Maple Leaf Raves

During a dinner in Toronto on Thursday night, the Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of its 23rd annual Arthur Ellis Awards, named after the nom de travail of Canada’s official hangman (now, thankfully, unemployed). And the winners are:

Best Novel: April Fool, by William Deverell (McClelland & Stewart)

Also nominated: Cemetery of the Nameless, by Rick Blechta (RendezVous Press); Black Fly Season, by Giles Blunt (Random House Canada); Cold Dark Matter, by Alex Brett (Castle Street Mystery/Dundurn); and Strange Affair, by Peter Robinson (McClelland & Stewart)

Best First Novel: Still Life, by Louise Penny (McArthur & Company)

Also nominated: The Joining of Dingo Radish, by Rob Harasymchuk (Great Plains Publications); All Shook Up, by Mike Harrison (ECW Press); Blue Mercy, by Illona Haus (Pocket Star Books/Simon & Schuster); and Sugarmilk Falls, by Ilona van Mil (McClelland & Stewart)

Best Short Story: “Lightning Rider,” by Rick Mofina (from Murder in Vegas, edited by Michael Connelly; Forge Books)

Also nominated: “Plenty of Time,” by Melanie Fogel (from When Boomers Go Bad, edited by Sue Pike, Joan Boswell and Linda Wiken; RendezVous Press); “The Red Pagoda,” by Day’s Lee (from When Boomers Go Bad); “The Headless Horseman and the Horseless Carriage,” by James Powell (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2005); and “The Knitting Circle, by Coleen Steele (Storyteller, Winter 2005)

Best Crime Writing in French: Motel Riviera, by Gerard Galarneau (Les Editions JCL)

Also nominated: La Trace de l’Escargot, by Benoit Bouthillette (Les Editions JCL); and La Rive Noire, by Jacques Cote (Alire)

Best Non-Fiction: Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk, by Rebecca Godfrey (HarperCollins Canada)

Also nominated: Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa, by Linda Diebel (HarperCollins Canada); Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild, by Susanne Reber and Robert Renaud (Random House Canada); and Hell’s Witness, by Daniel Sanger (Penguin Canada)

Best Juvenile: Quid Pro Quo, by Vicki Grant (Orca Book Publishers)

Also nominated: Remember, Remember, by Sheldon Goldfarb (UKA); Wild Ride, by Jacqueline Guest (James Lorimer & Company); Not a Trace, by Norah McClintock (Scholastic Canada); and Red Sea, by Diane Tullson (Orca Book Publishers)

Derrick Murdoch Award (given to someone who has contributed greatly either to the Crime Writers of Canada or to Canadian crime writing as a whole): Mary Jane Maffini