Prizes Aplenty in Canada and Maine

During an event last evening at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of its 2015 Arthur Ellis Awards, highlighting “excellence in Canadian crime writing.”

Best Novel:
Plague, by C.C. Humphreys (Doubleday Canada)

Also nominated: Cold Mourning, by Brenda Chapman (Dundurn Press); None So Blind, by Barbara Fradkin (Dundurn Press); No Known Grave, by Maureen Jennings (McClelland & Stewart); and Killing Pilgrim, by Alen Mattich (House of Anansi)

Best First Novel:
Siege of Bitterns, by Steve Burrows (Dundurn Press)

Also nominated: A Quiet Kill, by Janet Brons (Touchwood); Windigo Fire, by M.H. Callway (Seraphim); No Worst, There Is None, by Eve McBride (Dundurn Press); and Last of the Independents, by Sam Wiebe (Dundurn Press)

Best Novella:
A Knock on the Door, by Jas. R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2014)

Also nominated: The Boom Room, by Rick Blechta (Orca); Juba Good, by Vicki Delany (Orca); and The Dragon Head of Hong Kong, by Ian Hamilton (House of Anansi)

Best Short Story:
“Stone Mattress,” by Margaret Atwood (from Stone Mattress: Nine Stories, by Margaret Atwood; McClelland & Stewart)

Also nominated: “Hook, Line and Sinker,” by Melodie Campbell (NorthWord); “Therapy,” by Peter Clement (Belgrave House); “First Impressions,” by Madona Skaff (from The Whole She-Bang 2: 24 Stories by Sisters in Crime Canada, edited by Janet Costello; Toronto Sisters in Crime); and “Writers Block,” by Kevin P. Thornton (from World Enough and Crime, edited by Donna Carrick; Carrick Publishing)

Best Book in French:
Bondrée, by Andrée Michaud (Editions Québec Amérique)

Also nominated: Jack: Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme, by Hervé Gagnon (Expression noir/Groupe librex); Meurtre à l’hôtel Despréaux, by Maryse Rouy (Édition Druide); and Repentirs, by Richard Ste Marie (Alire)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult Book:
Dead Man’s Switch, by Sigmund Brouwer (Harvest House)

Also nominated: Face-Off, by Michael Betcherman (Penguin Canada); The Voice Inside My Head, by S.J. Laidlaw (Tundra); About That Night, by Norah McClintock (Orca); and The Bodies We Wear, by Jeyn Roberts (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Best Non-fiction Book:
The Massey Murder, by Charlotte Gray (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: Being Uncle Charlie, by Bob Deasy, with Mark Ebner (Penguin Random House); Innocence on Trial: The Framing of Ivan Henry, by Joan McEwen (Heritage House); Life Real Loud: John Lefebvre, Neteller, and the Revolution in Online Gambling, by Bill Reynolds (ECW Press); and Extreme Mean, by Paula Todd (McClelland & Stewart)

Unhanged Arthur (for best unpublished first crime novel):
Strange Things Done, by Elle Wild

Also nominated: Rum Luck, by Ryan Aldred; Full Curl, by Dave Butler; Crisis Point, by Dwayne Clayden; and Afghan Redemption, by Bill Prentice

In addition, as Bill Selnes reports in Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan, “Sylvia McConnell received the Derrick Murdoch Award. She began RendezVous Crime in 1998 and published 80 crime novels over the next 13 years which were written by Canadians and set in Canada.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

* * *

Also handed out during a well-attended May 28 ceremony were this year’s Maine Literary Awards. There were 17 categories of nominees, one of which was crime fiction. Kate Flora took home that commendation for And Grant You Peace (Five Star), the fourth book in her Joe Burgess mystery series. Other contenders for this prize: Paul Doiron for The Bone Orchard; Vaughn C. Hardacker for Sniper; and D.A. Keeley for Bitter Crossing.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)