The Crime Writers’ Association has awarded the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award to Frances Fyfield for Blood From Stone. She was the unanimous choice of the judges from a formidable short-list and joins a golden pantheon of winners, such as P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Colin Dexter and our own Patricia Cornwell.
The longest established literary awards in the UK, the Daggers are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement in crime and thriller fiction, and the most coveted of all is the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. With a prize of £20,000, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger is the largest award for crime fiction in the world.
Read the CWA's thoughts on the Duncan Lawrie shortlist.
The award was presented at a dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane, London on Thursday, July 10th 2008.
Published in March, Blood From Stone has received glowing reviews:
‘Fyfield is routinely and rightly praised for her elegant prose... what doesn’t get mentioned so often is that when it comes to the dissection of the human spirit, she is the most brutal scalpel-wielder we have... one of Highsmith’s true heirs’ Guardian
'Blood From Stone has all the complexity you'd expect from this award-winning grande dame of crime fiction (she's up there with Rendell, James, McDermid and Walter)... Simply terrific' Observer
‘As always, Fyfield leaves her readers with shivers that take a long time to go away’ The Times
‘A genuinely original and imaginative writer, [Fyfield] offers a fascinating read’ Literary Review
‘Among her myriad literary skills, Frances Fyfield is adept at creating blood-chilling psychopaths. Like her American predecessor Patricia Highsmith, she takes us deep into their twisted psychology’ Independent
‘Complex and beautifully constructed narrative... The novel has a haunting, slightly surreal quality, as so many of Fyfield’s do, and it is all the better for it’ Spectator
Frances Fyfield is a criminal lawyer, a trade she has used to huge success in many of her novels. She has won several awards in the past, including the Silver Dagger.