And Finally, We Have the Anthonys

Well, I previously pronounced myself a bit surprised to see that all five of this year’s Anthony Award contenders in the Best Novel category were written by women. This morning, I’m no less astonished by the fact that during last night’s Anthonys banquet at Bouchercon, all three of the commendations given for book-length fiction went to women. It’s an interesting development in a genre that is still dominated by male wordsmiths, if not read mostly by men. The start of a trend? We’ll see.

Here’s the full list of 2007 Anthony Award winners:

Best Novel: No Good Deeds, by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: All Mortal Flesh, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (St. Martin’s Minotaur); The Dead Hour, by Denise Mina (Little, Brown); Kidnapped, by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster); and The Virgin of Small Plains, by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)

Best First Novel: Still Life, by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Also nominated: A Field of Darkness, by Cornelia Read (Mysterious Press); The Harrowing, by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martin’s Minotaur); Holmes on the Range, by Steve Hockensmith (St. Martin’s Minotaur); and The King of Lies, by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original: Ashes and Bones, by Dana Cameron (Avon)

Also nominated: Baby Shark, by Robert Fate (Capital Crime Press); The Cleanup, by Sean Doolittle (Dell); A Dangerous Man, by Charlie Huston (Ballantine); 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers, by Troy Cook (Capital Crime Press); Shotgun Opera, by Victor Gischler (Dell); and Snakeskin Shamisen, by Naomi Hirahara (Delta)

Best Short Story: “My Father’s Secret,” by Simon Wood (Crimespree Magazine, Bouchercon Special Issue)

Also nominated: “After the Fall,” by Elaine Viets (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [AHMM], January/February 2006); “Cranked,” by Bill Crider (from Damn Near Dead, edited by Duane Swierczynski; Busted Flush Press); “The Lords of Misrule,” by Dana Cameron (from Sugarplums and Scandal; Avon); “Policy,” by Megan Abbott (from Damn Near Dead); and “Sleeping with the Plush,” by Toni L.P. Kelner (AHMM, May 2006)

Best Critical Non-fiction: Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today’s Mystery Writers, edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar (Crum Creek Press)

Also nominated: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder, by Daniel Stashower (Dutton); Don’t Murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A., by Chris Roerden (Bella Rosa Books); Read ’Em Their Writes: A Handbook for Mystery and Crime Fiction Book Discussions, by Gary Warren Niebuhr (Libraries Unlimited); and The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective’s Greatest Cases, by E.J. Wagoner (John Wiley & Sons)

Special Services Award: Jim Huang, Crum Creek Press and The Mystery Company

Also nominated: Charles Ardai, Hard Case Crime; George Easter, Deadly Pleasures; Barbara Franchi and Sharon Wheeler, Reviewing the Evidence; Jon and Ruth Jordan, Crimespree Magazine; Ali Karim, Shots; Lynn Kaczmarek and Chris Aldrich, Mystery News; and Maddy Van Hertbruggen, 4 Mystery Addicts

According to Bouchercon organizers, there is no Best Young Adult Novel award this year, “due to a lack of nominations.”

(Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)