and Sword of Swords?

Over the weekend Fiona alerted me to the CWA’s newest initiative, and I must say, I’m one part amused and another puzzled at the whole “Dagger of Daggers” concept:

It’s fifty years this year since The Crime Writers’ Association

first honoured the best in crime fiction with the presentation of their

Crossed Red Herring award to Winston Graham for The Little Walls.

In 1960 this annual award became the CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction and

since then it has been won by some of the best-known names in crime

fiction, from John Le Carré and Dick Francis, to Ruth Rendell, Ian

Rankin and Sara Paretsky.

This year, to mark the Golden Jubilee, the membership of the CWA are

being given the unique opportunity to vote for the past winner of the

Crossed Red Herring or the Gold Dagger whom they feel is the best of

the best – the Dagger of Daggers. This is the first time that such an

award has been made to a crime writer by his or her peers. The

shortlist of just five names and titles will be announced in August,

and a second vote will then be taken to produce the eventual winner.

The prize – a crystal trophy – will be awarded at the Dagger Awards

Luncheon in London on Tuesday, November 8th.

The long longlist is this list of Gold Dagger winners.

And then it dawned on me: this would be so much cooler if the CWA used this format to whittle down the longlist to a shortlist and then an overall champion. Imagine the matchups:

THE LITTLE WALLS by Winston Graham (1955) vs. BLACKLIST by Sara Paretsky (2004)
Jonathan Lethem vs. Ross MacDonald
Val McDermid vs. Emma Lathen
John Le Carre vs. John Le Carre
Barbara Vine vs. Ruth Rendell

So come on people…let’s bring on the Tournament of Daggers!