Uh-Oh, Canada

The Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) has announced the nominees for its 25th annual Arthur Ellis Awards. Winners will be announced during a special presentation dinner on Thursday, June 5, in Toronto. And without further ado, this year’s contenders are ...

Best Novel:
• No Time for Goodbye, by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
• Snow Candy, by Terry Carroll (Mercury Press)
• A Journeyman to Grief, by Maureen Jennings (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Cruellest Month, by Louise Penny (McArthur & Company)
• Trumpets Sound No More, by Jon Redfern (RendezVous Crime/Napoleon & Company)

Best First Novel:
• The Line Painter, by Claire Cameron (HarperCollins)
• Big City, Bad Blood, by Sean Chercover (Morrow/HarperCollins)
• García’s Heart, by Liam Durcan (McClelland & Stewart)
• Blood of Dreams, by Susan Parisi (Penguin Australia)
• The Silk Train Murder, by Sharon Rowse (Carroll & Graf)
• Sucker Punch, by Marc Strange (Castle Street Mysteries/Dundurn)

Best Non-fiction:
• Enter the Babylon System, by Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce (Random House Canada)
• The Last to Die: Ronald Turpin, Arthur Lucas, and the End of Capital Punishment in Canada, by Robert J. Hoshowsky (Hounslow/Dundurn)
• One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators, by Julian Sher (Random House Canada)
• The War on Women: Elly Armour, Jane Hurshman, and Criminal Violence in Canadian Homes, by Brian Vallée (Key Porter)
• Where War Lives, by Paul Watson (McClelland & Stewart)

Best Short Story:
• “Eight Lords A’Leaping,” by Vicki Cameron (in Locked Up, edited by Sue Pike; Deadlock Press)
• “Wreckwood,” by Maureen Jennings (in Blood on the Holly, edited by Caro Soles; Baskerville Books)
• “The Hounds of Winter,” D.J. McIntosh (in Blood on the Holly)
• “As Long as We Both Shall Live,” by Rick Mofina (in Blood on the Holly)
• “Turners,” by Leslie Watts (Kingston Whig-Standard, July 7, 2007)

Best Juvenile:
• Racing for Diamonds, by Anita Daher (Orca)
• Spider’s Song, by Anita Daher (Puffin Canada/Penguin Canada)
• I.D., by Vicki Grant (Orca)
• Eye of the Crow, by Shane Peacock (Tundra)
• The Night Wanderer, by Drew Hayden Taylor (Annick Press)

Best Crime Writing in French:
• Tsiganes, by Mario Bolduc (Libre Expression)
• Le Cercle des Pénitents, by Johanne Seymour (Libre Expression)
• GHB: Grossier, Horrible et Bête, by Pierre H. Richard (Editions Pratiko)
• Epidermes, by Diane Vincent (Triptyque)
• Scènes de Crimes: Enquêtes sur le Roman Policier Contemporain, by Norbert Spehner (Alire)

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (the Unhanged Arthur):
• Mummer’s the Word, by Patricia Flewwelling
• The Witch of Babylon, by D.J. McIntosh
• The Paris Letters, by Amy Tector
• Condemned, by Kevin Thornton

It’s good to see the Best Crime Writing in French category reappear on this roster. Last year, no Arthur Award was given for such, due to what the CWC reported was an inadequate number of submissions.