Lori G. Armstrong's "No Mercy" Wins 2011 Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover Novel

No Mercy, featuring private eye Mercy Gunderson, by Lori G. Armstrong has been awarded the 2011 Shamus Award as Best PI Hardcover novel.

The Shamus Award is given annually by the Private Eye Writers of America to honor excellent work in the Private Eye genre. Committee members of PWA select the winners, and the 2011 awards were made during a banquet at Bouchercon in St. Louis on September 16, 2011.

From Lori Armstrong's web site:

Mercy Gunderson is a straight shooter with a hard edge. On medical leave from the Army, she returns home to South Dakota, which isn’t much safer for her than Iraq. Arriving just after the death of her father, it is up to Mercy to decide what to do with the family ranch. Trying to deal with her irresponsible sister and nephew and feeling guilty that she didn’t make it home soon enough to see her father one last time; Mercy is suddenly pulled into the local community when the body of a Native American boy is found on her land. But nobody seems to be doing anything about it, especially not the local law enforcement.

When tragedy strikes again, Mercy is ready to throw all her energy into her own investigation, and she’s out for revenge. As she digs up the truth behind the shocking crimes, Mercy uncovers dark and dangerous secrets and must race to stop a killer before everything she’s fought for is destroyed forever.

"Bury Your Dead" by Louise Penny Awarded 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award

Congratulations to Louise Penny, winner of the 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award for Bury Your Dead.

Louise Penny also received the 2011 Best Mystery Novel Macavity award for Bury Your Dead.

The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon was held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

Bury Your Dead has also won the Arthur Ellis for Best Crime Novel in Canada and the Agatha for the Best Mystery in the United States, as well as the Dilys, as the book the mystery bookstores most enjoyed selling in 2010.

Bury Your Dead was also been nominated for the Barry Award presented at Bouchercon, and the Nero Award, presented annually by the Wolfe Pack for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.

From Louise Penny's official web site:

This sixth Gamache mystery is set partly in the tiny fictional (and oddly murderous) village of Three Pines, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. But most of the action takes place in Quebec City. A vibrant, sophisticated fortress city, which lives in the present but guards its past.

It's February and bitterly cold in Quebec City. But Chief Inspector Gamache barely notices. He's nearly consumed with grief and guilt over a police action he led -- and the mistakes he made. He spends his time with his now-retired mentor, and in the peaceful library of the Literary and Historical Society. A bastion of the dwindling English population.

But if Gamache thought death was finished with him, he was wrong. The body of a celebrated eccentric is found in the Lit and His, and Gamache is drawn again into hunting a murderer. The victim is an amateur archeologist who was monomaniacal in his pursuit. He had spent his life trying to find the body of Samuel de Champlain.

As Chief Inspector Gamache digs through the crime and the venerable old city it becomes clear the murder is rooted in a 400 year old mystery, and in people long dead. But perhaps not buried.

It also becomes clear to the Chief Inspector that to find the truth he needs to confront his own ghosts, and bury his own dead.

Duane Swiercznyski's "Expiration Date" Winner of 2011 Best Paperback Original Anthony Award

Congratulations to Duane Swierczynski for winning the 2011 Best Paperback OriginalAnthony Award.

The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From a review from Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine:

About the only thing you can expect from a Swierczynski novel is that you never know what to expect. This one might (notice I said might) be described as a time-travel/serial-killer novel. When Mickey Wade takes what he believes is a Tylenol in his grandfather's apartment, a funny thing happens. He wakes up in 1972. He can see and hear people, but they can't see and hear him. Well, most of them can't. It's complicated.

And it gets even more complicated than that when Mickey starts trying to change the past. If you know about time-travel paradoxes, you know that making those changes might not get you what you want.

As usual with Swiercznyski, the book moves like a bullet. It's also short, which is fine by me, and Swierczynski manages to tie all the plot elements together in the end. There's some great local color for fans of Philadelphia. There are even illustrations. Check it out.

Hilary Davidson's "The Damage Done" Winner of 2011 Best First Novel Anthony Award

Congratulations to Hilary Davidson winner of the 2011 Best First Novel Anthony Award for The Damage Done.

The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon were held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Hilary Davidson's web site:

Lily Moore, a successful travel writer, fled to Spain to get away from her troubled, drug-addicted younger sister, Claudia. But when Claudia is found dead in a bathtub on the anniversary of their mother’s suicide, Lily must return to New York to deal with the aftermath.

As Lily searches for answers, a shadowy figure stalks her and the danger to her grows. Determined to learn the truth at any cost, she is unprepared for the terrible toll it will take on her and those she loves.

The Damage Done was also nominated for the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.

Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Frank Tallis' web site:

Vienna 1903. Outside one of the cities most splendid baroque churches the decapitated body of a monk is found. Shortly after, the remains of a municipal councillor are discovered in the grounds of another church -- his head also ripped from his body. Both men were rabid anti-semites and suspicions fall on Vienna's close-knit community of Hassidic Jews. In a city riven by racial tensions and extremism, the situation is potentially explosive.

Detective Inspector Rheinhardt turns to his trusted friend, the young psychoanalyst Doctor Max Liebermann for assistance. As the investigation progresses, Liebermann is drawn into the world of Jewish mysticism, a world dominated by the rites and secret lore of the Kabbalah. Although he rejects all forms of superstition, he is forced to embrace his own cultural origins - in the old ghetto district of Prague -- to understand the meaning and significance of the murders.

At the same time, Liebermann's life is in crisis. Political forces conspire against him, resulting in his suspension from the General Hospital, and the object of his romantic desires, the enigmatic Miss Lydgate, is becoming an unhealthy obsession.

"Long Time Coming" by Robert Goddard Nominated for 2011 Best Paperback Original Anthony Award

Robert Goddard's Long Time Coming has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Robert Goddard's web site:

Eldritch Swan is a dead man. Or at least that is what his nephew Stephen has always been told. Until one day Eldritch walks back into his life after 36 years in an Irish prison. He won’t reveal any of the details of his incarceration, insisting only that he is innocent of any crime.

His return should be of interest to no-one. But the visit of a solicitor with a mysterious request will take Eldritch and his skeptical nephew from sleepy seaside Paignton to London, where an exhibition of Picasso paintings from the prestigious Brownlow collection proves to be the starting point on a journey that will transport them back to the Second World War and the mystery behind Eldritch’s imprisonment.

In 1940, he was personal assistant to a wealthy diamond dealer in Antwerp, whose collection of modern art was the envy of many. The subsequent disappearance of those paintings began a trail of murder and intrigue which was to have a catastrophic effect on Eldritch’s life. But untangling the web of murky secrets, family ties and old betrayals that conceals the truth will prove to be a dangerous pursuit for Eldritch and Stephen. Before long, a mysterious enemy is doing everything possible to stop the truth emerging -– at whatever cost.

Long Time Coming received a 2011 Best Paperback Original Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

"Rogue Island" by Bruce DeSilva Awarded 2011 Macavity Best First Mystery Novel Award

Bruce DeSilva's Rogue Island by has been awarded the 2011 Best Mystery Novel Macavity Award at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, being held this weekend here in St. Louis.

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International. The award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

From the publisher's web site:

Liam Mulligan is as old school as a newspaper man gets. His beat is Providence, Rhode Island, and he knows every street and alley. He knows the priests and prostitutes, the cops and street thugs. He knows the mobsters and politicians—who are pretty much one and the same.

Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.

Rogue Island has been awarded an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.

"The Hanging Tree" by Bryan Gruley Nominated for 2011 Best Paperback Original Anthony Award

Bryan Gruley's The Hanging Tree has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Bryan Gruley's web site:

They found her hanging in the shoe tree at the edge of town.

So begins Bryan Gruley’s sequel to Starvation Lake. When Gracie McBride, the wild girl who had left town eighteen years earlier, is found dead in an apparent suicide shortly after her homecoming, it sends shockwaves through her native Starvation Lake.

Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the Pine County Pilot, sets out to solve the mystery with the help of his old flame and now girlfriend, Pine County Sheriff’s Deputy Darlene Esper. As Gus and Darlene investigate, they can’t help but question if Gracie’s troubled life really ended in suicide or if the suspicious crime scene evidence adds up to murder.

When Gus tries to retrace Gracie’s steps to discover what happened to her in the years she was away from Starvation Lake, he’s forced to return to Detroit, the scene of his humiliating past. And though he’s determined to find out what drove Gracie back home to Starvation Lake, Gus is unprepared for the terrible secrets he uncovers

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"Expiration Date" by Duane Swierczynski Nominated for 2011 Best Paperback Original Anthony Award

Duane Swierczynski's Expiration Date has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From a review from Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine:

About the only thing you can expect from a Swierczynski novel is that you never know what to expect. This one might (notice I said might) be described as a time-travel/serial-killer novel. When Mickey Wade takes what he believes is a Tylenol in his grandfather's apartment, a funny thing happens. He wakes up in 1972. He can see and hear people, but they can't see and hear him. Well, most of them can't. It's complicated.

And it gets even more complicated than that when Mickey starts trying to change the past. If you know about time-travel paradoxes, you know that making those changes might not get you what you want.

As usual with Swiercznyski, the book moves like a bullet. It's also short, which is fine by me, and Swierczynski manages to tie all the plot elements together in the end. There's some great local color for fans of Philadelphia. There are even illustrations. Check it out.

"Bury Your Dead" by Louise Penny Awarded 2011 Best Mystery Novel Macavity Award

Louise Penny's Bury Your Dead has been awarded the 2011 Best Mystery Novel Macavity Award at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, being held this weekend here in St. Louis.

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International. The award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Bury Your Dead has won the Arthur Ellis for Best Crime Novel in Canada and the Agatha for the Best Mystery in the United States, as well as the Dilys, as the book the mystery bookstores most enjoyed selling in 2010.

Bury Your Dead has also been nominated for the Anthony and Barry Awards, both presented at Bouchercon, and the Nero Award, presented annually by the Wolfe Pack for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.

From Louise Penny's official web site:

This sixth Gamache mystery is set partly in the tiny fictional (and oddly murderous) village of Three Pines, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. But most of the action takes place in Quebec City. A vibrant, sophisticated fortress city, which lives in the present but guards its past.

It's February and bitterly cold in Quebec City. But Chief Inspector Gamache barely notices. He's nearly consumed with grief and guilt over a police action he led -- and the mistakes he made. He spends his time with his now-retired mentor, and in the peaceful library of the Literary and Historical Society. A bastion of the dwindling English population.

But if Gamache thought death was finished with him, he was wrong. The body of a celebrated eccentric is found in the Lit and His, and Gamache is drawn again into hunting a murderer. The victim is an amateur archeologist who was monomaniacal in his pursuit. He had spent his life trying to find the body of Samuel de Champlain.

As Chief Inspector Gamache digs through the crime and the venerable old city it becomes clear the murder is rooted in a 400 year old mystery, and in people long dead. But perhaps not buried.

It also becomes clear to the Chief Inspector that to find the truth he needs to confront his own ghosts, and bury his own dead.

Hank Phillippi Ryan's "Drive Time" Nominated for 2011 Best Paperback Original Anthony Award

Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Hank Phillippi Ryan's web site:

When everyone has a secret, the real mystery is knowing when to tell.

Investigative reporter Charlotte McNally is an expert at keeping things confidential, but suddenly everyone has something to hide—and even Charlie realizes it's possible to know too much.

Her latest television scoop—an expose of a dangerous car scam, complete with stakeouts, high-speed chases and hidden-camera footage—is ratings gold. Now, in the prime time of her journalism career, it seems like Charlie's dreams are about to come true. If she can just balance her career and her upcoming wedding—perhaps she can really have it all.

But soon Charlie's personal and professional lives are put on a terrifying collision course. Her fiancé is privy to information about ugly phone calls at an elite private school, threats that are suddenly turning deadly. There's a mysterious death. And then—another. Her soon-to-be stepdaughter may be in danger. Her fiancé comes under suspicion. Then Charlie's career takes a turn she never could have predicted.

Charlie was starting to believe in second chances, but now she must face the chilling reality: revenge, extortion, family secrets, and murder may leave her alone again -- or even dead.

"Fourth Day" by Zoë Sharp

Zoë Sharp's Fourth Day has been nominated for a Barry Award as Best British Novel by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

From Zoë Sharp's web site:

The cult calling itself Fourth Day appears well-funded and highly jealous of its privacy. Five years ago Thomas Witney went in to try and get the evidence that the cult’s charismatic leader, Randall Bane, was responsible for the death of Witney’s son, Liam. Witney never came out.

Now, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, and her partner, Sean Meyer, have been tasked to get Witney out, willing or not. But planning and executing a clean, surgical snatch is only the beginning.

Five years is a long time to be on the inside and the man who comes out has changed beyond all recognition. Can Witney be trusted when he says he now believes Bane is innocent of the crime and, if he is, who was behind the boy’s demise? And what happened to Witney’s safety net -− the people who were supposed to extract him, by force if necessary, after less than a year?

With the dead man’s ex-wife demanding answers, Charlie agrees to go undercover into Fourth Day’s California stronghold. A fast covert op. No real danger for someone with her mindset and training. But Charlie has her own secrets, even from Sean, and she’s not prepared for the lure of Randall Bane, or how easily he will pinpoint her weaknesses.

"Three Seconds" by Roslund & Hellström Nominated for 2011 Best British Novel Award

Three Seconds by Roslund & Hellström has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best British Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

From Roslund & Hellström's web site:

He leads a double life. One with a beloved wife and two small boys, a family he will protect no matter what the cost. And another, secret life in which he every single day risks losing everything

He is forced to seize control of one of Sweden’s maximum security prisons, from the inside. It’s an operation assigned by the police force. And by the Polish mafia. He realizes he is on his own, can trust no one, and that from the moment his double play is revealed he will become a huge liability for police and mafia alike. He calls himself Paula and he knows he could be dead in just three seconds.

Three Seconds is an intensely suspenseful thriller where people in all positions of society are put to the test. This is Roslund & Hellström’s fifth novel starring Police Superintendent Ewert Grens. Roslund & Hellström’s previous novels have won several awards and great critical acclaim , and reached a large audience. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and are currently being adapted for the screen.

Note: The "Best British Novel" is for a novel first published in English in the United Kingdom and does not reflect the author's nationality.

Reginald Hill's "The Woodcutter" Nominated for 2011 Best British Novel Barry Award

The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best British Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

From the publisher's web site:

In a stand-alone psychological thriller from acclaimed mystery master Reginald Hill, a mysterious ex-con returns to his remote childhood home on a deadly hunt for revenge. Combining the chilling atmospheres of Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs, the narrative ingenuity of P.D. James’s The Private Patient, and the compelling characterizations of Hill’s own Dalziel and Pascoe series, Hill delivers a frightful, fast-paced study of suspense at its most sinister in The Woodcutter.

Wolf Hadda’s life has been a fairy tale. From his humble origins as a Cumbrian woodcutter’s son, he has risen to become a hugely successful entrepreneur, happily married to the woman of his dreams.

A knock on the door one morning ends it all. Universally reviled, thrown into prison while protesting his innocence, abandoned by friends and family, Wolf retreats into silence. Seven years later, prison psychiatrist Alva Ozigbo makes a breakthrough. Wolf begins to talk, and under her guidance he is paroled, returning to his family home in rural Cumbria.

But there was a mysterious period in Wolf’s youth when he disappeared from home and was known to his employers as the Woodcutter. And now the Woodcutter is back, looking for the truth—and revenge. Can Alva intervene before his pursuit of vengeance takes him to a place from which he can never come back?

John Connolly's "The Whisperers" Nominated for 2011 Barry Award as Best British Novel

The Whisperers by John Connolly has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best British Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

From John Connolly's web site:

The border between Maine and Canada is porous. Anything can be smuggled across it: drugs, cash, weapons, people.

Now a group of disenchanted former soldiers has begun its own smuggling operation, and what is being moved is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts.

But the soldiers' actions have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector

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"Blood Harvest" by S.J. Bolton Nominated for 2011 Best British Novel Barry Award

S.J. Bolton's supernatural thriller, Blood Harvest, has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best British Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

S.J. Bolton says on her blog that

Blood Harvest sprang from my life-long passion for the supernatural thriller.

I love the heavy, dark, brooding atmosphere of the best of these stories, the gradual but relentless build up of suspense, the dawning realization on the part of the characters that the world they thought they knew is quite different. And I've often wondered if I could write such a story.

At the same time, a tale of the supernatural, whilst wonderful in the telling, can ultimately disappoint. And sometimes, I sense a certain laziness on the part of some writers of supernatural stories; as though they feel they have a get-out-of-jail-free card. They don't have to explain everything, or to tie up all the loose ends because when all is said and done -- hey! -- the ghost did it!

Of course, writing in the genre I do (and with the editor I have!) a supernatural thriller in the true sense just isn't possible. Crime fans are very demanding readers and authors simply can't get away with anything less than 100% plausible. Okay, make that 98%.

So I had to find another way. I had to write a story that might initially appear to be about the supernatural but which ultimately has nothing more, or less, than good old-fashioned human villainy at the root of everything that takes place.

Kate Atkinson's "Started Early, Took My Dog" Nominated for 2001 Best British Novel Barry Award

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson has been nominated for a Barry Award as Best British Novel by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis from September 15 through 18.

From Kate Atkinson's web site:

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished.

Kate Atkinson dovetails and counterpoints her plots with Dickensian brilliance in a tale peopled with unlikely heroes and villains . Started Early, Took My Dog is freighted with wit, wisdom and a fierce moral intelligence. It confirms Kate Atkinson’s position as one of the great writers of our time.

Don Winlsow's "Savages" Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Barry Award

Savages by Don Winslow has been nominated for a Barry Award as Best Novel by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis, September 15-18.

From Don Winslow's web site:

Part-time environmentalist and philanthropist Ben and his ex-mercenary buddy Chon run a Laguna Beach–based marijuana operation, reaping significant profits from their loyal clientele. In the past when their turf was challenged, Chon took care of eliminating the threat. But now they may have come up against something that they can't handle—the Mexican Baja Cartel wants in, and sends them the message that a "no" is unacceptable. When they refuse to back down, the cartel escalates its threat, kidnapping Ophelia, the boys' playmate and confidante. O's abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists that will captivate readers eager to learn the costs of freedom and the price of one amazing high.

According to Michael Fleming, writing on deadline.com:

Oliver Stone is putting together a killer cast for Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow’s bestselling novel. Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, as the two actors are in talks to join the ensemble cast. Also joining is is The Town’s Blake Lively, who beat out a group of young actresses to play the role of O. Travolta will play Dennis, a burned out DEA agent, and Thurman will play O’s mom, Paqu.

"Snow Angels" by James Thompson Nominated for 2011 Best First Novel Anthony Award

James Thompson's Snow Angels has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From James Thompson's web site:

Kaamos: Just before Christmas, the bleakest time of the year in Lapland. The unrelenting darkness and extreme cold above the Arctic Circle drive everyone just a little insane . . . perhaps enough to kill.

A beautiful Somali immigrant is found dead in a snowfield, her body gruesomely mutilated, a racial slur carved into her chest. Heading the murder investigation is Inspector Kari Vaara, the lead detective of the small-town police force. Once a big-city “hero cop,” Vaara has retreated to his old hometown to nurse unhealed wounds. Now he has put himself under intense pressure to solve the case without asking for outside help. The vicious killing may have been a hate crime, a sex crime -- or one and the same. Vaara knows he must keep this potentially explosive case out of the national headlines, or it will send shock waves across Finland, an insular nation afraid to face its own xenophobia.

The demands of the investigation begin to take their toll on Vaara and his marriage. His young American wife, Kate, newly pregnant with their first child, is struggling to adapt to both the unforgiving Arctic climate and the Finnish culture of silence and isolation. Meanwhile Vaara himself, haunted by his rough childhood and failed first marriage, discovers that the past keeps biting at his heels: he suspects that the rich man for whom his ex-wife left him years ago may be the killer.

Snow Angels is the chilling and resonant debut from James Thompson, a talented new voice in crime thrillers.

"The Sherlockian" by Graham Moore Nominated for 2011 Best First Novel Anthony Award

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Graham Moore's web site:

True story: A hundred years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries -- became a consultant to Scotland Yard, and chased a killer through the streets of Victorian London.

Another true story: In 2004, the world’s leading Sherlock Holmes scholar announced that he’d found the lost diary of Conan Doyle, which had gone mysteriously missing after the author’s death. Before the scholar was to publicly unveil these diaries, he was found murdered, strangled with his own shoelaces. The room had been ransacked. The diary was nowhere to be found. Sherlock Holmes devotees around the world began a search for the missing diary -- and for the murderer of their friend.

The Sherlockian is a fictionalized account of these two stories, one taking place in 1900, one taking place today. It is a mystery novel not about Sherlock Holmes, but about Sherlockians.

The novel tells the story of Harold White, a young Sherlockian obsessive who’s read every great mystery novel cover to cover, and twice over. But despite being well-versed in a million blood-soaked stories, Harold has never seen a real dead body before in his life. That is, until he comes face to face with the murdered corpse of Alex Cale, the world’s most renowned Doylean historian, who had been set to make public his discovery of Doyle’s missing diaries. Now, Harold must put all of his expertise on fictionalized crimes in the service of solving a real one.

Meanwhile, the novel tells a second story, the one contained within the diary of Arthur Conan Doyle itself. After an attempt on his life, Conan Doyle searches for a killer who seems to be taunting him with messages. Having killed off the character of Sherlock Holmes eight years previous, but finding the public cold to his newer creations, Conan Doyle sets out to prove himself the better of his own fictional detective, and solve a real-life mystery himself. But Arthur begins to find that in the face of real evil, the world does not need Arthur Conan Doyle -- the world needs Sherlock Holmes.

The Sherlockian will be published in paperback on November 22.

Bruce DeSilva's "Rogue Island" Nominated for 2011 Anthony Award as Best First Novel

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From the publisher's web site:

Liam Mulligan is as old school as a newspaper man gets. His beat is Providence, Rhode Island, and he knows every street and alley. He knows the priests and prostitutes, the cops and street thugs. He knows the mobsters and politicians—who are pretty much one and the same.

Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.

Rogue Island has been awarded an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.

Paul Doiron's "The Poacher's Son" Nominated for 2010 Anthony for Best First Novel

The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Paul Doiron's web site:

Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive—his own father. The Poacher’s Son is a sterling debut of literary suspense. Taut and engrossing, it represents the first in a series featuring Mike Bowditch.

The Poacher's Son was the winner of the Strand Critics Award for the Best First Novel, and has been nominated for the Barry Award, the Thriller Award, and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, as well as the Maine Literary Award for Best Fiction of 2010.

Hilary Davidson's "The Damage Done" Nominated for 2011 Best First Novel Award

The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Hilary Davidson's web site:

Lily Moore, a successful travel writer, fled to Spain to get away from her troubled, drug-addicted younger sister, Claudia. But when Claudia is found dead in a bathtub on the anniversary of their mother’s suicide, Lily must return to New York to deal with the aftermath.

As Lily searches for answers, a shadowy figure stalks her and the danger to her grows. Determined to learn the truth at any cost, she is unprepared for the terrible toll it will take on her and those she loves.

The Damage Done was also nominated for the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.

"Bury Your Dead" by Louise Penny Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award

Louise Perry's Bury Your Dead has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

Bury Your Dead has won the Arthur Ellis for Best Crime Novel in Canada and the Agatha for the Best Mystery in the United States, as well as the Dilys, as the book the mystery bookstores most enjoyed selling in 2010.

Bury Your Dead has also been nominated for the Macavity and Barry Awards, both presented at Bouchercon, and the Nero Award, presented annually by the Wolfe Pack for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.

From Louise Penny's official web site:

This sixth Gamache mystery is set partly in the tiny fictional (and oddly murderous) village of Three Pines, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. But most of the action takes place in Quebec City. A vibrant, sophisticated fortress city, which lives in the present but guards its past.

It's February and bitterly cold in Quebec City. But Chief Inspector Gamache barely notices. He's nearly consumed with grief and guilt over a police action he led -- and the mistakes he made. He spends his time with his now-retired mentor, and in the peaceful library of the Literary and Historical Society. A bastion of the dwindling English population.

But if Gamache thought death was finished with him, he was wrong. The body of a celebrated eccentric is found in the Lit and His, and Gamache is drawn again into hunting a murderer. The victim is an amateur archeologist who was monomaniacal in his pursuit. He had spent his life trying to find the body of Samuel de Champlain.

As Chief Inspector Gamache digs through the crime and the venerable old city it becomes clear the murder is rooted in a 400 year old mystery, and in people long dead. But perhaps not buried.

It also becomes clear to the Chief Inspector that to find the truth he needs to confront his own ghosts, and bury his own dead.

John Lutz Book Signing on Saturday, August 27, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

St. Louis author John Lutz will sign copies of Serial, the latest in his detective Frank Quinn thriller series, on Saturday, August 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Big Sleep Books, 239 N. Euclid, St. Louis.

From John Lutz' web site:

John Lutz's work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective, thriller; virtually every mystery sub-genre. He is the author of more than forty novels and over 200 short stories and articles.

His novels and short fiction have been translated into almost every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series novels. His SWF Seeks Same was made into the hit movie Single White Female, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel The Ex was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.

Dennis Lehane's Moonlight Mile Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Barry Award

Dennis Lehane's Moonliight Mile has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis in September.

From Dennis Lehane's web site:

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl -- only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.

Now Amanda is sixteen -- and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman—a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks

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"Nowhere to Run" Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Barry Award

Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box has been nominated for a Barry Award as "Best Novel" by the readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine. The Barry Awards will be presented at Bouchercon right here in St Louis in September.

C.J. Box won both the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel in 2001 for Open Season.

From C.J. Box's web site:

Joe Pickett’s in his last week as the temporary game warden in the isolated town of Baggs, Wyoming, but there have been strange things going on in the surrounding mountains, and his conscience won’t let him leave without checking them out: reports of camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. And then there’s the runner who’s gone missing -– an Olympic hopeful who’d been training in the region and then just…vanished. Joe doesn’t mind admitting that the farther he rides, the more he wishes he could just turn around and go home. And he is right to be concerned. Because what awaits him is like nothing he’s ever dealt with, like something out of an old story, except this is all too real and all too deadly. When he’d first saddled up, he’d thought of this as his last patrol. What he hadn’t known was just how accurate that might turn out to be.

"I'd Know You Anywhere" by Laura Lippman Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award

Laura Lippman's I'd Know You Anywhere has been nominated for a 2011 Anthony Award as Best Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

From Laura Lippman's web site:

Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects -- or wants -- to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.

In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her -— and share the truth about his other victims.

Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it -— even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.

"Faithful Place" by Tana French Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award

Tana French's Faithful Place has been nominated for a 2011 Anthony Award as Best Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

In 2007, Tana French won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for In the Woods.

From Tana French's web site:

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and his girl Rosie Daly were all set to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives.

But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him - probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he's a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daley and he's willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.

Steve Hamilton's "The Lock Artist" Nominated for 2011 Best Novel Anthony Award

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton has been nominated for a 2011 Anthony Award as Best Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

Steve Hamilton's first novel, A Cold Day in Paradise, won the 1999 Edgar and Shamus Awards for Best First Novel, and was short-listed for the Anthony and Barry Awards.

From Steve Hamilton's web site:

Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it’s a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an 800-pound safe... he can open them all.

It’s an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever closer to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

Tom Franklin's "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" Nominated for Best Novel Anthony Award

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin has been nominated for a 2011 Anthony Award as Best Novel. The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. This year's Bouchercon will be held this September 15-18 right here in St. Louis.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter was also nominated for an Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America.

Reviewing Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter in the Washington Post, Ron Charles said

The incantatory title of Tom Franklin's terrific new novel comes from the way children in the South are taught to spell Mississippi: "M-I crooked letter crooked letter I crooked letter crooked letter I humpback humpback I." But letters aren't the only thing twisted in the rural town of Chabot, Mississippi, where this story of long-delayed repercussions and revelations takes place. Franklin, an Edgar-winning writer of atmospheric tales, deserves an audience to match the praise he's attracted for [his previous books]. If you're looking for a smart, thoughtful novel that sinks deep into a Southern hamlet of the American psyche, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is your next book.

The opening chapter introduces us to Larry Ott, a gentle weirdo -- "Scary Larry" to the locals -- who lives his simple, strictly ritualized life in withering isolation. The fact that his house is full of books -- mostly horror novels -- does little to discourage the rumors about him. Every morning, he puts on a clean uniform and goes to his auto repair shop, hoping someone will stop in. But no one ever has, which renders "his shop more a tradition than a business." Not that such economic stagnation is uncommon in this town marked by touches of Gothic decay. The local clothing store, for instance, "had gone so long without customers it'd briefly become a vintage clothing store without changing stock."

Robert J. Randisi Book Signing on Saturday, July 23, at 1:00 p.m.

Big Sleep Books, 239 North Euclid Avenue in the C.W.E., is pleased to welcome author Robert J. Randisi to the shop for a book signing on Saturday, July 23, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Randisi will be signing and discussing his newest Rat Pack mystery, featuring Frank and the gang; Fly Me To the Morgue. Randisi is author of the Nick Delvecchio series and the executive director of Private Eye Writers of America.

"The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" by Charlie Huston

Charlie Huston's The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death has been a Big Sleep favorite since it came out as a trade paperback in December 2009.

Random House's blurb:

With his teaching career derailed by tragedy and his slacker days numbered, Webster Fillmore Goodhue makes an unlikely move and joins Clean Team, charged with tidying up L.A.'s grisly crime scenes. For Web, it's a steady gig, and he soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide's brains from a bathroom mirror and flirting with the man's bereaved and beautiful daughter.

Then things get weird: The dead man's daughter asks a favor. Every cell in Web's brain tells him to turn her down, but something makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Soon enough it's Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What's the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn't have a clue, but he'll need to get one if he's going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again.

Charlie Huston reported on his blog in January of this year that

The pilot for The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death was shot, edited, submitted and passed on by HBO. In simple terms this means there will be no profit generating TV series based on one of my books premiering on a pay cable channel near you.

There are obvious negatives to this end, most of them revolve around money (though, in all honesty, I had a tremendous amount of fun in the process and would have liked to have had more), the positives are more subtle, but, seeing as they revolve around family and not having a boss, they are also highly prized.

I was shocked to discover that I was interested in adapting All Signs of Death, and even more surprised to discover that the idea of working on a TV show in a day to day manner became appealing. Would have been nice to take a crack at that, but I still feel very much as if I walked into the casino, pushed my bet well beyond the point of sanity, and walked out with a great deal of the house’s filth lucre in my pocket. Plus I got comped a suite and tickets to a great show.

Speaking of great shows, the pilot itself was pretty damn good. Whenever you endeavor to do something very complicated in a very short period of time with somewhat limited resources there are going to be compromises and mistakes that you just have to deal with. I think both were minimized beyond any reasonable expectation. Someday the hunger for content may induce someone to create an archive of pilots that never went to series. Short of that, I don’t think too many people are going to get to see the All Signs of Death pilot. I consider that a damn shame. Probably my one real regret from not putting this thing on the air is that folks will miss out on Ben Whishaw as Web Goodhue. The cast was pretty fucking great top to bottom, but Mr. Whishaw was remarkable

.

Claire Applewhite To Sign "St. Louis Hustle" on Saturday, July 16

Author Claire Applewhite signs and discusses the second entry in her 'Nam Noir series, St. Louis Hustle at Big Sleep Books, 239 N. Euclid, St. Louis, on Saturday, July 16, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. For more information, call 314-361-6100.

St. Louis Hustle features two St. Louis landmarks, the Coral Court Motel, and the City Hospital, as Vietnam Vet turned detective Elvin Suggs trails a philandering husband only to find himself entangled in a web of lethal deception.

You can read an excerpt from St. Louis Hustle by clicking here.

"Dark Dreams" by Michael Genelin Out Now In Paperback

Michael Genelin's Dark Dreams is out now in paperback, and Big Sleep has it in stock.

USA Today said:

“Readers hungry for a fresh crime setting will be enormously satisfied with Michael Genelin’s Jana Matinova novels based in Bratislava, Slovakia, a place relatively unknown to Westerners. Matinova goes head-to-head with a beloved childhood friend whose budding political career is in crash mode because of an affair. The portrayal of life in post-Communist Slovakia is riveting.”

Soho Press' Synopsis:

Prudent Jana and impetuous Sofia were best friends when they were schoolmates. One day Sofia approached a man in a car when she shouldn't have and ended up being raped by a nefarious Communist Party bigwig. Jana pursued the culprit's car, identified him, and vowed someday to bring him to justice.

Now Jana is a Commander in the Slovak police force and Sofia, having made a name as a reformer, is a member of parliament. Jana has fallen in love with an upright government prosecutor and Sofia is carrying on a notorious affair with a suave, married fellow MP.

One day Jana finds an enormous diamond dangling from a string fixed to the ceiling of the living room of her house. Was it put there as a present? Or, more likely, to entrap her? Where did this magnificent jewel come from? And why was it left for her to find? The answer leads Jana across Europe to unravel a criminal conspiracy involving multiple murders which has entangled her hapless, impulsive friend, Sofia, in its web, and ultimately to the criminal mastermind, the onetime Communist Party boss.

You can read the first chapter of Dark Dreams by clicking here.

"Fun and Games" by Duane Swierczynski

Mulholland Books' Blurb:

Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner’s entire family, fears one thing above all else: that the same thing will happen to him.

Languishing in self-imposed exile, Charlie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men that specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it’s the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world.

It’s nothing personal -- the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it’s intensely personal. He’s not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

You can read an excerpt on Mulholland Book's web site.

Duane Swierczynski -- pronounced "sweer-ZIN-ski" -- is currently chronicling his across-the-nation book tour on Secret Dead Blog.

"The Poisoner's Handbook" by Deborah Blum Out Now in Paperback

The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum is now out in paperback, and Big Sleep Books has it in stock.

The Poisoner’s Handbook has been nominated for a Macavity Award as best nonfiction book by the members of Mystery Readers International. The Macavity winners will be announced at this year’s Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, September 15-18, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Reviews:

New York Times: "The Poisoner’s Handbook is an inventive history that, like arsenic mixed into blackberry pie, goes down with ease."

Washington Post: "Not only is The Poisoner's Handbook as thrilling as any CSI episode, but it also offers something even better: an education in how forensics really works."

Dallas Morning News: In this bubbling beaker of a book, [Blum] mixes up a heady potion of forensic toxicology, history and true crime. Her account of the ongoing battle between scientists and killers in Jazz Age New York is more startling than any CSI: NY script.

BookPage: The Poisoner’s Handbook is that rare nonfiction book that has something for everyone, whether you are a true-crime aficionado, a political-history buff, a science geek or simply a fan of well-written narrative suspense.

Macavity Awards Nominees

Presented annually by Mystery Readers International, the Macavity Awards honor the best in mystery as voted by MRI members. The winners will be announced at this year’s Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, September 15-18, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Best Mystery Novel

The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

Faithful Place by Tana French

The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

Best First Mystery Novel

The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva

The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron

Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill

A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction, edited by Maxim Jakubowski

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank W. Wagner

Best Mystery Short Story

“The Scent of Lilacs” by Doug Allyn in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

“Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron in Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side

“Devil’s Pocket” by Keith Gilman in Philadelphia Noir

“The Gods for Vengeance Cry” by Richard Helms in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

“Bookworm” by G.M. Malliet in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery

A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley

The Red Door by Charles Todd

The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia

Nero Wolfe Award Finalists 2011

The Nero Award is presented by the Wolfe Pack each year to an author for the best mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories. It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. The Nero Award celebrates literary excellence in the mystery genre.

Nominees:

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen -- Ballantine Books

The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds -- St. Martin’s Press

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny -- Minotaur Books

The Midnight Show Murders by Al Roker -- Delacorte

Think of a Number by John Verdon -- Crown

The Wolfe Pack, the literary society that celebrates all things Nero Wolfe, also presents the Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA) in partnership with Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the Novella format popularized by Rex Stout. The BONA is also announced at the Black Orchid Banquet in December.

"The Snowman" by Jo Nesbø

From Jo Nesbø's official web site:

It is November in Oslo and the first snow of the year has fallen. Birte Becker comes home from work and praises the snowman her husband and son have made in the garden. But they haven’t made a snowman. As the family stand by the sitting room window looking out in amazement at the snowman, the son notices that it is facing the house. The black eyes are staring at the window. At them.

Detective Inspector Harry Hole receives an anonymous letter signed “The Snowman”. Later he finds an alarming common thread in all the old disappearance cases. Married women go missing the day the first snow falls. That same night Sylvia Pedersen is fighting her way through the first snow in a forest outside Oslo. She knows she is running for her life, but she doesn’t know what from. Nor does she know what lies ahead. Fortunately.

The Snowman was awarded The Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize 2007 for Best Novel of the Year and with The Norwegian Book Club Prize (Den norske leserprisen) 2007 for Best Novel of the Year.

“The Snowman is a superb thriller. Jo Nesbø is astonishingly good; he knows how to grab you, by the throat and by the heart.” -- Jeff Abbott