Word today from the British Crime Writers' Association (via Janet Rudolph and Mystery Fanfare) that the Crime Writers' Association will present this year's prestigious Diamond Dagger Award to Catherine Aird. The award honors her long - and, happily, continuing - career as a writer of traditional mysteries, including the long-running series called "The Calleshire Chronicles" featuring Inspector C. D. Sloan of the Calleshire police.
I have had the pleasure of writing about several of Aird's earlier novels - you can find my podcast reviews on this blog's backlist page - several of which have been republished by the Rue Morgue Press. Her books can be fairly hard to find in the US, which I think is almost criminal negligence. Her mysteries are stylish, with some police procedural elements, some very interesting plots, delightful characters, and witty and often quite deliberately funny writing (Sloan, for instance, usually finds himself stuck working with Detective Constable Crosby, who is known behind his back among his colleagues as "the Defective Constable).
The CWA explains its Diamond Dagger this way: "Nominees have to meet two essential criteria: first, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime writing published in the English language, whether originally or in translation." Congratulations to Catherine Aird for a well-deserved honor. The award will be presented in London in June.
I so agree with you, Aird is very deserving of this honor. I have only read a few of her first books, but they all captivated me.
Posted by: Tracy Kaltenbrun | February 06, 2015 at 06:20 PM
Tracy, I'm really not sure why she isn't better known and/or better received in the U.S. I find Sloan and his colleagues to be very good company, with Crosby and their boss, Superintendent Leeyes, usually providing some comic relief. The mysteries are well-conceived, I think, with interesting and intelligent plots.
Posted by: Les Blatt | February 06, 2015 at 06:55 PM