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.