Barry Good News, Indeed

This morning brings word of the Barry Award nominees for 2013. These prizes are sponsored by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, and it’s readers of that periodical who will determine the winners. An announcement of Barry recipients will be made on September 19 as part of the opening ceremonies at Bouchercon 2013, to be held in Albany, New York. Here are this year’s contenders.

Best Novel:
• Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (Crown)
• The Blackhouse, by Peter May (Silver Oak)
• Trust Your Eyes, by Linwood Barclay (NAL)
• Defending Jacob, by William Landay (Delacorte)
• Live by Night, Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
• Dead Scared, by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur)

Best First Novel:
• The Yard, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)
• A Killing in the Hills, by Julia Keller (Minotaur)
• Sacrifice Fly, by Tim O’Mara (Minotaur)
• The Dark Winter, by David Mark (Blue Ridge Press)
• Black Fridays, by Michael Sears (Putnam)
• The Professionals, by Owen Laukkanen (Putnam)

Best Paperback Original:
• Pago Pago Tango, by John Enright (Thomas & Mercer)
• Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, by Susan Elia McNeal (Bantam)
• Blessed Are the Dead, by Malla Nunn (Washington Square)
• The Other Woman’s House, by Sophie Hannah (Penguin)
• Bloodland, by Alan Glynn (Picador)
• Beneath the Abbey Wall, by A.D. Scott (Atria)

Best Thriller:
• The Last Refuge, by Ben Coes (St. Martin’s)
• The Right Hand, by Derek Haas (Mulholland)
• The Fallen Angel, by Daniel Silva (Harper)
• A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming (St. Martin’s)
• House Blood, by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly)
• Red Star Burning, by Brian Freemantle (Minotaur)

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

By the way, you might notice that this selection of awards categories seems strangely limited. Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter explains that “We have eliminated two: The Best Short Story (lack of interest/votes by fans) and Best British (changing times, most good British writers are now published in the U.S., and it was a confusing award especially when an American or an Icelandic won). The awards ceremony got to be too long. Now it will be just right.”

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)