Is That a Tingle I Feel Up My Spine?

Well, my day just got a little brighter. Spinetingler Magazine editor Sandra Ruttan has posted the winners of the 2009 Spinetingler Awards, and The Rap Sheet--along with Peter Rozovsky’s Detectives Beyond Borders--has won in the category of Special Services to the Industry. I want to extend my appreciation to all of the Web readers who filled out award ballots this year, and especially to all those brilliant folks who cast their votes for The Rap Sheet (although every one of the nominees in that category deserves acclaim).

The full rundown of winners looks like this:

New Voice: Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow (Harper)

Also nominated: The Price of Blood, by Declan Hughes (Morrow); Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, by John McFetridge (Harcourt); Borderlands, by Brian McGilloway (Minotaur Books); Go With Me, by Castle Freeman Jr. (Steerforth Press); The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read (Grand Central Publishing); Who Is Conrad Hirst?, by Kevin Wignall; and Crimson Orgy, by Austin Williams (Borderlands Press)

Rising Star: Money Shot, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)

Also nominated: When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson (Black Swan); No More Heroes, by Ray Banks (Polygon); The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford (Morrow); Savage Night, by Allan Guthrie (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); A Nail Through the Heart, by Timothy Hallinan (Morrow); Empire of Lies, by Andrew Klavan (Harcourt), and Victory Square, by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur Books)

Legend: Hit and Run, by Lawrence Block (Morrow)

Also nominated: Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press); Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster); Leather Maiden, by Joe R. Lansdale (Knopf); The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane (Morrow); Dooley Takes the Fall, by Norah McClintock (Red Deer Press); A Darker Domain, by Val McDermid (Harper); and Salt River, by James Sallis (Walker & Company)

Graphic Novel: Femme Noir, by Christopher Mills and Joe Staton

Also nominated: 100 Bullets, by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso; Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips; Hawaiian Dick, by B. Clay Moore and Steven Griffin; Incognegro, by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece; and Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera

Best Editor: Charles Ardai, Hard Case Crime

Also nominated: Ben LeRoy, Bleak House; Neil Nyren, Putnam; and John Schoenfelder, Thomas Dunne

Best Reviewer: Lesa Holstine from Lesa’s Book Critiques

Also nominated: Ali Karim, Larry Gandle, Karen Chisholm, and
Glenn Harper

Best Publisher: Hard Case Crime

Also nominated: Bleak House and Soho Press

Special Services to the Industry: (tie) J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet; and Peter Rozovsky, Detectives Beyond Borders

Also nominated: Declan Burke, Crime Always Pays; Barbara Franchi, Reviewing the Evidence; John and Ruth Jordan, Crimespree Magazine; and Ruth Jordan and Judy Bobolik, Bouchercon 2008

Best Cover: Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow (Harper)--cover design: Suzanne Dean

Also nominated: At the City’s Edge, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)--cover design: The DesignWorks Group; Death Was the Other Woman, by Linda L Richards (St. Martin’s Minotaur)--cover design: David Baldeosignh Rotstein; Empty Ever After, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)--cover design: 2Faced Designs; Fifty to One, by Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime)--cover design: Cooley Design Lab; and Mad Dogs, by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance Publications)--cover design: Jill Bauman

Best Short Story on the Web: “Hard Bite,” by Anonymous-9
(from Beat to a Pulp)

Also nominated: “Cold Rift,” by Sandra Seamans (from Crooked); “Fruits,” by Steve Mosby (from Spinetingler); “Lenny and Earl Go Shooting Off Their Mouths,” by Ray Morrison (from Word Riot); “Random Acts of Fatherhood,” by Robert Pesa (from Darkest Before the Dawn); “Red Hair and Black Leather,” by Jordan Harper (from ThugLit); “She Watches Him Swim,” by Claude Lalumière (from The Back Alley); “Sisters Under the Skin,” by Naomi Johnson (from A Twist of Noir); “They Take You,” by Kyle Minor (from Plots With Guns); and “Wishing on Whores,” by John Weagly (from Thieves Jargon).

Again, congratulations to all of the nominees.

Thanks, too, to all of the contributors who add their insights and comments to The Rap Sheet. It may sound like a line, but I seriously could not keep this blog going without them.