Saturday, April 25, 2009

Envy to Go Around

Indiana author Michael Koryta last night won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category for his 2008 novel, Envy the Night. He was one of nine recipients of this year’s various honors, a list that also includes Marilyn Robinson (for Home) and Terry Pratchett (for Nation).

The Times’ Carolyn Kellogg reports that it was “a scaled-down awards ceremony” during which Koryta and the other victors were named, but one that featured “as much enthusiasm and humor as any of the more grandly produced affairs of recent years.”

Koryta is probably best known for his excellent series about Cleveland private eye Lincoln Perry (A Welcome Grave). But as Dick Adler wrote on this page not long ago, “Envy the Night is that rarest of literary creatures: a standalone thriller that you hope will generate a series” of its own. Koryta’s work has won plaudits as well from Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, George Pelecanos, and others.

Envy the Night beat out four other books to win in the Mystery/Thrillers category: The Finder, by Colin Harrison (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Bad Traffic, by Simon Lewis (Scribner); The Age of Dreaming, by Nina Revoyr (Akashic Books); and Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central).

A full list of this year’s L.A. Times Book Prize winners is here.

READ MORE:Michael Koryta, Interviewed by Steve Hamilton” (Mystery Readers International).

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