia's other nominated book was The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham which was nominated for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. That award went to Gillian Flynn for Sharp Objects. Flynn also took out the New Blood Fiction Dagger - another very deserving winner for a book of profound depth of character.

The Duncan Lawrie International Dagger was won by Fred Vargas for Wash the Blood Clean From My Hand (tranlated by Sian Reynolds).

Stuart McBride won the Library Dagger as the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to readers.

The Debut Dagger was awarded to Alan Bradley for The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie.

All the details of the fun of the fair can be found at the CWA website.