Excellence in Abundance

Crime Writers of Canada has announced its shortlists for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing (former known as the Arthur Ellis Awards). Winners are to be announced on Wednesday, May 29.

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel:
• The Drowning Woman, by Robyn Harding (Grand Central)
• Everyone Here Is Lying, by Shari Lapena (Doubleday Canada)
• Middlemen, by Scott Thornley (House of Anansi Press)
• Sunset and Jericho, by Sam Wiebe (Harbour)
• The Maid's Diary, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)

Best Crime First Novel:
• The Bittlemores, by Jann Arden (Random House Canada)
• Adrift, by Lisa Brideau (Sourcebooks)
• The End Game, by Charlotte Morganti (Halfdan Press)
• The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters (Harper Perennial)
• Perfect Shot, by Steve Urszenyi (Minotaur)

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
• The Almost Widow, by Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Harper Avenue)
• Elmington, by Renee Lehnen (Storeyline Press)
• Cruel Light, by Cyndi MacMillan (Crooked Lane)
• Wild Hope, by Joan Thomas (Harper Perennial)
• Shapes of Wrath, by elissa Yi (Windtree Press)

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery:
• The Legacy, by Gail Bowen (ECW Press)
• Steeped in Malice, by Vicki Delany (Kensington)
• The Game Is a Footnote, by Vicki Delany (Crooked Lane)
• The Mystery Guest, by Nita Prose (Viking)
• To Track a Traitor, by Iona Whishaw (TouchWood Editions)

Best Crime Short Story:
• “Wisteria Cottage,” by M.H. Callway (from Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press)
• “Reversion,” Marcelle Dubé (Mystery Magazine, April 2023)
• “The Canadians ,” by Mary Keenan (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out)
• “Troubled Water,” by Donalee Moulton (Black Cat Weekly #75)
• “American Night,” by Zandra Renwick (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2023)

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Non-fiction):
• La punition, by Jean-Philippe Bernié (Glénat Québec)
• Le mois des morts, by Chrystine Brouillet (Éditions Druide)
• Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, by Catherine Lafrance
(Éditions Druide)
• La sainte paix, by André Marois (Héliotrope)
• Rien, by Jean-Jacques Pelletier (Alire)

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book:
• Someone Is Always Watching, by Kelley Armstrong (Tundra)
• Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, by Cherie Dimaline (Tundra)
• The Big Sting, by Rachelle Delaney (Tundra)
• Catfish Rolling, by Clara Kumagai (Penguin Teen Canada)
• Champions of the Fox, by Kevin Sands (Puffin Canada)

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
• The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, by Josef Lewkowicz with Michael Calvin (HarperCollins)
• The Human Scale, The: Murder, Mischief and Other Selected Mayhems, by Michael Lista (Véhicule Press)
• Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream, by David Rabinovitch (Rowman & Littlefield)
• Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land, by Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen (ECW Press)
• Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto, by Carolyn Whitzman (On Point Press)

Best Unpublished Crime Novel (written by an unpublished author):
• The Patient, by Tom Blackwell
• Requiem for a Lotus, by Craig H. Bowlsby
• Murder on Richmond Road, by Sheilla Jones and James Burns
• The Forest Beyond, by Nora Sellers
• Thirty Feet Under, by William Wodhams

In addition, Toronto author Maureen Jennings is this year’s recipient of the Grand Master Award, which “recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.”