We Begin at the End

Gold Dagger Award · 2021 · Winner

Faber & FaberFebruary 4, 2021mystery-crimeISBN 9780571360109

Award History

Award	Year	Status	Citation
Gold Dagger Award	2021	Winner	“Chris Whitaker's coastal California novel won for its emotional devastation, its luminous prose, and the extraordinary characterization of thirteen-year-old Duchess, one of the year's great fictional creations.”

About This Book

After thirty years in prison for an accidental killing, Vincent King returns to the California coastal town of Cape Haven—and when a girl is murdered, it falls to town marshal Walk and thirteen-year-old Duchess to untangle the town's buried secrets.

About the Author

Chris WhitakerGB

Chris Whitaker is a British crime fiction author whose novel We Begin at the End (2021) won the CWA Gold Dagger and became an international bestseller. The novel is set in a small California coastal town and follows the intertwined lives of a local marshal, a thirteen-year-old girl, and the convicted killer released after thirty years who threatens to upend everything. Born in London, Whitaker worked in finance before turning to writing. Read more →