Anthony Loves Us

I’m particularly humbled this morning to find my name on the list of 2008 Anthony Award nominees, especially as it appears with such illustrious company in the “Best Web Site” category. When I started working with January Magazine in the late 1990s and then spun The Rap Sheet off from there as a blog two years ago, I wasn’t trying to win commendations, but just giving myself a forum in which to express my appreciation for crime, thriller, and suspense fiction. That others have noticed and complimented my efforts and the efforts of other Rap Sheet contributors is by far the best endorsement. I appreciate the continuing recognition that this nomination symbolizes.

I am almost as pleased to see that my British friend and colleague Ali Karim has been nominated (again) in the Special Services category. And occasional Rap Sheet poster Megan Abbott is at least an even bet to win in the Best Original Paperback category. If we can all wind up in Baltimore for Bouchercon this coming October, it should be quite a party. No matter who walks away victorious.

But on to the full list of nominees:

Best Novel:
• The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
• Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Delacorte)
• The Watchman, by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)
• Thunder Bay, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
• What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel:
• Big City, Bad Blood, by Sean Chercover (Morrow)
• In the Woods, by Tana French (Viking)
• The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)
• Head Games, by Craig McDonald (Bleak House)
• The Blade Itself, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original:
• Queenpin, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• Slide, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (Hard Case Crime)
• Blood of Paradise, by David Corbett (Ballantine)
• Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues, by Robert Fate (Capital Crime)
• A Thousand Bones, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)

Best Short Story:
• “Please Watch Your Step,” by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine, Spring 2007)
• “Dear Dr. Watson,” by Steve Hockensmith (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, February 2007)
• “How Stella Got her Grave Back,” by Toni L.P. Kelner (from Many Bloody Returns, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner; Ace)
• “Hardly Knew Her,” by Laura Lippman (from Dead Man’s Hand, edited by Otto Penzler; Harcourt)
• “Uncle,” by Daniel Woodrell (from A Hell of A Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir, edited by Megan Abbott; Busted Flush)

Best Critical Non-fiction:
• Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Charles Foley (Penguin)
• The Essential Mystery Lists, compiled and edited by Roger M. Sobin (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction, by Patrick Anderson (Random House)
• Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction, by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave MacMillan)

Special Services Award:
• Jon and Ruth Jordan, Crimespree Magazine
• Ali Karim, Shots
• Maddy Van Hertbruggen, 4 Mystery Addicts
• Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
• Judy Bobalik, “for being one of the best friends and supporters of mystery writers anywhere.”

Best Web Site:
• Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, by Sarah Weinman
• The Rap Sheet/January Magazine, edited by J. Kingston Pierce
• Murderati, a writers’ blog
• Stop, You’re Killing Me!, edited by Stan Ulrich and Lucinda Surber
• Crime Fiction Dossier, by David Montgomery

In addition, a Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Robert Rosenwald and Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona, and Poisoned Pen Press.

Winners are chosen by Bouchercon attendees. The Anthonys will be presented by toastmaster Mark Billingham during a special brunch to be held on October 12 at the Sheraton Center City in Baltimore.