Counting Down to the Anthonys

I was away from Rap Sheet headquarters all day yesterday, so missed announcing the rundown of this year’s Anthony Award nominees. But for the record, here they are.

Best Novel:
• The Last Child, by John Hart (Minotaur)
• The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland (Quercus/Knopf)
• The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Shanghai Moon, by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

Best First Novel:
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
• Starvation Lake, by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
• A Bad Day for Sorry, by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur)
• The Ghosts of Belfast (aka The Twelve), by Stuart Neville (Soho Press/Harvill Secker)
• In the Shadow of Gotham, by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original:
• Bury Me Deep, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• Tower, by Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman (Busted Flush Press)
• Quarry in the Middle, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• Starvation Lake, by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
• Death and the Lit Chick, by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)
• Air Time, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Mira)

Best Short Story:
• “Last Fair Deal Gone Down,” by Ace Atkins (from Crossroad Blues; Busted Flush Press)
• “Femme Sole,” by Dana Cameron (from Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane; Akashic Books)
• “Animal Rescue,” by Dennis Lehane (Boston Noir)
• “On the House,” by Hank Phillippi Ryan (from Quarry: Crime Stories by New England Writers, edited by Kate Flora, Ruth McCarty, and Susan Oleksiw; Level Best Books)
• “Amapola,” by Luis Alberto Urrea (from Phoenix Noir, edited by Patrick Millikin; Akashic Books)

Best Critical Non-fiction Work:
• Talking About Detective Fiction, by P.D. James (Bodleian Library/Knopf)
• The Line Up: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler (Little, Brown)
• Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, by Lisa Rogak (Thomas Dunne Books)
• Dame Agatha’s Shorts: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion, by Elena Santangelo (Bella Rosa Books)
• The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press)

Winners will be announced during a special awards brunch to be held on Sunday, October 17, as part of Bouchercon in San Francisco.