Britain, Canada Announce Prize Rivals

Thanks to Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare, we now have the shortlists of nominees for four annual awards to be handed out on Saturday, May 16, as part of this year’s CrimeFest convention in Bristol, England.

The Audible Sounds of Crime Award
(for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2014 in both printed and audio formats):

• Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch; read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Orion)

• Personal, by Lee Child; read by Jeff Harding (Penguin)

• The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling); read by Robert Glenister (Little, Brown)

• Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz; read by Derek Jacobi and Julian Rhind-Tutt (Orion)

• Want You Dead, by Peter James; read by Daniel Weyman (Macmillan)

• Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King; read by Will Patton
(Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Son, by Jo Nesbø; read by Sean Barrett (Penguin)

• The Hangman’s Song, by James Oswald; read by Ian Hanmore (Penguin)

E-Dunnit Award
(for the best crime fiction e-book first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2014):

• No Safe House, by Linwood Barclay (Orion)

• The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons, by Lawrence Block (Orion)

• A Colder War, by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)

• Dark Tides, by Chris Ewan (Faber & Faber)

• Natchez Burning, by Greg Illes (HarperCollins)

• Hollow Mountain, by Thomas Mogford (Bloomsbury)

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Thomas Sweterlitsch (Headline)

• The Silent Boy, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

The Goldsboro Last Laugh Award
(for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2014):

• The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons, by Lawrence Block (Orion)

• Crime Always Pays, by Declan Burke (Severn House)

• Bryant & May: The Bleeding Heart, by Christopher Fowler (Bantam)

• Kill Your Boss, by Shane Kuhn (Little, Brown)

• The Accident, by Chris Pavone (Faber & Faber)

• Crooked Herring, by L.C. Tyler (Allison & Busby)

The H.R.F. Keating Award
(for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the British Isles between 2013 and 2014):

• Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction, by Pamela Bedore (Palgrave)

• Late Victorian Crime Fiction in the Shadows of Sherlock, by Clare Clarke (Palgrave)

• Nordic Noir, by Barry Forshaw (Pocket Essentials)

• Euro Noir, by Barry Forshaw (No Exit Press)

• Crime Scene: Britain & Ireland, by John Martin (Five Leaves)

• A Very British Murder, by Lucy Worsley (BBC Books)

* * *

Meanwhile, we also have the five contenders for this year’s Bony Blithe Award for Best Canadian Light Mystery. They are:

• The Corpse with the Platinum Hair, by Cathy Ace (Touchwood)

• Many Unpleasant Returns, by Judith Alguire (Signature)

• Seeing the Light, by E.C. Bell (Tyche)

• Night of the Living Thread, by Janet Bolin (Berkley Prime Crime)

• The Resurrection of Mary Mabel McTavish, by Allan Stratton
(Dundurn Press)

A winner will be announced on May 29 during the Bony Blithe Bash at The Hot House Restaurant in Toronto, Ontario.