Berney Performs a Hat Trick

By this point, educator-author Lou Berney must be overjoyed that he sprang for the cost of his travel to Dallas, Texas. Over the course of this year’s Bouchercon, taking place in that city, his 2018 novel November Road won not only the Macavity Award for Best Novel and the Barry Award for Best Novel, but has now also captured the Anthony Award for Best Novel. Well worth the journey!

Last evening’s convention festivities also delivered a quartet of other Anthonys into the hands of deserving wordsmiths. Here are all of the 2019 Anthony Award recipients.

Best Novel: November Road, by Lou Berney (Morrow)

Also nominated: Give Me Your Hand. by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown); Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur); Sunburn, by Laura Lippman (Morrow); and Blackout, by Alex Segura (Polis)

Best First Novel:
My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)

Also nominated: Broken Places, by Tracy Clark (Kensington);
Dodging and Burning, by John Copenhaver (Pegasus); What Doesn’t Kill You, by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink); and Bearskin, by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco)

Best Paperback Original Novel:
Under a Dark Sky, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)

Also nominated: Hollywood Ending, by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink); If I Die Tonight, by Alison Gaylin (Morrow); Hiroshima Boy, by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park); and A Stone’s Throw, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Short Story:
“The Grass Beneath My Feet,” by S.A. Cosby (Tough, August 20, 2018)

Also nominated: “Bug Appétit,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], November/December 2018); “Cold Beer No Flies,” by Greg Herren (from Florida Happens: Tales of Mystery, Mayhem, and Suspense from the Sunshine State, edited by Greg Herren; Three Rooms Press); “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” by Art Taylor (EQMM, July/August 2018); and “The Best Laid Plans,” by Holly West (from Florida Happens)

Best Critical or Non-fiction Work: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, by Alice Bolin (Morrow); Mastering Plot Twists: How to Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure to Captivate Your Readers, by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest); Pulp According to David Goodis, by Jay A. Gertzman (Down & Out); Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s, annotated by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus); and The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World, by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)

Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Peter Lovesey

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)