Critical Judgment

As has been noted elsewhere, The Strand Magazine today announced its nominees for the 2011 Strand Magazine Critics Awards. They are:

Best First Novel:
• The Hypnotist, by Lars Kepler (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Sister, by Rosamund Lupton (Crown)
• Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (Harper)
• The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis (Soho)
• The Poison Tree, by Erin Kelly (Pamela Dorman Books)

Best Novel:
• The Affair, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)
• The Drop, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)
• Buried Secrets, by Joseph Finder (St. Martin’s Press)
• Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James (Knopf)
• The Cut, by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur Books)

In addition, reads a press release, “Joseph Wambaugh and John Sandford will be given The Strand’s Lifetime Achievement award for excellence in crime and thriller writing. Wambaugh has achieved worldwide fame for bestselling novels such as The New Centurions (1971) [and The] Blue Knight (1972), and is credited with transforming the police-drama genre into serious literature. John Sandford, with scores of novels in the space of nearly a quarter of a century, ... stands out as one of the most successful thriller writers in the world. His novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and consistently hit the bestseller’s lists.”

All of the winners will be declared, and their commendations presented, during an invitation-only cocktail party to be hosted by The Strand on July 11, 2012, in New York City.