Conville & Walsh

We’re delighted to say that S J Watson has been announced as winner of the 2011 CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, for Before I Go To Sleep. The announcement was made at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, which you can see on ITV3 tomorrow night. On announcing the award, the judges called it ‘a powerful and compelling suspense novel that explores the intricacies of the human mind.’

Before I Go To Sleep is the story of Christine, a forty-seven-year-old writer who, following a catastrophic accident in her mid-twenties, is incapable of forming and maintaining new memories for more than a day. Trapped in an existence in which she wakes every day believing herself to be single and with a whole lifetime of choice ahead of her she discovers instead that she lives with her husband, Ben, with most decisions already made.

The novel charts her attempts to make sense of her world. When Chrissie learns that she has been meeting with a doctor who is helping her to recover her memory - and that following his suggestion she has been keeping a journal in order to record her fragmentary recollections and piece together her past - she is hopeful that she may be cured. But the story that emerges is to set in motion a terrifying voyage of discovery that will ultimately have startling consequences for her and all who love her, leading her to question whether the truth is sometimes better left forgotten.

The award is made in memory of CWA founder John Creasey, for first books by previously unpublished writers. The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement, so we are delighted to say that, as well as being an international bestseller and receiving unanimous acclaim, SJ Watson is now also an award winning author.