Doing Boucher Proud

And the awards nominations just keep on coming … This time, we have contestants for the 2006 Anthony Awards, selected by Bouchercon attendees and named in honor of prominent critic Anthony Boucher.

Best Mystery Novel:
• Bloodlines, by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster)
• Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• Mercy Falls, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
• Red Leaves, by Thomas H. Cook (Harcourt)
• To the Power of Three, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Mystery:
• The Baby Game, by Randall Hicks (Wordslinger Press)
• Die a Little, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• Immoral, by Brian Freeman (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• Officer Down, by Theresa Schwegel (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• Tilt-a-Whirl, by Chris Grabenstein (Carroll & Graf)

Best Paperback Original:
• The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Susan McBride (Avon)
• The James Deans, by Reed Farrell Coleman (Plume)
• A Killing Rain, by P.J. Parrish (Pinnacle)
• Kiss Her Goodbye, by Allan Guthrie (Hard Case Crime)
• Six Bad Things, by Charlie Huston (Ballantine)

Best Short Story:
• “Driven to Distraction,” by Marcia Talley (in Chesapeake Crimes II, edited by Donna Andrews and Maria Y. Lima; Quiet Storm)
• “House Rules,” by Libby Fischer Hellmann (in Murder in Vegas, edited by Michael Connelly; Forge)
• “Killer Blonde,” by Elaine Viets (in Drop-Dead Blond; Signet)
• “Misdirection,” by Barbara Seranella (in Greatest Hits, edited by Robert J. Randisi; Carroll & Graf)
• “There Is No Crime on Easter Island,” by Nancy Pickard (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2005)

Best Critical/Nonfiction:
• Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed, by Stuart M. Kaminsky; photography by Laurie Roberts (Hothouse Press)
• Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her, by Melanie Rehak (Harcourt)
• The Heirs of Anthony Boucher: A History of Mystery Fandom, edited by Marv Lachman (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels, edited by Leslie S. Klinger (Norton)
• Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel, by Hallie Ephron (Writer’s Digest)

Best Fan Publication:
• Crimespree Magazine, edited by Jon and Ruth Jordan
• Deadly Pleasures, edited by George Easter
• Mystery News, edited by Lynn Kaczmarek and Chris Aldrich
• Mystery Scene Magazine, edited by Brian Skupin and Kate Stine
• Mystery Readers Journal, edited by Janet Rudolph

Special Service to the Field:
• George Easter, Deadly Pleasures
• Janet Rudolph, Mystery Readers International
• Maddy Van Hertbruggen, 4 Mystery Addicts
• Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

Winners will be announced on Saturday, September 30, during the Bouchercon festivities in Madison, Wisconsin.