Strand Decides, Sisters Deliberates

As was promised several months ago, last evening brought the announcement of this year’s Strand Critics Award winners during an invitation-only affair in New York City. The victors are:

Best Novel:
Wonder Valley, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco)

Also nominated: A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré (Viking); The Late Show, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz (Harper); My Darling Detective, by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); and Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Mulholland)

Best First Novel:
The Lost Ones, by Sheena Kamal (Morrow)

Also nominated: My Sister’s Bones, by Nuala Ellwood (Morrow); Quicksand, by Malin Persson Giolito (Other Press); August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Press); Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Crown); and See What I Have Done, by Sarah Schmidt (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Lifetime Achievemant Awards:
Jonathan Gash (aka. John Grant) and J.A. Jance

Publisher of the Year Award:
Tom Doherty of Tor/Forge Books

The Strand Critics Awards are judged by reviewers from various publications and given out annually by The Strand Magazine.

(Hat tip to The Gumshoe Site.)

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Meanwhile, In Reference to Murder brings us this news:

Sisters in Crime Australia announced the shortlists for this year’s Davitt Awards, which celebrate the best crime books by Australian women in the categories of adult, young adult, children, non-fiction, and debut books. The finalists for the Best Adult Crime Book [are] Sarah Bailey, The Dark Lake; Sara Foster, The Hidden Hours; Candice Fox, Crimson Lake; Sulari Gentill, Crossing the Lines; Jane Harper, Force of Nature; Emma Viskic, And Fire Came Down.

A list of all the nominees can be found here.

Winners will be announced and awards presented during a ceremony at Swinburne University, in Melbourne, on Saturday, August 11.