Amer Anwar, a Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award-winning thriller writer, died earlier this month. He was 55. The Bookseller reported that Anwar was signed by agent Jane Gregory of Gregory & Company in 2008 "after he submitted three chapters of his work in progress for the CWA Debut Dagger Award, for which Gregory was a judge."
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| Amer Anwar (photo: Steven Joyce) |
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That excerpt evolved into Brothers in Blood, the first installment in the Zaq and Jags series, 10 years later. The novel was followed by Stone Cold Trouble (2020), which was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger in 2021.
Gregory, who represented Anwar until her retirement in 2020, recalled her "long and delightful working relationship with a truly charming man who became a friend. Sadly, Amer's work and family commitments meant that he was unable to devote as much time as he would have liked to his writing, but he was a voracious reader and enormously knowledgeable about the crime and thriller genre. I shall miss our convivial conversations. It is a really sad loss."
Sharmaine Lovegrove, founder of Dialogue Books, commented: "I was introduced to Amer by Courttia Newland at a reading at Waterstones Piccadilly shortly after I had established the Dialogue Books imprint. It was respect and adoration at first sight. Amer gave me a copy of his self-published book and I read it overnight and knew we had to publish it on Dialogue.... Everyone at Dialogue Books and Little, Brown loved working with Amer, and we'll miss him dearly as we are so proud to have published his Zaq and Jags series."
David Headley, managing director of Goldsboro Books, added: "Amer was more than just a friend and colleague--he was a force of nature, someone who brought warmth, wit, and wisdom to everything he did."