Public Acclaim for Private Dicks

The Private Eye Writers of America has announced its nominees for the 2016 Shamus Awards in five categories, as follows.

Best Hardcover Private Eye Novel:
• The Promise, by Robert Crais (Putnam)
• Dance of the Bones, by J.A. Jance (Morrow)
• Gumshoe, by Robert Leininger (Oceanview)
• Brush Back, by Sara Paretsky (Putnam)
• Brutality, by Ingrid Thoft (Putnam)

Best First Private Eye Novel:
• The Red Storm, by Grant Bywaters (Minotaur)
• Night Tremors, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
• Trouble in Rooster Paradise, by T.W. Emory (Coffeetown Press)
• Depth, by Lev Ac Rosen (Regan Arts)
• The Do-Right, by Lisa Sandlin (Cinco Puntos Press)

Best Original Private Eye Paperback: 
• Circling the Runway, by J.L. Abramo (Down & Out)
• The Long Cold, by O'Neil De Noux (Big Kiss)
• Split to Splinters, by Max Everhart (Camel Press)
• The Man in the Window, by Dana King (CreateSpace)
• Red Desert, by Clive Rosengren (Moonshine Cove)

Best Private Eye Short Story:
• “The Runaway Girl from Portland, Oregon,” by C.B. Forrest (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], October 2015)
• “The Sleep of Death,” by David Edgerley Gates (AHMM, December 2015)
• “The Dead Client,” by Parnell Hall (from Dark City Lights: New York Stories, edited by Lawrence Block; Three Rooms Press)
• “The Dead Detective,” by Robert S. Levinson (from Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks; Down & Out)
• “The Continental Opposite,” by Evan Lewis (AHMM, May 2015)

Last year, independently published books competed with each other in their own category. But this time around, they had to be submitted in the Best Original P.I. Paperback category.

Winners will be declared during a PWA banquet held in association with Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana (September 15-18).

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)