Championing Canadian Crime

I wasn’t anticipating the need to report this news tonight, but the Crime Writers of Canada organization has just announced its shortlist of nominees for the 2013 Arthur Ellis Awards.

Best First Novel:

• The Beggar’s Opera, by Peggy Blair (Penguin Canada)

• Confined Space, by Deryn Collier (Simon & Schuster)

• The Dead of Winter, by Peter Kirby (Linda Leith)

• A Private Man, by Chris Laing (Seraphim)

• The Haunting of Maddy Clare, by Simone St. James (NAL)

Best Novel:

• Trust Your Eyes, by Linwood Barclay (Doubleday Canada)

• Until the Night, by Giles Blunt (Random House Canada)

• The Trinity Game, by Sean Chercover (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Messenger, by Stephen Miller (Delacorte Press)

• Niceville, by Carsten Stroud (Knopf)

Best Novella:

• Contingency Plan, by Lou Allin (Orca Rapid Reads)

• A Winter Kill, by Vicki Delany (Orca Rapid Reads)

• Evil Behind that Door, by Barbara Fradkin (Orca Rapid Reads)

• Reunion, by Christopher G. Moore (from Phnom Penh Noir, edited by Christopher G. Moore; Heaven Lake Press)

Best Short Story:

• “Life without George,” by Melodie Campbell
(Over My Dead Body!, August 2012)

• “Sins of the Fathers,” by Sandy Conrad
(from Daughters and Other Strangers, The Brucedale Press)

• “Cruel Coast,” by Scott MacKay
(Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July 2012)

• “Mad Dog,” Jas R. Petrin
(Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, October 2012)

• “Spring-blade Knife,” by Yasuko Thanh
(from Floating Like the Dead, McClelland & Stewart)

Best Non-fiction:

• Bloody Justice: The Truth behind the Bandidos Massacre at Shedden, by Anita Arvast (John Wiley)

• Octopus: Sam Israel, the Secret Market, and Wall Street’s Wildest Con, by Guy Lawson (Crown/Random House)

• The Devil’s Cinema: The Untold Story behind Mark Twitchell’s Kill Room, by Steve Lillebuen (McClelland & Stewart)

• Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians, by Bruce Livesey (Random House Canada)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult:

• Live to Tell, by Lisa Harrington (Cormorant Books)

• The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel, by Y.S. Lee (Candlewick Press)

• Crush Candy Corpse, by Sylvia McNicoll (James Lorimer)

• Becoming Holmes, by Shane Peacock (Tundra)

• The Lynching of Louie Sam, by Elizabeth Stewart (Annick Press)

Best Crime Book in French:

• La Nuit des albinos: Sur les traces de Max O’Brien, by Mario Bolduc (Libre Expression)

• De pierres et de sang, by André Jacques (Druide)

• L’homme du jeudi, by Jean Lemieux (La courte échelle)

• Je me souviens, by Martin Michaud (Goélette)

• L’inaveu, by Richard Ste Marie (Alire)

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (“The Unhanged Arthur”):

• Cold Black Tide, by William Hall

• The Raffle Baby, by Ilonka Halsband

• Sins Revisited, by Coleen Steele

The winners of these commendations will be named on May 30 during a ceremony at the Arts & Letters Club in Toronto.