The Christmas Card Crime

About Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has received the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing, given for the sustained excellence of his contribution to the genre. His novels include Mortmain Hall and Gallows Court, which was nominated for two awards including the CWA Historical Dagger. British librarians awarded him the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2018 in recognition of his body of work. His eighth Lake District Mystery is The Crooked Shore and earlier books in the series include The Coffin Trail, shortlisted for the Theakston's prize for best British crime novel.

Martin is a well-known crime fiction critic, and series consultant to the British Library's Crime Classics. His groundbreaking study of the genre between the wars, The Golden Age of Murder, won the Edgar, Agatha, H. R. F. Keating, and Macavity awards. The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books won the Macavity and was nominated for four other awards, while Howdunit, a masterclass in crime writing by members of the Detection Club, won the H. R. F. Keating prize and was nominated for five other awards.

He has edited over forty anthologies and published diverse nonfiction books, including a study of homicide investigation, Urge to Kill. An expert on crime fiction history, he is archivist of both the Crime Writers' Association and the Detection Club. He was elected eighth president of the Detection Club in 2015, spent two years as chair of the CWA, and posts regularly to his blog, Do You Write Under Your Own Name?