Val McDermid has been named by the Crime Writers' Association as the winner of this year's Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing.

From the CWA website:

"The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger is the latest accolade in a highly successful career which last year saw Val inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ITV3 Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, whose partners include the CWA.

"In 1995 she won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year for The Mermaids Singing, which first introduced her readership to Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, and went on to become an international bestseller. Fever of the Bone is the sixth novel of this series which inspired the popular ITV series Wire in the Blood.

"Val, who was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, and divides her time between Northumberland and Cheshire, said of the CWA Carter Diamond Dagger award: 'I'm delighted to be admitted to this very select group of crime writers. To be awarded the CWA Carter Diamond Dagger is a distinction every writer dreams of. It's been an amazing twelve months - inducted into the Hall of Fame, elected to an Honorary Fellowship at St Hilda's College, Oxford and now the Diamond Dagger. But my readers can be reassured about one thing - I'm not going to rest on my laurels. There are still plenty of mountains for me to climb.'"

See www.thecwa.co.uk for the full announcement and visit www.valmcdermid.com for more information on Val and her work.

The paperback edition of Fever of the Bone will be published by Sphere in February.