The Gold Dagger Award is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.
For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award.
From 1995 to 2002 the award acquired sponsorship from Macallan and was known as the Macallan Gold Dagger.
In 2006, due to new sponsorship from the Duncan Lawrie Bank, the award was officially renamed the Duncan Lawrie Dagger, and gained a prize fund of £20,000. It was the biggest crime-fiction award in the world in monetary terms. In 2008, Duncan Lawrie Bank quietly withdrew its sponsorship of the awards. As a result, the top prize is again called the Gold Dagger, but the monetary award has been slashed from £20,000 to £2,500.
From 1969 to 2005, the CWA awarded a Silver Dagger to the runner up. When Duncan Lawrie acquired sponsorship, this award was dropped.
The Crime Writers' Association also awards a biennial CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and several other "Dagger" awards.
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