CWA Ellis Peter Historical Dagger Shortlist

And the finalists are:

Louis Bayard, THE PALE BLUE EYE (John Murray)
Nick Drake, NEFERTITI: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (Bantam)
Jason Goodwin, THE JANISSARY TREE (Faber & Faber)
C.J. Sansom, SOVEREIGN (Macmillan)
Jenny White, THE SULTAN’S SEAL (Wiedenfeld & Nicholson)
Edward Wright, RED SKY LAMENT (Orion)

The winner will be announced by Sir Bernard Ingham – one of the judges – at

a champagne reception to be held at the Courthouse Hotel Kempinski, 19-21 Great

Marlborough Street, London W1, on Monday, October 9th, from 6.30-8.30pm. The

winning author will receive £3000, sponsored by the Estate of Ellis Peters and

her publishers, the Headline Book Publishing Group and the Little, Brown Book

Group.

I must say that this is one incredibly strong shortlist – the only book on here I haven’t read yet is Sansom’s, but every other book ranges from pretty damn good to flat out fantastic. It’s going to be tough to pick a winner, that’s for sure.