Edgy, twisted, and disturbing, the first Crime Writers’ Association Daggers Award retrospective anthology features bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, John Harvey, and more.

Keep your secrets close and your daggers drawn.

This first retrospective of the CWA’s Dagger Award winners brings together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dealers, and master forgers.

Observe as a senior curator at the Tate Gallery constructs the perfect crime in Ian Rankin’s “Herbert in Motion.” Watch an unlikely romance sour into a deadly obsession in Stella Duffy’s “Martha Grace.” Face parents who discover that their child has committed the unthinkable in Denise Mina’s “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.” And in Jeffery Deaver’s “The Weekender,” an intense hostage situation hits its peak in the most unlikely conclusion.

Here are nineteen CWA Dagger Award-winning short stories from the best of the best in crime fiction.

Contributors include Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, John Harvey, Denise Mina, Julian Rathbone, Martin Edwards, Peter Lovesey, Lauren Henderson, Stella Duffy, Peter O’Donnell (writing as Madeleine Brent), Danuta Reah, Cath Staincliffe, Margaret Murphy, L. C. Tyler, Phil Lovesey, Larry Beinhart, Richard Lange, and Jerry Sykes.