Celebrating Hard Work in the Big Easy

If you didn’t notice, The Rap Sheet has been silent for most of the last week, as I was in New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend this year’s Bouchercon. Having now returned to Rap Sheet headquarters (and an overwhelming landslide of e-mail messages!), I am preparing a number of follow-up posts about that event. But in the meantime, I want to be sure to document the winners of the various prizes dispensed over the course of this year’s “World Mystery Convention.”

ANTHONY AWARDS

(Winners chosen by Bouchercon attendees)

Best Novel: The Killing Kind, by Chris Holm (Mulholland)

Also nominated: Night Tremors, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); The Child Garden, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink); The Nature of the Beast, by Louise Penny (Minotaur/Sphere); and What You See, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Novel: Past Crimes, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)

Also nominated: Concrete Angel, by Patricia Abbott (Polis); New Yorked, by Rob Hart (Polis); Bull Mountain, by Brian Panowich (Putnam); and On the Road with Del & Louise, by Art Taylor
(Henery Press)

Best Paperback Original: The Long and Faraway Gone,
by Lou Berney (Morrow)

Also nominated: Gun Street Girl, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street); Little Pretty Things, by Lori Rader-Day (Seventh Street); Young Americans, by Josh Stallings (Heist); and Stone Cold Dead, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Critical or Non-fiction Book: Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime, by Val McDermid (Grove)

Also nominated: The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins); Meanwhile, There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald, edited by Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan (Arcade); The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett, by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury USA); and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For, by Kate White, editor (Quirk)

Best Short Story: “The Little Men,” by Megan Abbott
(Mysterious Press/Open Road)

Also nominated: “The Siege,” by Hilary Davidson (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, December 2015); “Feliz Navidead,” by Brace Godfrey and Johnny Shaw (from ThugLit Presents: Cruel Yule, edited by Todd Robinson; ThugLit); “Old Hands,” by Erin Mitchell (from Dark City Lights, edited by Lawrence Block; Three Rooms); “Quack and Dwight,” by Travis Richardson (from Jewish Noir, edited by Kenneth Wishnia; PM Press); and “Don’t Fear the Ripper,” by Holly West (from Protectors 2: Heroes, edited by Thomas Pluck; Goombah Gumbo Press)

Best Anthology or Collection: Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon Anthology 2015, edited by Art Taylor (Down & Out)

Also nominated: Safe Inside the Violence, by Christopher Irvin (280 Steps); Protectors 2: Heroes, edited by Thomas Pluck (Goombah Gumbo Press); ThugLit Presents: Cruel Yule, edited by Todd Robinson (ThugLit); and Jewish Noir, edited by Kenneth Wishnia (PM Press)

Best Young Adult Novel: Need, by Joelle Charbonneau
(HMH Books for Young Readers)

Also nominated: How to Win at High School, by Owen Matthews (HarperTeen); A Madness So Discreet, by Mindy McGinnis (Katherine Tegen); The Sin Eater’s Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury (Scholastic); Fighting Chance, by B.K. Stevens (Poisoned Pencil); and Ask the Dark, by Henry Turner (Clarion)

Best Crime Fiction Audiobook: The Nature of the Beast, by Louise Penny; narrated by Robert Bathurst (Macmillan Audio)

Also nominated: Dark Waters, by Chris Goff; narrated by Assaf Cohen (Crooked Lane); The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins; narrated by Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, and India Fisher (Penguin Audio/Random House Audiobooks); Causing Chaos, by Deborah J. Ledford; narrated by Christina Cox (IOF); and Young Americans, by Josh Stallings; narrated by Em Eldridge (Josh Stallings)

Lifetime Achievement Award: David Morrell

SHAMUS AWARDS

(Presented by the Private Eye Writers of America)

Best Hardcover Private Eye Novel: Brutality, by Ingrid Thoft (Putnam)

Also nominated: The Promise, by Robert Crais (Putnam); Dance of the Bones, by J.A. Jance (Morrow); Gumshoe, by Robert Leininger (Oceanview); and Brush Back, by Sara Paretsky (Putnam)

Best First Private Eye Novel: The Do-Right, by Lisa Sandlin
(Cinco Puntos Press)

Also nominated: The Red Storm, by Grant Bywaters (Minotaur); Night Tremors, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); Trouble in Rooster Paradise, by T.W. Emory (Coffeetown Press); and Depth, by Lev Ac Rosen
(Regan Arts)

Best Original Private Eye Paperback: Circling the Runway,
by J.L. Abramo (Down & Out)

Also nominated: 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); and Red Desert, by Clive Rosengren (Moonshine Cove)

Best Private Eye Short Story: “The Dead Client,” by Parnell Hall (from Dark City Lights: New York Stories, edited by Lawrence Block; Three Rooms Press)

Also nominated: “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 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); and “The Continental Opposite,” by Evan Lewis (AHMM, May 2015)

The Eye Award for lifetime achievement: S.J. Rozan

BARRY AWARDS

(Presented by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine)

Best Novel:
Badlands, by C.J. Box (Minotaur)

Also nominated: A Song of Shadows, by John Connolly (Emily Bestler/Atria); The Stolen Ones, by Owen Laukkanen (Putnam); Life or Death, by Michael Robotham (Mulholland); Devil of Delphi, by Jeffrey Siger (Poisoned Pen Press); and The Cartel, by Don Winslow (Knopf)

Best First Novel:
The Unquiet Dead, by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Ruins of War, by John A. Connell (Berkley); Past Crimes, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow); Jade Dragon Mountain, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur); The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead); and Bull Mountain, by Brian Panowich (Putnam)

Best Paperback Original:
The Long and Faraway Gone, by Lou Berney (Morrow)

Also nominated: Blessed Are Those Who Weep, by Kristi Belcamino (Witness Impulse); Quarry’s Choice, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); No Other Darkness, by Sarah Hilary (Penguin); Snow Blind, by Ragnar Jónasson (Orenda); and Stone Cold Dead, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Thriller: The Mask, by Taylor Stevens (Crown)

Also nominated: Brute Force, by Marc Cameron (Pinnacle); The Killing Kind, by Chris Holm (Mulholland); Viking Bay, by M.A. Lawson (Blue Rider); Hostage Taker, by Stefanie Pintoff (Bantam); and Foreign and Domestic, by A.J. Tata (Pinnacle)

The Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in mystery fandom: David Magayna

MACAVITY AWARDS

(Presented by Mystery Readers International)

Best Mystery: The Long and Faraway Gone, by Lou Berney (Morrow)

Also nominated: Little Black Lies, by Sharon Bolton (Minotaur); The Hot Countries, by Tim Hallinan (Soho Crime); The Child Garden, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink); Life or Death, by Michael Robotham (Mulholland); and The Cartel, by Don Winslow (Knopf)

Best First Mystery: Past Crimes, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)

Also nominated: Concrete Angel, by Patricia Abbott (Polis); The Killing Kind, by Chris Holm (Mulholland); Where All Light Tends to Go, by David Joy (Putnam); The Unquiet Dead, by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur); and On the Road with Del & Louise, by Art Taylor
(Henery Press)

Best Critical/Biographical: The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: A Is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma); Meanwhile, There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald, edited by Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan (Arcade); Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime, by Val McDermid (Grove); and The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett, by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury)

Best Short Story: “The Little Men,” by Megan Abbott
(Mysterious Press/Open Road)

Also nominated: “On Borrowed Time,” by Mat Coward (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, June 2015); “Sob Sister,” by Loren D. Estleman (from Detroit Is Our Beat: Tales of the Four Horsemen, by Loren D. Estleman; Tyrus); “A Year Without Santa Claus,” by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], January/February 2015); “Quack and Dwight,” by Travis Richardson (from Jewish Noir, edited by Kenneth Wishnia; PM Press); and “A Joy Forever,” by B.K. Stevens (AHMM, March 2015)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award: The Masque of a Murderer, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)

Also nominated: A Gilded Grave, by Shelley Freydont (Berkley Prime Crime); Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo), by C. Joseph Greaves (Bloomsbury); The Lady from Zagreb, by Philip Kerr (Putnam); Secret Life of Anna Blanc, by Jennifer Kincheloe (Seventh Street); and Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

DERRINGER AWARDS

(Presented by the Short Mystery Fiction Society)

Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words):
“Hero,” by Vy Kava (from Red Dawn: Best New England Crime Stories 2016, edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler; Level Best)

Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words):
“Twilight Ladies,” by Meg Opperman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], March/April 2015)

Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words):
“Dentonville,” by John M. Floyd (EQMM, November 2015)

Best Novelette (8,001-20,000 words):
“Driver,” by John M. Floyd (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2015)

The Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for lifetime achievement: Michael Bracken

In addition, these commendations were given out during the Bouchercon opening ceremonies:

David Thompson Special Service Award: Otto Penzler

Teen Short Story Writing Awards: Sarah Devin Burse, Kate Marsh, Cherrikee Rhea, Sasha Robertson, Mayia Tate, Peter Williams, and Poet Wolfe. (To read their commended tales, check out Shadows in the Big Easy: An Anthology of Seven Award Winning Teen Mysteries)