Colin Cotterill’s unique and charming crime novel set in Laos, The Coroner’s Lunch, is shortlisted for this year’s ‘Gold Dagger’. With prize money of £20,000, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (to use its proper name) is the world’s most prestigious and lucrative crime writing prize.

The full shortlist is as follows:

James Lee Burke, The Tin Roof Blowdown
Colin Cotterill, The Coroner’s Lunch
Frances Fyfield, Blood From Stone
Steve Hamilton, Night Work
Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know
R. N. Morris, A Vengeful Longing

The judges called The Coroner’s Lunch: ‘An engaging and quirky tale with the glamour of strangeness, featuring a highly original sleuth and a fascinating story woven around an honourable man in a corrupt regime, and people’s struggle to survive in the People’s Republic of Laos.’

The winner will be announced on 10 July.