CWA Gold Dagger

The Gold Dagger is the top prize of the Crime Writers' Association, the professional body for crime writers in the United Kingdom. It goes to the year's best crime novel by an author of any nationality, and the association reads crime broadly, taking in mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, psychological suspense and spy fiction. The awards began in 1955 as the Crossed Red Herring Award, and the Gold Dagger name has been used since 1960, apart from a few periods under sponsors' names. It is currently sponsored by Kevin Anderson Associates.

A panel of judges reads the eligible entries, publishes a longlist and then a shortlist, and names the winner each summer. Since 2006, translated crime fiction has had its own Dagger, so the Gold Dagger now covers only books originally written in English. Its winners over seven decades trace the development of modern crime writing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Crime novels originally written in English and first published in the UK during the judging period, by authors of any nationality.