Please Pass the Anthonys

Let me start out by saying that Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman should feel most proud this weekend. Not only did the 2008 Bouchercon go off with few or no faults in Charm City, but the wonderful Ms. Lippman walked away with a triple-play of commendations--one Macavity Award, one Barry Award, and now a pair of Anthony Awards. I guess she’ll be investing in some new shelves in the near future.

As much as I would have liked to win an Anthony for The Rap Sheet and January Magazine today, I think that my competition in the Best Web Site category was outstanding. So I do not regret losing out this time. At least I wound up with a handsome plaque, which will be appearing soon on my office wall. And maybe I shall have another shot at that award in the future.

Anyway, here’s the full list of nominees and winners:

Best Novel: What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Also nominated: 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); and Thunder Bay, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)

Best First Novel: In the Woods, by Tana French (Viking)

Also nominated: Big City, Bad Blood, by Sean Chercover (Morrow); The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster); Head Games, by Craig McDonald (Bleak House); and The Blade Itself, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original: A Thousand Bones, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)

Also nominated: Queenpin, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster); Slide, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (Hard Case Crime); Blood of Paradise, by David Corbett (Ballantine); and Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues, by Robert Fate (Capital Crime)

Best Short Story: “Hardly Knew Her,” by Laura Lippman (from Dead Man’s Hand, edited by Otto Penzler; Harcourt)

Also nominated: “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); and “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)

Also nominated: 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

Also nominated: 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: Stop, You’re Killing Me!, edited by Stan Ulrich and Lucinda Surber

Also nominated: Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, by Sarah Weinman; The Rap Sheet/January Magazine, edited by J. Kingston Pierce; Murderati, a writers’ blog; Crime Fiction Dossier, by David J. Montgomery

In addition, Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter presented a second Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom to Bill and Toby Gottfried. And a Lifetime Achievement Award was given during this conference to Robert Rosenwald and Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona, and Poisoned Pen Press.