Roslund & Hellström win International Dagger

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has awarded a number of this year’s Daggers during the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, being held this weekend in Harrogate, England. The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement. CWA Chair Peter James said: “Crime fiction is today more popular throughout the western world than any other form of fiction writing. This is because through this medium the authors write in depth and with the greatest intelligence about human life, the human condition, and issues that affect the lives of each and every one of us. That is what great writing always has been about and always will be.”

Swedish duo Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström took out the coveted CWA International Dagger for their novel THREE SECONDS. The CWA International Dagger is awarded for crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication between June 1 2010 and May 31 2011. Prize money £1000 for the author and £500 for the translator.

The judges said Roslund and Hellström's "usual maverick cop takes a back seat to a riveting exploration of a deniable operation involving an undercover agent deep inside a criminal organisation" and that their new character "doomed to betrayal by political manoeuvring, fights for his life with great intelligence and courage".

I haven't read THREE SECONDS yet, but by all accounts, I should give it a go soon.

Here are the other novels that made the CWA International Dagger shortlist:

• The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri, Tr. Stephen Sartarelli
• Needle in a Haystack by Ernesto Mallo, Tr. Jethro Soutar
• The Saint-Florentin Murders by Jean-François Parot, Tr. Howard Curtis
• River of Shadows by Valerio Varesi, Tr. Joseph Farrell
• Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar, Tr. Sonia Soto

The judges of this year's CWA International Dagger were: award-winning crime writer Ann Cleeves (non-voting Chair), Karen Meek, a library assistant and founder of the Euro Crime website: http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/, Ruth Morse, who teaches English Literature at the University of Paris and is a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, and bookseller John Murray-Browne.

Have you read THREE SECONDS? What did you think? Do you like translated crime fiction? What have been some of your favourite translated crime novels?