The Gold Dagger Award is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award.From 1995 to 2002 the award acquired sponsorship from Macallan and was known as the Macallan Gold Dagger.In 2006, because of new sponsorship from the Duncan Lawrie Bank, the award was officially renamed the Duncan Lawrie Dagger, and gained a prize fund of £20,000.