Daggers Drawn, edited by Maxim Jakubowski. CWA

​      Crime Writers Association (proving that crime does pay, at least so long as you get published) since 1953 is an esteemed organization.  And genre establishment, really. And as such they have their own awards, The Daggers, given to the best of the best in crime fiction. This is an anthology of those Dagger deserving tales and it is absolutely excellent.
       This collection is arranged chronologically, and, to be fair, it starts off kind of unimpressively with two gimmicky Sherlock pastiches, but then it pivots dramatically and from the terrific third story on…it’s pure magic.
        I never seem to remember the story titles, so I figured I’ll try to memorize the numbers of the stories, 3, 5, etc. but soon I realized there’s no need to do that, there are simply too many good ones in here. The quality is so uniformly great that this collection can be reviewed as a single body of work.
        There are some widely recognizable names in here, but the majority are authors I’ve never heard off and because the anthology (at least the Netgalley provided ARC) doesn’t come with author’s bios, I’m still in the dark as to who they are. But then again, the dark isn’t such a terrible place to be when reading crime fiction, in fact it’s perfectly appropriate and editor recommended. Suffice it to say in this instance the name recognition mattered not at all, the unfamiliar names provided stories every ounce as good if not more so than the well known ones.
        Right now, the market is all about mystery thrillers, they are everywhere, often sacrificing originality at the altar of commercial success, so it’s easy to just think of the entire genre as those formulaic works and yet crime fiction is so much more inclusive. It can be simply fine works of dramatic literary fiction, just so long as they feature crime is some way, shape or form.          This collection reminds you of that so nicely, by offering such a terrific variety, by offering such terrific writing. Because those ubiquitous mystery thrillers sometimes don’t take the time to actually craft the narrative, so long as they ply the formula. You take away the formula and sky’s the limit and this anthology takes it to the clouds. Such great stories, such interesting, original, compelling, fascinating, psychological tales of lives marred, altered and sometimes enhanced by crimes.
       Whether crime is a lucrative proposition or not may be up for debate, but it certainly pays to check this terrific crime fiction collection out. This…this is how it’s done.  Reader beware, the daggers are drawn, business ends out. An absolute must read for all crime fiction fans. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.