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

.

"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.