You Want Awards? You’ve Got ’Em!

I was away from my office all day yesterday (babysitting my niece’s infant son, which I have been doing now for the last year), and wouldn’t you know it? All kinds of crime-fiction awards news came streaming in during my absence.

First of all, we have the winner of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller: It’s the already acclaimed Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (Crown). That announcement was made on the eve of this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books kicking off at L.A.’s University of Southern California campus.

Also nominated in the Best Mystery/Thriller category were: His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Skyhorse); The Girls, by Emma Cline (Random House); The North Water, by Ian McGuire (Henry Holt); and Darktown, by Thomas Mullen (37 Ink/Atria Books).

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Meanwhile, the Crime Writers of Canada has broadcast its shortlist of contenders for the 2017 Arthur Ellis Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. They are as follows:

Best Novel:
• City of the Lost, by Kelley Armstrong (Penguin Random
House of Canada)
• After James, by Michael Helm (McClelland & Stewart)
• Dead Ground in Between, by Maureen Jennings
(McClelland & Stewart)
• Wishful Seeing, by Janet Kellough (Dundurn Press)
• The Fortunate Brother, by Donna Morrissey (Viking Canada)

Best First Novel:
• Rum Luck, by Ryan Aldred (Five Star)
• Cold Girl, by R.M. Greenaway (Dundurn Press)
• Where the Bodies Lie, by Mark Lisac (NeWest Press)
• Still Mine, by Amy Stuart (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Strange Things Done, by Elle Wild (Dundurn Press)

Best Novella -- The Lou Allin Memorial Award:
• Rundown, by Rick Blechta (Orca)
• No Trace, by Brenda Chapman (Grass Roots Press)
• “The Devil You Know,” by Jas. R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine, March 2016)
• When Blood Lies, by Linda L. Richards (Orca)
• “The Village That Lost Its Head,” by Peter Robinson (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2016)

Best Short Story:
• “Steve’s Story,” by Cathy Ace (from The Whole She-Bang 3, edited by Janet Costello; Toronto Sisters in Crime)
• “A Death at the Parsonage,” by Susan Daly (from The Whole She-Bang 3)
• “Where There’s a Will,” by Elizabeth Hosang (from The Whole She-Bang 3)
• “The Ascent,” by Scott Mackay (EQMM, August 2016)
• “The Granite Kitchen,” by David Morrell (EQMM, July 2016)

Best Book in French:
• Red Light: Adieu, Mignonne, by Marie-Eve Bourassa (VLB éditeur)
• Vrai ou faux, by Chrystine Brouillet (Éditions Druide)
• Terreur domestique, by Guillaume Morrissette
(Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur)
• Rinzen et l’homme perdu, by Johanne Seymour (Libre Expression)
• Le Blues des sacrifiés, by Richard Ste-Marie (Éditions Alire)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult Book:
• Masterminds: Criminal Destiny, by Gordon Korman (Harper Collins)
• Trial by Fire, by Nora McClintock (Orca)
• The Girl in a Coma, by John Moss (The Poisoned Pencil/
Poisoned Pen Press)
• Shooter, by Caroline Pignat (Tundra)
• Another Me, by Eva Wiseman (Tundra)

Best Non-fiction Book:
• Life Sentence: Stories from Four Decades of Court Reporting — or, How I Fell Out of Love with the Canadian Justice System, by Christie Blatchford (Doubleday Canada)
• The Ballad of Danny Wolfe: Life of a Modern Outlaw, by Joe Friesen (Signal/McClelland & Stewart)
• A Daughter’s Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story, by Jeremy Grimaldi (Dundurn Press)
• Black River Road: An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect, and the Question of Character, by Debra Komar (Goose Lane)
• Shadow of Doubt: The Trial of Dennis Oland, by Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon (Goose Lane)

Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel:
• An Absence of Empathy, by Mary Fernando
• The Golkonda Project, by S.J. Jennings
• Concrete Becomes Her, by Charlotte Morganti
• Celtic Knot, by Ann Shortell
• The Last Dragon, by Mark Thomas

The winners of all these commendations will be declared during a ceremony to be held on May 25 in Toronto, Ontario.

In addition, the 2017 Derrick Murdoch Award goes to Christina Jennings, founder, chairman, and CEO of Shaftesbury Films.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

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Finally, in the competition for the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Michelle Cox’s A Girl Like You (She Writes Press) has won the Gold Medal in the Mystery/Cozy/Noir category. Capturing the Silver is Delivering the Truth, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink), with Catriona McPherson’s Quiet Neighbors (Midnight Ink) picking up the Bronze.