Music City Tunes Up for Mystery

With less than a month to go now before this year’s Killer Nashville convention (October 29-November 1) opens in Tennessee, conference organizers have released the list of finalists for the 2015 Silver Falchion Readers Choice Awards. Attendees and others are invited to go here and vote for their favorite works.

Because there are so many categories of nominees (22 by my count), I am going to feature below only the adult best novel contenders.

Best Novel: Romantic Suspense
• Judgment, by Carey Baldwin (Witness Impulse)
• The Lost Key, by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison (Putnam)
• Top Secret Twenty-One, by Janet Evanovich (Bantam)
• Sweet Damage, by Rebecca James (Bantam)
• Truth Be Told, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best Novel: Cozy/Traditional
• Angelica’s Smile, by Andrea Camilleri (Penguin)
• The Question of the Missing Head, by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen (Midnight Ink)
• The Alpine Yeoman, by Mary Daheim (Ballantine)
• Designated Daughters, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central)
• Hunting Shadows, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

Best Novel: Historical
• The Reckoning, by Rennie Airth (Viking)
• An Air of Treason, by P.F. Chisolm (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Johnstown Girls, by Kathleen George (University of
Pittsburgh Press)
• The Devil’s Workshop, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)
• Death on Blackheath, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

Best Novel: Private Detective/Police Procedural
• The Forsaken, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)
• The Hollow Girl, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Tyrus)
• Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart, by Christopher
Fowler (Bantam)
• Sorrow Bound, by David Mark (Blue Rider Press)
• Field of Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam)

Best Novel: Speculative
• The String Diaries, by Stephen Lloyd Jones (Mulholland)
• Coldbrook, by Tim Lebbon (Titan)
• Lock In, by John Scalzi (Tor)
• Fear City, by F. Paul Wilson (Tor)
• Yesterday’s Hero, by Jonathan
Wood (Titan)

Best Novel: Literary Suspense
• The Dead Will Tell,
by Linda Castillo (Minotaur)
• Red 1-2-3, by John Katzenbach
(Mysterious Press)
• Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King (Scribner)
• The Day She Died, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
• The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)

Best Novel: Political Thriller/Adventure
• Night Heron, by Adam Brookes (Redhook)
• Dark Spies, by Matthew Dunn (Morrow)
• The Hilltop, by Assaf Gavron (Scribner)
• End Game, by John Gilstrap (Pinnacle)
• I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Assassin’s Game, by Ward Larsen (Forge)

Best Novel: Crime Thriller
• The Bone Orchard, by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)
• Dakota, by Gwen Florio (Permanent Press)
• Gangsterland, by Tod Goldberg (Counterpoint)
• The Keeper, by John Lescroart (Atria)
• In the Blood, by Lisa Unger (Touchstone)

A full tally of this year’s Silver Falchion finalists is here.

(Hat tip to Criminal Element.)