The shortlist of CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2014 has been announced. There are total five non fiction work shortlisted for this category. The names are follows
- Did She Kill Him? by Kate Colquhoun
- Life after Death by Damien Echols
- The Girl by Samantha Geimer
- Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn
- The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy
Did She Kill Him? by Kate Colquhoun
In the year 1889 young Southern belle Florence Maybrick was accused for murdering her husband James Maybrick with arsenic. James was widely known to be addicted to a range of poisons – including arsenic and strychnine – which he took regularly in small doses ‘for medical purpose’. This case became famous as ‘The Maybrick Mystery’ . Florence Maybrick stood under trial. Historian Kate Colquhoun recounts an utterly absorbing tale of addiction, deception and adultery that keeps you asking to the very last page, did she kill him?
Life after Death by Damien Echols
The author of Life after Death Damien Echols along with his three other friends were accused for the murder of three boys of 8 years. His two friends Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison, while eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed the ‘ringleader,’ was sentenced to death. But in turns of event all three of them were released in 2011 after spending 18 years in prison. Echols was waiting for death each day. In his book he shares his full story – from abuse by prison guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience and perseverance that kept him alive and sane.
The Girl by Samantha Geimer
The Girl is the story of Samantha Geimer who was raped, tormented and denied justice when she was 13 years old. In this book she breaks a 35-year silence to tell, in a remarkably honest and objective account, what happened on that evening, how it happened, and her subsequent sufferings at the hands of the press – and even the California judicial system.
Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn
Mason is the horrifying biography of Charles Manson who murdered 9 people in row. The author Jeff Guinn goes deep into the background which also played a crucial role in making him a monster. In addition to stunning revelations about Charles Manson, the book contains family photographs never before published.
The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy
India was shaken to its roots when on 26 November 2008, ten terrorists took over The Taj Hotel, Mumbai. For three days these terrorist caused havoc inside the hotel shooting wildly, killing as they wished, and setting fire to the top floor. The authors have interviewed guests and staff who survived, and produced a taut blow-by-blow, hour-by-hour, thriller of three days of terror till all of them were killed by Indian army.
