Stick a Fork in Indy--It’s Done

Trying to compete with Jim Winter’s video dispatches from Bouchercon 40 would be a fool’s task, so this Rap Sheet correspondent will go with a low-tech approach (hell, I didn’t even take my BlackBerry to Indianapolis, for which I will pay dearly when I arrive back at work this week).

This last weekend’s convention was my seventh Bouchercon since 1996 and was far and away the best of those I have attended. It was flawlessly organized and ran like a Swiss watch from start to finish. Conference organizers Jim Huang and Mike Bursaw deserve a standing ovation from all 1,500 attendees.

Author Michael Connelly served as the Guest of Honor, and he acquitted himself superbly during a live interview (right) conducted by rising star Michael Koryta (The Silent Hour) in a cavernous room at the Indianapolis Convention Center. Koryta has joined Connelly as a Little, Brown author, and the publisher saw this as an opportunity to hand out advance copies of Koryta’s 2010 standalone, So Cold the River. My wife, Leslie, devoured the book in under 24 hours and reports that it is a gripping read.

For me, the conference was frosted with a touch of sadness, as this was the final Bouchercon at which Mystery News will play a part. As reported here earlier, Lynn Kaczmarek and Chris Aldrich are bringing the curtain down on that bi-monthly tabloid. At several points during this conference, Aldrich and Kaczmarek were besieged by well-wishers hoping that both would re-surface in visible roles within the mystery world soon. I have it on good authority that neither woman has any plans to fade from view.

Bouchercon, for me, is always a collection of small moments. Here are some of my favorites from the last few days:

• Harlan Coben, in his opening comment at the “What Do You Need to Know in Order to Write a Crime Novel?” panel, mentioned that it was a singular honor to appear as a panelist with Gary Phillips. As Coben told it, “When I was a young boy, I used to sit on my father’s knee and he would read me Gary Phillips stories.” This brought out a thunderous laugh from the overflow crowd, none louder than from the not-so-old Phillips himself.

• Craig McDonald, discussing the current requirement that authors attend conferences and signings in order to promote their work, remarked that he couldn’t imagine Ernest Hemingway on Facebook or Twitter, and if forced to do so, Papa “would have picked up the shotgun a decade earlier.”

• Loren D. Estleman telling the “Changing Gears” audience that he sometimes listens to audio versions of his books before going on tour so he “doesn’t have to read the damn thing again.”

• S.J. Rozan holding the Anthony Awards crowd in the palm of her hand, eliciting laughter by constantly having to adjust the microphone downward after each award recipient departed the podium. Earlier, in her warm-up, Rozan said that she had figured out a way to close the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba--turn it into an independent bookstore.

• Short-story master Clark Howard winning the re-christened Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement. Ed Hoch was a friend of Howard’s for more than 30 years, and Howard regaled his listeners with the story about how neither he nor Hoch thought they were particularly skilled writers, but they were excellent storytellers.

And, of course, Bouchercon is always about the people, too. Although I wasn’t able to connect with Jim Winter, I was able to meet up with my fellow Rap Sheet contributors Mark Coggins, Megan Abbott (having just flown in from New York, where she attended the launch party for her husband Joshua Gaylord’s new novel, Hummingbirds), and the force of nature that is Ali Karim, resplendent in his Tom Ripley suit and black shades at the Little, Brown party.

Now that this Bouchercon is in the record books, our eyes turn westward to 2010’s Bouchercon by the Bay, to be held at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, from October 14 to 17. I can already hear the cable cars clanging down the hills.

(Top photograph by Mark Coggins; bottom photograph by Leslie Hutchings Miller)

READ MORE: “Top 10 Things I Learned at Bouchercon,” by Jen Forbus (Jen’s Book Thoughts); “Bouchercon Panel Report: More Noir Than You Are,” by Donna Moore (Big Beat from Badsville); “Bouchercon VI: Post-con Post, Part I,” by Peter Rozovsky (Detectives Beyond Borders); “Back from Bouchercon, Ready to Boogie,” by Keith Raffel (Dot Dead Diary); “On the Road Again: Bouchercon Indianapolis,” by Mark Van Name (Mark’s Journal); “Indianapolis Bouchercon Highlights,” by George Kelley.

Eye on Bouchercon: Duane Swierczynski

Philadelphia resident Duane Swiersczynski, author of the Barry Award-nominated Severance Package and the co-author (with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker) of the new Level 26 “digi-novel” series, talks about coping with hangovers and what’s next on his plate.

Eye on Bouchercon: Michael Ayoob

During the Shamus Awards banquet on Friday night, Michael Ayoob won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s First Novel Contest for his work, Shots on Goal. He has a rather unique protagonist and took a few minutes to tell us about him.

(Apologies in advance for the poor lighting.)

Eye on Bouchercon: Barbara Collins

Together with her husband, novelist Max Allan Collins (who, she says, is usually off writing “nasty stuff”), Barbara Collins pens an antiques mystery series--Trash ’n’ Treasures--under the pseudonym Barbara Allan. She updates us here on the latest entries in that series.

Finally, the Anthony Awards

With the assistance of author and toastmaster S.J. Rozan (pictured below), who turned out to be far funnier than most people had expected, the 2009 Anthony Awards presentation got underway this afternoon at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana.

So without further ado, the
winners are ...

Best Novel: The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

Also nominated: Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Morrow); Red Knife, by William Kent Krueger (Atria); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf); and The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best First Novel: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by
Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

Also nominated: Pushing Up Daisies, by Rosemary Harris (Minotaur); Stalking Susan, by Julie Kramer (Doubleday); Death of a Cozy Writer, by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink); and Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)

Best Paperback Original: State of the Onion, by Julie Hyzy (Berkley)

Also nominated: The First Quarry, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); Money Shot, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime); In a Dark Season, by Vicki Lane (Dell); and South of Hell, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket Star)

Best Short Story: “A Sleep Not Unlike Death,” by Sean Chercover (from Hardcore Hardboiled, edited by Todd Robinson;
Kensington Publishing)

Also nominated: “The Night Things Changed,” by Dana Cameron (from Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner; Ace); “Killing Time,” by Jane K. Cleland (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2008); “Skull and Cross Examination,” by Toni L.P. Kelner (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], February 2008); “Scratch a Woman,” by Laura Lippman (from Hardly Knew Her; Morrow); and “The Secret Lives of Cats,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (EQMM, July 2008)

Best Critical Non-fiction Work: Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography, by Jeffrey Marks (McFarland & Company)

Also nominated: African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study, by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland & Company); How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries, by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press); and The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, by Kate Summerscale (Walker)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel: The Crossroads, by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)

Also nominated: Paper Towns, by John Green (Dutton Juvenile); Kiss Me, Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson (Delacorte); The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown); and Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash, by Wendelin Van Draanen (Knopf)

Best Cover Art: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, designed by Peter Mendelsund and written by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

Also nominated: Death Was the Other Woman, designed by David Rotstein and written by Linda L. Richards (Minotaur); Death Will Get You Sober, designed by David Rotstein and written by Elizabeth Zelvin (Minotaur); The Fault Tree, designed by David Rotstein and written by Louise Ure (Minotaur); and Money Shot, designed by Steve Cooley and written by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)

Special Service Award: Jon and Ruth Jordan

Also nominated: Ali Karim, David Montgomery, Gary Warren
Niebuhr, and Sarah Weinman

In addition, editor, critic, and bibliographer Allen J. Hubin received the 2009 Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since it’s Bouchercon attendees who pick the Anthony winners each year, these awards can often hold surprises. Yet a few victors were predictable--Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for Best First Novel, as an example, and the energetic Jon and Ruth Jordan for Special Service. On the other hand, I was amazed but pleased to hear that Jeffrey Marks’ Anthony Boucher biography won in the Best Critical Non-fiction category.

Congratulations to the victors and vanquished alike.

(S.J. Rozan photo by Mark Coggins)

Eye on Bouchercon: Robert J. Randisi

Robert J. Randisi, founder of the Private Eye Writers of America, talks about a major surprise he got during this year’s Shamus Awards presentation, courtesy of Max Allan Collins.

Eye on Bouchercon: Christa Faust

Money Shot author Christa Faust talks about lack of sleep, noir, getting a date, and her Tartan ninja agent.

Eye on Bouchercon: Max Allan Collins

The prolific Max Allan Collins dishes the dirt on his long-awaited next private eye Nathan Heller novel, Bye Bye, Baby, and the truth about Marilyn Monroe’s appearance in that story.

Doing the “Mask” Ball

The vintage Cadillac that ferried guests to tonight’s party

The ducat (as Dashiell Hammett might say) to the coolest party at Bouchercon on Friday night was hard to come by: you had to be affiliated in some manner with the late, great mystery-fiction podcast, Behind the Black Mask, which was produced by Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards.

As those two men remarked in their “Long Goodbye” grace note for the series last December:

In the last two years, we’ve had the chance to speak with many of the rising stars and established masters of English language crime fiction--American, English, Irish, and Scots. The guests on these twenty-eight episodes have earned a staggering number of fiction and film festival awards (too many to count, really, for the tally keeps
going up), and their literary reputations continue to grow.

Many of those same podcast guests were party guests at the Dorman Street Salon in Indianapolis, where this shindig was held--and where “Public Enemy #1,” John Dillinger, reportedly hung out as he cased the State Bank of Massachusetts Avenue in Indy for a $21,000 knockover on September 6, 1933.

But first people had to get to the Black Mask affair. And what better way to arrive than in a chauffeured 1938 Cadillac?

Once inside the saloon, you were likely to run into some pretty tough characters, such as author Gary Phillips and Busted Flush Press publisher David Thompson (shown above). Or even a demonic-looking Seth Harwood (left)--complete with beer-sign halo--and CrimeSpot editor Graham Powell.

I want to offer my personal thanks to Clute and Edwards for putting on a wonderful party--and an even more wondrous podcast. To enjoy additional photo coverage of the Black Mask event, check out the Flickr slideshow here.

(Photographs by Mark Coggins)

Not a Bad Place to Be

(Editor’s note: Southern California author Jeri Westerson not only attended tonight’s Shamus Awards banquet in Indianapolis, but she ranked among the few nominees. We asked her to share her memories of the event with Rap Sheet readers.)

Friday night saw the 2009 presentation of the Shamus Awards, the Private Eye Writers of America’s nod to the best in P.I. fiction. Last year’s banquet, held in the converted church shouldering Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore, was a stylish affair replete with white tablecloths. But the PWA is not afraid of diversity. This year, PWA members and friends descended upon Indianapolis’ oldest blues club, the Slippery Noodle. In fact, the owner of that club gave us a quick rundown of its varied history: the back area where we had our gathering used to be a stable (yup, that’s us authors) and the front part an inn. It was turned into a bar in 1850, making it the oldest such establishment in Indianapolis; it’s said to be haunted; there are bullet holes in the brick wall that John Dillinger put there; it was a whorehouse, finally closed down as late as 1953; and it was a stop on the Underground Railroad during America’s Civil War.

There were no white tablecloths to be had.

All of this as the backdrop to honor P.I. fiction. Not only was your intrepid reporter a judge for the Best Hardcover Novel category, but she was knocked off her feet to actually be nominated for the Best First P.I. Novel award for Veil of Lies (2008).

With drinks and food aplenty and a blues duo playing on the stage, the crowd of about 120 people got in the mood. Authors on hand were Kaye Barley, S.J. Rozan, and my fellow nominees, Julie Kramer and Jason Pinter--plus a roomful of others.

The awards presentation started off with the joint PWA and St. Martin’s Minotaur contest winner, Michael Ayoob--who was one of the few victors actually present tonight! Whether because of the economy, deadlines, or the flu, there were a lot of no-shows.

With hapless members pulled from the audience to read off the names of this year’s nominees, the show got started. Linda Landrigan from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine accepted the award going to Mitch Alderman for his short story “Family Values.” Judy Bobalick was on the phone with Paperback Original winner Lori Armstrong, who was being honored for her 2008 book, Snow Blind. Even Ian Vasquez wasn’t on hand to accept his award for Best First P.I. Novel for In the Heat. (No worries, Ian, I was there to pick it up. Maybe I can deliver it to you? Of course, adding insult to injury, not only was my name mispronounced when the nominations were read, but the title of my book was also misread as Veil of Lisa! Shamus Awards chair Ted Fitzgerald later corrected that. Thank you, Ted!)

(Right) Shamus Award winner Reed Farrel Coleman with first-time nominee Jeri Westerson.

The Hammer Award that goes to a long-lived character was delivered this year to Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder (both no-shows). S.J. Rozan accepted for Mr. Block. PWA honcho Robert J. Randisi was on hand in standard Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap to receive his surprise Lifetime Achievement award. He even serenaded us with his rendition of “Unforgettable.” That was pretty damned good, Bob. And unforgettable, to be sure.

The only winner actually present turned out to be Reed Farrel Coleman, who was being honored for Empty Ever After in the Best Hardcover category. And the win was no surprise to me, because I had served as a judge in that category.

Ted Fitzgerald thanked the judges and then made the statement that the P.I. novel has been declared dead by some voices in publishing. But he--and I--know better than that. As a judge, I read some 85 novels for this competition. Eighty-five! That’s a lot of death and violence. That’s also a lot of memorable prose on the subject of criminal detection for hire. I enjoyed my time pounding through that stack of prose. Historical, contemporary, cozy, hard-boiled, thriller--the entire gamut of P.I. yarns in every conceivable combination. And then we had the difficult and often heart-breaking task of sharpening our scythes and mowing the piles of books down to reap five nominees. Enviable? Yes. That could be my quota for the year if I didn’t like reading mysteries so much. And there are more out there to conquer.

As for myself and my own nomination ... well, I am grateful to the judges for wending their way through the many books tendered to them and putting me and my newfangled subgenre of “medieval noir” on the list. Even without a win, I was extremely happy to be nominated. After all, I am now in exceptional company. And to prove it, here’s a brief list of those authors who were also nominated but didn’t win for Best First P.I. Novel: Dick Lochte, Carl Hiassen, Bill Crider, Don Winslow, Janet Evanovich, and Laura Lippman. That is still not a bad place to be!

It was a night of surprises, some disappointments, some great music, and good company. Did I say good? When you are surrounded by mystery authors, you are in the BEST company.

Making News at the Shamuses

Tonight’s presentation of the 2009 Shamus Awards brought a few surprises, one of which was certainly the second-in-a-row win by Reed Farrel Coleman in the Best Novel category. These prizes, sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA), were given out during a banquet at Indianapolis’ Slippery Noodle bar. Here is the complete rundown of winners:

Best Hardcover: Empty Ever After, by Reed Farrel Coleman
(Bleak House Books)

Also nominated: Salvation Boulevard, by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books); The Blue Door, by David Fulmer (Harcourt); The Price of Blood, by Declan Hughes (Morrow); and The Ancient Rain, by Domenic Stansberry (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best First P.I. Novel: In the Heat, by Ian Vasquez
(St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Also nominated: Stalking Susan, by Julie Kramer (Doubleday); Swann’s Last Song, by Charles Salzberg (Five Star); The Eye of Jade, by Diane Wei Liang (Simon & Schuster); and Veil of Lies, by Jeri Westerson (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original: Snow Blind, by Lori Armstrong (Medallion)

Also nominated: Shot Girl, by Karen Olson (Obsidian); The Stolen, by Jason Pinter (Mira); The Black Hand, by Will Thomas (Touchstone); and The Evil That Men Do, by Dave White (Three Rivers Press)

Best Short Story: “Family Values,” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], June 2008)

Also nominated: “Last Island South,” by John C. Boland (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2008); “The Blonde Tigress,” by Max Allan Collins (EQMM, June 2008); “Discovery,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (AHMM, November 2008); and “Panic on Portage Path,” by Dick Stodghill (AHMM, January/February 2008)

In addition, the Hammer Award for Best Character went to Lawrence Block’s series private eye, Matthew Scudder. Michael Ayoob’s as-yet-unpublished work, Shots on Goal, was named the winner of the 2009 PWA/St. Martin’s Best First Private Eye Novel contest. And Max Allan Collins presented The Eye (Lifetime Achievement) Award to Robert J. Randisi, author and PWA founder. By all accounts, Randisi was completely surprised to be given this high honor.

Prior to the handing round of these commendations, Randisi proposed a toast to detective novelist Stuart M. Kaminsky, who died earlier this month in St. Louis.

And finally, when he called in to Rap Sheet headquarters a bit ago with the news about these awards, correspondent Ali Karim noted that, in an altogether unexpected development, he had been summoned to the stage to present Coleman with his prize for Best Hardcover Novel. Karim remarked that this turn probably had much to do with the fact that he’d worn a stand-out, all-white suit with black braces (“My Tom Ripley look”) to the banquet.

Congratulations to the winners and nominees both.

Eye on Bouchercon: Simon Wood

Simon Wood, author of the forthcoming workplace thriller Terminated, talks about that novel as well as a new car-racing mystery series he has planned.

Eye on Bouchercon: Tom Schreck

New York resident Tom Schreck, author of the Duffy Dumbrowski series, talks with us about his forthcoming novel (Out Cold), terrorism and Muslim basset hounds.

Eye on Bouchercon: J.A. Konrath

J.A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn, author of the Jack Daniels series, explains the single most important reason for coming to
Bouchercon in Indianapolis this year.

Eye on Bouchercon: Jon Jordan

Jon Jordan is the co-publisher, with his wife, Ruth, of Crimespree Magazine, an Anthony Award-winning journal of crime fiction, author interviews, news, and reviews. He’s also the author of Interrogations (2003), a collection of discussions with mystery writers.

Eye on Bouchercon: Otto Penzler

Editor’s note: The Rap Sheet has several people on hand covering Bouchercon 2009. Among them is author, blogger, and late-life student Jim Winter, who has traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana, with a video camera to conduct short interviews with some of the distinguished attendees. His first subject: Edgar Award-winning editor, bookshop proprietor, and sometime critic Otto Penzler, who talks here about his latest projects.

They’re Handing Out Prizes in Indy

I was in my car, picking up some groceries from my local Safeway, when correspondent Ali Karim called in from Indianapolis to announce tonight’s various award recipients at Bouchercon. It seems he’d just accepted the Barry Award for Best Novel on behalf of Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason, and was clearly in need of relaxation and a libation. I recorded the names of the victors as he recited them over the phone (just like in my early days as a reporter!), and then raced back to my office to post this information.

The winners of the Derringer Awards and Crimespree Magazine’s annual commendations were previously announced, but those prizes were only handed out this evening. The other results are brand-new.

MACAVITY AWARDS

Best Mystery Novel: Where Memories Lie, by Deborah
Crombie (Morrow)

Also nominated: Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Morrow); The Price of Blood, by Declan Hughes (Morrow); The Draining Lake, by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur); Curse of the Spellmans, by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster); The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); and The Fault Tree, by Louise Ure (Minotaur)

Best First Mystery: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

Also nominated: Finding Nouf, by Zoë Ferraris (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); Death of a Cozy Writer, by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink); Calumet City, by Charlie Newton (Simon & Schuster); An Innocent Client, by Scott Pratt (Onyx); A Carrion Death, by Michael Stanley (Harper; Headline); and The Blood Detective, by Dan
Waddell (Minotaur)

Best Non-fiction/Critical: African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study, by Frankie Y. Bailey
(McFarland & Company)

Also nominated: Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories, by Leonard Cassuto (Columbia University Press); How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries, by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press); Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction, by David Geherin (McFarland & Company); Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories, by Dr. Harry Lee Poe (Metro Books); and The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, by Kate Summerscale (Walker)

Best Mystery Short Story: “The Night Things Changed,” by Dana Cameron (from Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner; Ace)

Also nominated: “A Sleep Not Unlike Death,” by Sean Chercover (from Hardcore Hardboiled, edited by Todd Robinson; Kensington Publishing); “Keeping Watch Over His Flock,” by Toni L.P. Kelner (from Wolfsbane and Mistletoe); “Scratch a Woman,” by Laura Lippman (from Hardly Knew Her; Morrow); and “Between the Dark and the Daylight,” by Tom Piccirilli (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2008)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery: A Royal Pain,
by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

Also nominated: Stealing Trinity, by Ward Larsen (Oceanview); The Whiskey Rebels, by David Liss (Random House); Veil of Lies, by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur); Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland (Michael Joseph/ Delacorte); and Nox Dormienda, by Kelli Stanley (Five Star)

BARRY AWARDS

Best Novel: The Draining Lake, by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Morrow); Envy the Night, by Michael Koryta (Minotaur); Red Knife, by William Kent Krueger (Atria); The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); and The Dawn Patrol, by Don Winslow

Best First Novel: Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)

Also nominated: The Kind One, by Tom Epperson (Five Star); Stalking Susan, by Julie Kramer (Doubleday); City of the Sun, by David Levien (Doubleday); A Carrion Death, by Michael Stanley (Harper); and Sweeping Up Glass, by Carolyn D. Wall (Center Point)

Best British Novel: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (MacLehose/Quercus)

Also nominated: A Simple Act of Violence, by R.J. Ellory (Orion); Ritual, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press); Shatter, by Michael Robotham (Sphere); Bleeding Heart Square, by Andrew Taylor (Michael Joseph); and Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker (Quercus)

Best Paperback Original: State of the Onion, by Julie Hyzy (Berkley)

Also nominated: The First Quarry, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); Money Shot, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime); The Black Path, by Åsa Larsson (Delta); Severance Package, by Duane Swierczynski; and Echoes from the Dead, by Johan Theorin (Doubleday)

Best Thriller: The Deceived, by Brett Battles (Delacorte)

Also nominated: Collision, by Jeff Abbott (Dutton); The Survivor, by Tom Cain (Bantam Press); Finder, by Colin Harrison (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux); Night of Thunder, by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster); and Good People, by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)

Best Short Story: “The Drought,” by James O. Born (from The Blue Religion, edited by Michael Connelly; Little, Brown)

Also nominated: “The Fallen,” by Jan Burke (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], August 2008); “A Trace of a Trace,” by Brendan DuBois (from At the Scene of the Crime, edited by Dana Stabenow; Running Press); “A Killing in Midtown,” by G. Miki Hayden (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2008); “Proof of Love,” by Mick Herron (EQMM, September/October 2008); and “The Problem of the Secret Patient,” by Edward D. Hoch
(EQMM, May 2008)

Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom: Art Scott

DERRINGER AWARDS

Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words): tie--“No Flowers for Stacey,” by Ruth McCarty (Deadfall: Crime Stories by New England Writers; Level Best Books); and “No Place Like Home,” by Dee Stuart (Mysterical-E)

Best Short Story (1,001 to 4,000 words): “The Cost of Doing Business,” by Michael Penncavage (published in ThugLit)

Best Long Story (4,001 to 8,000 words): “The Quick Brown Fox,” by Robert S. Levinson (published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)

Best Novelette (8,001 to 17,500 words): “Too Wise,” by O’Neil De Noux (published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

2009 Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement: Clark Howard

For a full list of Derringer nominees, click here.

CRIMESPREE AWARDS

Favorite Book of 2008: Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Morrow)

Also nominated: Yellow Medicine, by Anthony Neil Smith (Bleak House); Envy the Night, by Michael Koryta (Minotaur); Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster); and Toros & Torsos, by Craig McDonald (Bleak House)

Best Book in an Ongoing Series: Chasing Darkness, by Robert
Crais (Simon & Schuster)

Also nominated: Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Morrow);
Toros & Torsos, by Craig McDonald (Bleak House); Another Thing to Fall, by Laura Lippman (Morrow); and the Duffy Dombrowski Mystery Series, by Tom Schreck (Midnight Ink)

Favorite Comics Writer: Brian Azzarello

Also nominated: Tim Broderick; B. Clay Moore; Ed Brubaker;
and Jason Aaron

Favorite Original Paperback: Money Shot, by Christa Faust
(Hard Case Crime)

Also nominated: Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, by Victor Gischler (Touchstone); Severance Package, by Duane Swierczynski (St. Martin’s Minotaur); The Stolen, by Jason Pinter (Mira); and The Evil That Men Do, by Dave White (Three Rivers Press)

Favorite Mystery Bookstore: Once Upon a Crime, Minneapolis

Also nominated: The Mystery Bookstore, Los Angeles; Murder by the Book, Houston; Centuries & Sleuths, Forest Park, Illinois; and M Is for Mystery, San Mateo, California

And the Jack Reacher Award went to William Kent Krueger
(Heaven’s Keep)

Tomorrow night, during a banquet at The Slippery Noodle bar, the Private Eye Writers of America will hand out its Shamus Awards (nominees here), while the grand announcement of this year’s Anthony Awards is to be made on Saturday afternoon (with a list of the contenders to be found here.)

Countdown to Bouchercon

As most readers of this blog surely know, the 40th Bouchercon World Mystery Convention begins this Thursday in Indianapolis, Indiana. Unfortunately, I can’t attend. But three Rap Sheet regulars will be roaming the hallways and bars--Ali Karim, Jim Winter, and Stephen Miller--and they have promised to submit dispatches.

If you’re curious what famous figures and fans will be on hand for the festivities, check out this list.

Meanwhile, one of the people who registered--The Hungry Detective’s Dan Wagner--has put together a two-part “Best of Bouchercon” list, identifying the panels he finds especially interesting. Chances are, you’d see me at many of those same discussions, if I weren’t trapped back here in Seattle. Part I of Wagner’s list is here, Part II is here.

And for both the Indiana-bound and the rest of us, Mystery Readers Journal editor Janet Rudolph has compiled a rather lengthy list of mysteries set at conventions. We’ll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews, The James Deans by Reed Farrell Coleman, The Anglo-Irish Murders by Ruth Dudley Edwards--the list goes on and on.

READ MORE: “The Absent Girl’s Guide to Bouchercon 2009,” by Sarah Weinman (Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).