The Prize That Was Wanted

It seems to be the day for awards nominations, eh? First it was the Thriller Awards, and now comes the list of contenders for this year’s Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Sponsored of course by Michigan-based The Strand Magazine, and “judged by a select group of book reviewers from the nation’s top daily newspapers, as well as by Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine” (to quote the press release), these commendations are again supposed to recognize only the best works in the field. Here be the nominees:

Best Novel:
• Down River, by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• The Shotgun Rule, by Charlie Huston (Ballantine)
• The Strangler, by William Landay (Delacorte Press)
• The Watchman, by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)
• What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel:
• The Blade Itself, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• In the Woods, by Tana French (Viking)
• The Mark, by Jason Pinter (Mira Books)
• Missing Witness, by Gordon Campbell (Morrow)
• When One Man Dies, by Dave White (Crown Publishing)

Winners will be announced and awards handed ’round during “an invitation-only cocktail party, hosted by The Strand on July 9, 2008, in New York City.”