Tuesday, April 28, 2009

If I Were a Betting Man ...

You’ve got to give the guy credit for trying. Even though The Hungry Detective’s Danny Wagner has had a hit-and-miss record with his predictions of Edgar Award winners in the past (here are his picks for 2008, and here is the actual list of victors), he confidently persists in turning to shiny crystal balls for wisdom. With just two days to go now before the presentation of the 2009 awards, Wagner is back with his latest set of predictions.

I’m not going to venture far out on a limb of my own, but I do think Wagner is right in choosing Sweetsmoke, by David Fuller, to win the Best First Novel by an American Author award. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sean Chercover’s “A Sleep Not Unlike Death” capture the Best Short Story commendation. However, my sense is that Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (which just made such a strong showing in the Galaxy British Book Awards competition) has enough wind behind it to sail past challengers in the Best Fact Crime category, and that either Declan HughesThe Price of Blood or Karin Alvtegen’s Missing will win Best Novel honors.

Does anybody else have thoughts on this matter?

2 comments:

Dan Wagner said...

Hit and miss? Mostly miss and miss :) But I love making picks. Thanks for the plug.

Reg / Steve said...

I'll pick Missing, since I've been translating Karin Alvtegen since that one and she just keeps getting better...