Get Riel

The information is received a bit (or more than a bit) tardily, but thanks to Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare, we now know that Danish author Ane Riel won the 2016 Glass Key Award for her second novel, Harpiks. The Glass Key has been given out annually since 1992 by the Scandinavian Crime Society and is named in honor of Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 novel of that same name. Last year’s winner was Thomas Rydahl for The Hermit.

A Web site called Danish Arts reports that the Glass Key jury described Harpiks as “not your typical crime novel … Just look at the first sentence, ’It was dark in the white room, where my father killed grandmother.’” The site goes on to offer this plot synopsis: “Jens Haarder lives an isolated life on a little island. He runs a small carpentry business, and lives with his family in a fragrant pine forest. Haarder’s life doesn’t unfold as planned, though, as loss upon loss gradually breaks him. His mania for collecting becomes increasingly obsessive and grotesque, and his daughter Liv must fervently struggle to free herself from her father’s view of the world. It is a tale of illness and betrayal, as well as loyalty and caring. It is also a small introduction to the pleasures of lying in a coffin.”

Unfortunately, Riel’s book is not yet available in English.

All Cry Wolfe

David C. Taylor, a former film and TV screenwriter, was presented this last weekend with the 2016 Nero Award for his 1950s-set cop thriller, Night Life (2015). The Nero is presented annually by the New York City-based Nero Wolfe fan organization, The Wolfe Pack, to “the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.” Previous recipients of this commendation include David Morrell, Dana Stabenow, Walter Mosley, and Chris Knopf.

Taylor was given his prize during the annual Black Orchid Banquet, held in Manhattan. During that same gala affair, Connecticut author Steve Liskow was honored with the 2016 Black Orchid Novella Award (“presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout”) for his tale “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma.”

Congratulations to both authors!

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

Cleeves Captures Commendation

As part of its excellent coverage of this weekend’s Iceland Noir festival in Reykjavik, the Web site Crime Fiction Lover reports that British author Ann Cleeves has won the “first ever Honorary Award for Services to the Art of Crime Fiction.

“The author of both the Vera [Stanhope] series, set in North East England, and the Shetland books, with the Shetland Islands as their backdrops, was handed both the award and an authentic Icelandic wool blanket. She has been instrumental in helping the bi-annual event establish itself. She’s also an advocate for reading and library provision, while in her books she explores families and communities and how they’re affected by dramatic events … such as murder.”

The Irish Smile on French

Tana French’s The Trespasser (Hachette Ireland) has won the 2016 Books Are My Bag Crime Fiction Award, given out as part of this year’s Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards competition.

In doing so, it bested five other works shortlisted for that same prize: Distress Signals, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus); Little Bones, by Sam Blake (Bonnier Zaffre); Lying in Wait, by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland); The Constant Soldier, by William Ryan (Mantle); and The Drowning Child, by Alex Barclay (HarperCollins).

Crime fiction was one of 14 categories of contestants for this year’s Irish Book Awards. You can read about all of the winners here.

Lehane Conquers Spain

Via Jose Ignacio’s blog, A Crime Is Afoot, comes this news:

North American writer Dennis Lehane has won the 2017 Pepe Carvalho Award. The prize is given by [the] Barcelona City Council and aims to give particular recognition to prestigious national and international crime-fiction writers.

You can learn more about Lehane’s victory here.

Sandlin Scores the Hammett

Nebraska author Lisa Sandlin has captured the 2015 Hammett Prize for her first mystery novel, The Do-Right (Cinco Puntos Press). The Hammett, named of course for Sam Spade creator Dashiell Hammett, is given out annually by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers to “a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing.”

Also contending for this award were The Stranger, by Harlan Coben (Dutton); Sorrow Lake, by Michael J. McCann (Plaid Raccoon Press); The Whites, by Richard Price, writing as Harry Brandt (Henry Holt); and The Organ Broker, by Stu Strumwasser (Arcade Publishing).

Sandlin’s win was announced at a ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 29, during the NoirCon 2016 conference.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

Hawley Prevails in SoCal

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) has announced that author-screenwriter Noah Hawley has won the 2016 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for his novel Before the Fall (Grand Central Publishing). Also vying for that prize were Orphan X, by Gregg Hurwitz (Minotaur), and The Promise, by Robert Crais (Putnam).

The Parker Award is one of one of seven annual literary commendations sponsored by the SCIBA. This year’s winners were named during the SCIBA Trade Show in Los Angeles, October 21-22.

(Hat tip to The Gumshoe Site).

Irish Crime Takes Center Stage

If you thought crime-fiction book prize season was over and done with, well, think again. This week brought an announcement of the shortlisted nominees for this year’s Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. There are 14 categories of contestants, but the one most likely to interest Rap Sheet readers features the half-dozen works vying for the Books Are My Bag Crime Fiction Award:

• Distress Signals, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)
• Little Bones, by Sam Blake (Bonnier Zaffre)
• Lying in Wait, by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
• The Constant Soldier, by William Ryan (Mantle)
• The Drowning Child, by Alex Barclay (HarperCollins)
• The Trespasser, by Tana French (Hachette Ireland)

Readers are invited to vote for their favorite entries in each category (I don’t see it mentioned anywhere that this contest is open only to residents of Ireland), but you must cast your ballot no later than midnight on Friday, November 11. The winners of the 2016 Irish Book Awards are set to be declared on Wednesday, November 16.

Daggers Find Their Destinations

Hyattsville, Maryland, author Bill Beverly must be an extremely happy man this evening. During a well-attended presentation, held in London and organized by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), he won not just one, but two different 2016 Dagger Awards for his novel Dodgers. Below, you will find the full run of tonight’s winners, thanks to reporting by peripatetic Rap Sheet contributor Ali Karim, who attended the shindig in full tuxedo-mode.

CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger (for the best crime novel of the year): Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)

Also nominated: Black Widow, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown); Blood Salt Water, by Denise Mina (Orion); and Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (John Murray)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (for the best crime thriller of the year): The Cartel, by Don Winslow (William Heinemann)

Also nominated: The English Spy, by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins); Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail); Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (John Murray); and Make Me, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger (for the best debut crime novel): Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)

Also nominated: Fever City, by Tim Baker (Faber and Faber); Freedom’s Child, by Jax Miller (HarperCollins); Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh (Jonathan Cape); and The Good Liar, by Nicholas Searle (Viking)

CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger (for the best historical crime novel): Stasi Child, by David Young (Twenty7Books)

Also nominated: The House at Baker Street, by Michelle Birkby (Pan); The Other Side of Silence, by Philip Kerr (Quercus); A Book of Scars, by William Shaw (Quercus); The Jazz Files, by Fiona Veitch Smith (Lion Fiction); and Striking Murder, by A.J. Wright (Allison & Busby)

CWA Non-fiction Dagger: You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat), by Andrew Hankinson (Scribe)

Also nominated: The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins); Sexy Beasts: The Hatton Garden Mob, by Wensley Clarkson (Quercus); A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West, by Luke Harding (Guardian Faber); Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories: From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Howard Marks, by Thomas Grant (John Murray); and John le Carré: The Biography, by Adam Sisman (Bloomsbury)

CWA Short Story Dagger (for a short crime story published in the UK): “On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier,” by John Connolly (from Nocturnes 2: Night Music, by John Connolly; Hodder & Stoughton)

Also nominated: “As Alice Did,” by Andrea Camilleri (from Montalbano’s First Cases, by Andrea Camilleri; Pan Macmillan); “Holmes on the Range: A Tale of the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (from Nocturnes 2: Night Music); “Bryant & May and the Nameless Woman,” by Christopher Fowler (from London’s Glory, by Christopher Fowler; Bantam); “Stray Bullets,” by Alberto Barrera (from Crimes, by Alberto Barrera Tyszka; MacLehose Press); and “Rosenlaui,” by Conrad Williams (from The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty: The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes’s Nemesis, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Constable & Robinson)

CWA International Dagger (for crime fiction translated into English and published in the UK): The Great Swindle, by Pierre Lemaître; translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose Press)

Also nominated: The Truth and Other Lies, by Sascha Arango; translated by Imogen Taylor (Simon & Schuster); Icarus, by Deon Meyer; translated by K.L. Seegers (Hodder & Stoughton); The Murderer in Ruins, by Cay Rademacher; translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia); and Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama; translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davis (Quercus)

CWA Dagger in the Library (for the author of the most enjoyed collection of work in libraries): Elly Griffiths, published by Quercus

Also nominated: Tony Black, published by Black & White; Alison Bruce, published by Constable & Robinson; and Quintin Jardine, published by Headline

Debut Dagger (for the opening of a crime novel by an author with no publishing contract): Wimmera, by Mark Brandi

Also nominated: Dark Valley, by John Kennedy; The Devil’s Dice, by Roz Watkins; A Reconstructed Man, by Graham Brack; and A State of Grace, by Rita Catching

Also during tonight’s formal affair, best-selling author Peter James was presented with this year’s Diamond Dagger.

If you’d like brief descriptions of each book in the competition, refer to the CWA Web site.

READ MORE: “U.S. Debut Writer Wins Gold Dagger at UK’s Top Crime Writing Awards,” by Alison Flood (The Guardian).

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)

Surprises Among the Man Booker Picks

Now, this is interesting news. From the UK’s Guardian:

Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet’s story of murder in a 19th-century crofting community has beaten novels by some of literature’s biggest names on to a shortlist for the Man Booker Prize that judges said “take[s] risks with language and form”.

Burnet’s His Bloody Project, published by tiny independent Scottish press Saraband, is one of six titles to be shortlisted for this year’s £50,000 prize. The judges, chaired by Amanda Foreman, overlooked major writers on the longlist including Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, Costa winner A.L. Kennedy and Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Strout, to choose titles including Burnet’s His Bloody Project and a debut novel from the American writer Ottessa Moshfegh, the psychological thriller Eileen.

I haven’t yet read Burnet’s yarn (it’s not due out in the States until October), but it has certainly scored a lot of buzz since it was longlisted for this year’s Man Booker in July. It’s nice to see a work of historical crime fiction recognized in such a big way. Especially nice to see it paired in this contest with Moshfegh’s noirish Eileen

The victor in this year’s Man Booker Prize competition will be announced on October 25.

FOLLOW-UP: Speaking of unexpected award contenders, I should note that poet-novelist Steven Price’s forthcoming historical mystery, By Gaslight, has won a place on the longlist for Canada’s 2016 Giller Prize. The shortlist for that commendation is expected to be broadcast on September 26, with the winner to be declared on November 7.

Tartan Talent on Tap

Glasgow-born author Chris Brookmyre has captured the inaugural Mclvanney Prize (previously the Scottish Crime Book of the Year) for Black Widow (Little, Brown UK). That announcement was made during tonight’s opening ceremonies at the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival being held this weekend in Stirling.

Also in contention for this commendation—which is named in honor of the late novelist William McIlvanney (Laidlaw)—were The Jump, by Doug Johnstone (Faber); Splinter the Silence, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown); and Beloved Poison, by E.S. Thomson (Little, Brown).

According to a press release, “the judges—journalist Lee Randall, award-winning librarian Stewart Bain, and former editor of The Scotsman and The Times (Scotland), Magnus Linklater—described Black Widow as: “like watching Olympic diving—just when you think the plot can’t twist again, it takes a new turn. Even the twists have twists. With a theme of cyber-abuse, this shows an author taking a long-running series to new heights.”

Congratulations to all the nominated authors and books!

Four Contenders for New Scottish Prize

Two months after announcing their longlist of contenders for the 2016 McIlvanney Prize—named in honor of the late novelist William McIlvanney, and previously known as the Scottish Crime Book of the Year award—organizers of this year’s Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival have revealed the four finalists for that commendation. They are:

• Black Widow, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Jump, by Doug Johnstone (Faber)
• Splinter the Silence, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• Beloved Poison, by E.S. Thomson (Little, Brown)

Crime Watch blogger Craig Sisterson reports that the McIlvanney Prize ceremony will take place during opening events for Bloody Scotland (September 9-11) in the central Scottish town of Stirling. “His brother, Hugh McIlvanney OBE, will travel to Stirling to present the award …,” adds Sisterson. “The winner will receive £1,000 and all four finalists will be presented with a full set of William McIlvanney novels.”

READ MORE: “Five of the Best William McIlvanney Novels,”
by Chris McCall (The Scotsman).

Aussie Accolades

Following hard on yesterday’s news about the two winners of New Zealand’s Ngaio Marsh Awards comes word—via the blog Fair Dinkum Crime—of which writers and books have captured Australia’s 2016 Davitt and Ned Kelly Awards. The Davitts are of course sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia, while the “Neddies” are given out by the Australian Crime Writers Association.

DAVITT AWARDS

Best Adult Novel: Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Echo)

Also nominated: Medea’s Curse: Natalie King, Forensic Psychiatrist, by Anne Buist (Text); Fall, by Candice Fox (Penguin Random House); Give the Devil His Due, by Sulari Gentill (Pantera Press); Storm Clouds, by Bronwyn Parry (Hachette Australia); and Time to Run, by J.M. Peace, (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Best Young Adult Novel:
Risk, by Fleur Ferris (Penguin Random House)

Also nominated: In the Skin of a Monster, by Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin); Every Move, by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin); and Stay with Me, by Maureen McCarthy (Allen & Unwin)

Best Children’s Novel: Friday Barnes 2: Under Suspicion, by R.A. Spratt (Penguin Random House)

Also nominated: Verity Sparks and the Scarlet Hand, by Susan Green (Walker Press); and Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief, by Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)

Best Non-fiction: Wild Man, by Alecia Simmonds (Affirm Press)

Also nominated: Black Widow, by Carol Baxter (Allen & Unwin); Why Did They Do It?, by Cheryl Critchley and Helen McGrath (Pan Macmillan Australia); The Sting, by Kate Kyriacou (Echo); Behind Closed Doors, by Sue Smetherst (Simon & Schuster); and You’re Just Too Good to Be True, by Sofija Stefanovic (Penguin Random House)

Best Debut: Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Echo)

Also nominated: In the Skin of a Monster, by Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin); Medea’s Curse: Natalie King, Forensic Psychiatrist, by Anne Buist (Text); Please Don’t Leave Me Here, by Tania Chandler (Scribe); Double Madness, by Caroline de Costa (Margaret River Press); Risk, by Fleur Ferris (Penguin Random House); Good Money, by J.M. Green (Scribe); Time to Run, by J.M. Peace (Pan Macmillan Australia); and The Lost Swimmer, by Ann Turner (Simon & Schuster)

NED KELLY AWARDS

Best Fiction: Before It Breaks, by Dave Warner (Fremantle Press)

Also nominated: Ash Island, by Barry Maitland (Text); Fall, by Candice Fox (Bantam); R&R, by Mark Dapin (Viking Australia); Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Allen & Unwin); and The Heat, by Garry Disher (Text)

Best First Fiction: Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Echo)

Also nominated: Amplify, by Mark Hollands (Kylie Davis); Four Days, by Iain Ryan (Broken River); Good Money, by J.M. Green (Scribe); Please Don’t Leave Me Here, by Tania Chandler (Scribe); and Skin Deep, by Gary Kemble (Echo)

Best True Crime: Certain Admissions, by Gideon Haigh (Penguin)

Also nominated: A Murder Without Motive, by Martin McKenzie-Murray (Scribe); Kidnapped, by Mark Tedeschi (Simon & Schuster); Killing Love, by Rebecca Poulson (Simon & Schuster); and The Sting, by Kate Kyriacou (Echo)

S.D. Harvey Award for Short Stories: “Flesh,” by Roni O’Brien

Also nominated: “The Hall Chimp,” by Robbie Arnott; “The Adjustment,” by Honey Brown; “Sisters in Red,” by Joshua Kemp; and “The Caretaker,” by Jemma Tyley-Miller

In addition, reports FDC’s Bernadette Bean, “The Australian Crime Writers Association ... awarded a lifetime achievement award this year to Carmel Shute who is one of the founders and the longest-serving National Co-Convener of Sisters in Crime Australia and has spent a quarter of a century supporting and nurturing Australian women crime writers. Twitter tells me Carmel took an Enid Blyton novel on stage with her when accepting her award.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and other contenders.

Cleave Scores a Triple

Best-selling Christchurch author Paul Cleave has notched a record third win in the annual contest for New Zealand’s Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, this time scoring with his 2015 psychological thriller, Trust No One. Meanwhile, Inside the Black Horse, by Cleave’s fellow Cantabrian Ray Berard, has picked up the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. These announcements were made today during the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival.

Ngaio Marsh judging convener Craig Sisterson is quoted in a news release as saying, “It was a tough year for our judges. We had a record number of entries, launched a new category, and ended up with eight superb finalists that illustrate how varied local crime writing can be. There was everything from a former All Black entwined in French match-fixing to a robotic private eye.”

Here’s the full lineup of 2016 prize finalists:

Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel:
• Inside the Black Horse, by Ray Berard (Mary Egan)
• Made to Kill, by Adam Christopher (Titan)
• Trust No One, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
• The Legend of Winstone Blackhat, by Tanya Moir (RHNZ Vintage)
• American Blood, by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin)

Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel:
• Inside the Black Horse, by Ray Berard (Mary Egan)
• The Fixer, by John Daniell (Upstart Press)
• The Gentlemen’s Club, by Jen Shieff (Mary Egan)
• Twister, by Jane Woodham (Makaro Press)

Cleave first won the Ngaio Marsh Award in 2011 for Blood Men, and again in 2015 for Five Minutes Alone. This New Zealand crime-fiction competition was established by Sisterson in 2010.

READ MORE: “Moments of Madness: The Winners of the Ngaio Marsh Crime-Writing Awards,” by Craig Sisterson (Stuff).

Going for the Silver

Just when you thought an end had finally come to announcements involving contenders for assorted annual crime, mystery, and thriller fiction prizes … here comes another one. With only a few days yet to go before the start of this year’s Killer Nashville conference (to be held August 18-21 in Nashville, Tennessee), organizers of that event have disseminated their list of contenders for the 2016 Silver Falchion Awards. There are 20 categories of finalists for these commendations—too many to list here. But below are the first two.

Best Fiction Adult Book:
• Hard Latitudes, by Baron R. Birtcher (Permanent Press)
• The Raping of Ava Desantis, by Mylo Carbia (Rockefeller)
• The Wild Inside, by Christine Carbo (Atria)
• Trust No One, by Paul Cleave (Atria)
• Go Down Hard, by Craig Faustus Buck (Brash)
• As Night Falls, by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine)
• One Tenth of the Law, by Ray Peden (Williams Printing)
• The Dead Key, by D.M. Pulley (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Ripper Gene, by Michael Ransom (Forge)
• Done in One, by Jan Thomas and Grant Jerkins (Thomas Dunne)
• Prince of the Blue Castles, by Timothy Vincent (W&B)

Best Fiction First Novel:
• One Murder More, by Kris Calvin (Inkshares)
• The Wild Inside, by Christine Carbo (Atria)
• The Mind of God, by Bevan Frank (Elm Park)
• The Ripper Gene, by Michael Ransom (Forge)

Again, you can find the complete list of prize nominees here. The winners in each category will be declared during an awards banquet this coming Saturday, August 20.

Elevating E-books

Three e-books have been identified as finalists for the inaugural Mysterious Press Award. As explained by a news release, this prize “was established as a contest for a mystery novel to be published as Best E-Book Original by MysteriousPress.com and distributed in the United States and Canada by Open Road Integrated Media and published world-wide.” Here’s the trio of contenders:

• Alibi, by Lee Goodman (represented by Janet Reid)
• The Downside, by Mike Cooper (represented by Janet Reid)
• Bright Like Blood, by Leigh C. Rourks (represented by
Larry Kirshbaum)

Otto Penzler, who serves as the president and CEO of MysteriousPress.com, is quoted in that same release as saying: “As electronic publishing has become a significant element of the publishing world, we decided to recognize an outstanding work of mystery fiction by offering a substantial advance and a great opportunity for world-wide recognition. We had an extraordinary array of outstanding crime novels submitted for the contest and will be thrilled to publish whichever one is chosen as the winner.”

The victorious entry will score its author $25,000, an advance against future royalties. And the announcement of a winner will be made during the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair (October 19-23).

When Bad Is Good

This is far from the first time I’ve written on this page about the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which asks contestants to submit the worst (i.e., funniest and most outlandish) opening sentences from never-to-be-finished books. Yet the task never ceases to raise a smile on my face. As Neatorama explains, “The annual contest is named for Victorian novelist Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, who once began a book with the phrase ‘It was a dark and stormy night …’ and cemented those words as a writing cliché.” 2016 marks the 34th year for this bad-writing challenge, sponsored by the English Department at California’s San Jose State University.

Fifty-five-year-old Tallahassee, Florida, building contractor William “Barry” Brockett has been declared the overall winner of this year’s competition. His submission bears a distinctly hard-boiled air:

Even from the hall, the overpowering stench told me the dingy caramel glow in his office would be from a ten-thousand-cigarette layer of nicotine baked on a naked bulb hanging from a frayed wire in the center of a likely cracked and water-stained ceiling, but I was broke, he was cheap, and I had to find her.

The winner in the Crime/Detective category is Charles Caldwell of Leesville, Louisiana, who sent in this entry:

She walked toward me with her high heels clacking like an out-of-balance ceiling fan set on low, smiling as though about to spit pus from a dental abscess, and I knew right away that she was going to leave me feeling like I had used a wood rasp to cure my hemorrhoids.

But I am also rather fond of Akron, Ohio, resident Andrew Caruso’s “Dishonorable Mention” recipient in that same category:

As he gazed at Ming’s lifeless body draped over the sushi bar, chopsticks protruding from his back, Det. Herc Lue Perrot came to the sobering realization that tonight, there had been a murder at the Orient Express.

And I got an especially big chuckle out of the winner in the Purple Prose category, which comes from Rachel Nirenberg of Toronto, Canada:

She was like my ex-girlfriend Ashley, who'd stolen my car, broken my heart, murdered my father, robbed a bank, and set off a pipe bomb in Central Park—tall.

Click here to enjoy all of this year’s winners and runners-up.

Double-Dipping for Davids

As was the case last year, when the competition for the Deadly Ink Mystery Conference’s David Award ended in a tie (with Jeff Markowitz’s Death and White Diamonds and Steven Rigolosi’s The Outsmarting of Criminals sharing the honors), the 2016 David goes to a pair of novels: Big Shoes, by Jack Getze (Down & Out), and Forgiving Mariela Camacho, by A.J. Sidransky (Berwick Court). The winners were announced earlier this evening in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Also in the running for the 2016 David Award were Ornaments of Death, by Jane K. Cleland (Minotaur); What You See, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Pretty Girls, by Karin Slaughter (Morrow).

The annual David Award is named after David G. Sasher Sr., a New Jersey resident who passed away back in 2006 at age 66, after working on the Deadly Ink convention.

Lining Up for Daggers

Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced its shortlists of nominees for nine 2016 Dagger Awards. Two of these collections of competitors—for the Non-fiction Dagger and the Short Story Dagger—have not altered since May’s announcement of this year’s longlisted works. If you’d like brief descriptions of each book in the competition, refer to the CWA Web site.

CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger
(for the best crime novel of the year):
• Black Widow, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• Blood Salt Water, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)
• Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (John Murray)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
(for the best crime thriller of the year):
• The Cartel, by Don Winslow (William Heinemann)
• The English Spy, by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins)
• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
• Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Make Me, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
(for the best debut crime novel):
• Fever City, by Tim Baker (Faber and Faber)
• Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)
• Freedom’s Child, by Jax Miller (HarperCollins)
• Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh (Jonathan Cape)
• The Good Liar, by Nicholas Searle (Viking)

CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger
(for the best historical crime novel):
• The House at Baker Street, by Michelle Birkby (Pan)
• The Other Side of Silence, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)
• A Book of Scars, by William Shaw (Quercus)
• The Jazz Files, by Fiona Veitch Smith (Lion Fiction)
• Striking Murder, by A.J. Wright (Allison & Busby)
• Stasi Child, by David Young, (Twenty7Books)

CWA Non-fiction Dagger:
• The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)
• Sexy Beasts: The Hatton Garden Mob, by Wensley Clarkson (Quercus)
• You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat), by Andrew Hankinson (Scribe)
• A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West, by Luke Harding
(Guardian Faber)
• Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories: From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Howard Marks, by Thomas Grant (John Murray)
• John le Carré: The Biography, by Adam Sisman (Bloomsbury)

CWA Short Story Dagger
(for a short crime story published in the UK):
• “As Alice Did,” by Andrea Camilleri (from Montalbano’s First Cases, by Andrea Camilleri; Pan Macmillan)
• “On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier,” by John Connolly (from Nocturnes 2: Night Music, by John Connolly; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “Holmes on the Range: A Tale of the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (from Nocturnes 2: Night Music)
• “Bryant & May and the Nameless Woman,” by Christopher Fowler (from London’s Glory, by Christopher Fowler; Bantam)
• “Stray Bullets,” by Alberto Barrera (from Crimes, by Alberto Barrera Tyszka; MacLehose Press)
• “Rosenlaui,” by Conrad Williams (from The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty: The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes’s Nemesis, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Constable & Robinson)

CWA International Dagger
(for crime fiction translated into English and published in the UK):
• The Truth and Other Lies, by Sascha Arango;
translated by Imogen Taylor (Simon & Schuster)
• The Great Swindle, by Pierre Lemaître;
translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose Press)
• Icarus, by Deon Meyer;
translated by K.L. Seegers (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Murderer in Ruins, by Cay Rademacher;
translated by Peter Millar (Arcadia)
• Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama;
translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davis (Quercus)

CWA Dagger in the Library
(for the author of the most enjoyed collection of work in libraries):
• Tony Black, published by Black & White
• Alison Bruce, published by Constable & Robinson
• Elly Griffiths, published by Quercus
• Quintin Jardine, published by Headline

Debut Dagger (for the opening of a crime novel by an author
with no publishing contract):
• Dark Valley, by John Kennedy
• The Devil’s Dice, by Roz Watkins
• A Reconstructed Man, by Graham Brack
• A State of Grace, by Rita Catching
• Wimmera, by Mark Brandi

This year’s victorious works and authors will be declared during an awards dinner to be held in London on October 11. Also during that affair, best-selling author Peter James will be presented with this year’s Diamond Dagger. The speaker that evening will be James Runcie, author of The Grantchester Mysteries; master of ceremonies will be crime-fiction authority Barry Forshaw.

(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)