You Should Be Barry, Barry Proud

Working together, representatives of Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures have chosen their nominees for the 2007 Barry Awards. It’s a diverse bunch of competitors, including titles from both sides of the Atlantic and a pretty good mix of male and female wordsmiths. Everyone who reads this post will undoubtedly have his or her immediate favorites, but the choices are strong enough that no obvious winners stand out in any of the categories. You, though, can make that determination for yourself.

This year’s nominees are ...

Best Novel:
• White Shadow, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)
• Oh Danny Boy, by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• The Last Assassin, by Barry Eisler (Putnam)
• The Prisoner of Guantánamo, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf)
• City of Shadows, by Ariana Franklin (Morrow)
• The Night Gardener, by George Pelecanos (Little, Brown)

Best First Novel:
• The Faithful Spy, by Alex Berenson (Random House)
• Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn (Shaye Areheart Books)
• The Berlin Conspiracy, by Tom Gabbay (Morrow)
• King of Lies, by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• Still Life, by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• A Field of Darkness, by Cornelia Read (Mysterious Press)

Best British Novel:
• Priest, by Ken Bruen (Bantam Press)
• Dying Light, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• Sovereign, by C.J. Sansom (Macmillan)
• The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom (Fourth Estate)
• Mr. Clarinet, by Nick Stone (Michael Joseph Ltd./Penguin)
• Red Sky Lament, by Edward Wright (Orion)

Best Thriller:
• Killer Instinct, by Joseph Finder (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Foreign Correspondent, by Alan Furst (Random House)
• Relentless, by Simon Kernick (Bantam Press)
• Cold Kill, by Stephen Leather (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Messenger, by Daniel Silva (Putnam)
• Kill Me, by Stephen White (Dutton)

Best Paperback Original:
• Bust, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (Hard Case Crime)
• The Last Quarry, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• The Cleanup, by Sean Doolittle (Dell)
• Live Wire, by Jay MacLarty (Pocket)
• Deadman’s Poker, by Jim Swain (Fawcett)
• Crooked, by Brian Wiprud (Dell)

Best Short Story:
• “Cain Was Innocent,” by Simon Brett (from Thou Shalt Not Kill, edited by Anne Perry; Carroll & Graf)
• “Shaping the Ends,” by Judith Cutler (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], May 2006)
• “The Right Call,” by Brendan DuBois (EQMM, September/October 2006)
• “A Man of Taste,” by Kate Ellis (EQMM, March/April 2006)
• “The Flower Girl,” by Paul Halter (from The Night of the Wolf; Wildside Press)
• “A Case for Inspector Ghote,” by June Thomson (from The Verdict of Us All, edited by Peter Lovesey; Crippen & Landru)

Winners are chosen by the readers of Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures (the deadline for ballots is August 24). Results will be announced in September at the 11th annual Barry Awards presentation, scheduled to take place during this year’s Bouchercon in Anchorage, Alaska.