Independent Thinkers

OK, here’s the first reason to interrupt my hard-won week’s vacation: the announcement today of nominees for the 2013 Dilys Award. As you might recall, this commendation is given out annually by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) to “the mystery title of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling.” The contenders are:

• Grandad, There’s a Head on the Beach, by Colin Cotterill (Minotaur)
• Broken Harbor, by Tana French (Viking)
• Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
• The Expats, by Chris Pavone (Crown)
• Before the Poison, by Peter Robinson (Morrow)

A winner will be named during this year’s Left Coast Crime convention, to be held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from March 21 to 24.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)