Author! Arthur!

During a well-attended ceremony tonight at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of its 2009 Arthur Ellis Awards. This is the 25th anniversary of these esteemed awards. The winners are:

Best Novel: Too Close to Home, by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)

Also nominated: The K Handshape, by Maureen Jennings (Dundurn); Transgression, by James W. Nichol (MacArthur & Company); The Murder Stone, by Louise Penny (MacArthur & Company); and The Tsunami File, by Michael E. Rose (MacArthur & Company)

Best First Novel: Buffalo Jump, by Howard Shrier (Vintage Canada)

Also nominated: Iced Under, by Nadine Doolittle (Bayeux Arts/Gondolier); Talking to Wendigo, by John C. Goodman (Turnstone); Headline: Murder, by April Lindgren (Second Story Press); and Margarita Nights, by Phyllis Smallman
(MacArthur & Company)

Best Juvenile Novel: War Brothers, by Sharon E. McKay
(Penguin Canada)

Also nominated: Res Judicata, by Vicki Grant (Orca); Getting the Girl, by Susan Juby (HarperCollins); Royal Murder, by Elizabeth MacLeod (Annick Press); and Dead Silence, by Norah McClintock (Scholastic Canada)

Best Crime Writing in French: Le Chemin des brumes, by
Jacques Côté (Alire)

Also nominated: Le Poids des illusions, by Maxime Houde (Alire); La Tendresse du serpent, by Andre Jacques (Québec Amerique); L’Homme qui détestait le golf, by Sylvain Meunier (La courte échelle); and Meurtre au Soleil, by Antoine Yaccarini (VLB éditeur)

Best Short Story: “Filmsong,” by Pasha Malla (from Toronto Noir, edited by Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore; Akashic Books)

Also nominated: “Clay Pillows,” by James Powell (from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], June 2008); “Walking the Dog,” by Peter Robinson (from Toronto Noir); “An Ill Wind,” by Amelia Symington (from EQMM, September/October 2008); and “Thinking Inside the Box,” by Kris Wood (from Going Out with a Bang, edited by Linda Wiken; RendezVous Crime)

Best Non-fiction: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken, by Michael Calce and Craig Silverman (Penguin Canada)

Also nominated: The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect, by Daphne Bramham (Vintage Canada/RHC); The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory, and Murder, by Sharon Butala (Phyllis Bruce Books/HarperCollins); Befriend and Betray: Infiltrating the Hells Angels, Bandidos, and Other Criminal Brotherhoods, by Alex Caine (Vintage Canada/RHC); and Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, by Kerry Pither
(Penguin Canada)

Best Unpublished Novel: Louder, by Douglas A. Moles

Also nominated: This Cage of Bones, by Pam Barnsley; Cheat the Hangman, by Gloria Ferris; Salvage, by Stephen Maher; and Condemned, by Kevin Thornton

Congratulations to all of the winners.