Canada Shares Its Crime-Writing Best

The Crime Writers of Canada today announced its finalists for the 2019 Arthur Ellis Awards. These annual commendations (taking their name from the pseudonym of Canada’s official hangman) are given for excellence in Canadian crime fiction and true-crime writing. Winners of this year’s prizes will be declared on Thursday, May 23 during a “gala” event in Toronto. Here are the nominees.

Best Crime Novel:
• Cape Diamond, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
• Though the Heavens Fall, by Anne Emery (ECW Press)
• The Winters, by Lisa Gabriele (Doubleday Canada)
• Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Girl in the Moss, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake Romance)

Best First Crime Novel:
• Cobra Clutch, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
• Operation Wormwood, by Helen C. Escott (Flanker Press)
• Full Disclosure, by Beverley McLachlin (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Why Was Rachel Murdered?, by Bill Prentice (Echo Road)
• Find You in the Dark, by Nathan Ripley (Simon & Schuster Canada)

Best Crime Novella (aka the Lou Allin Memorial Award):
• The B-Team: The Case of the Angry First Wife, by Melodie
Campbell (Orca)
• Blue Water Hues, by Vicki Delany (Orca)
• Murder Among the Pines, by John Lawrence Reynolds (Orca)

Best Crime Short Story:
• “A Ship Called Pandora,” by Melodie Campbell
(Mystery Weekly Magazine)
• “The Power Man,” by Therese Greenwood (from Baby It’s Cold Outside, edited by Robert Bose and Sarah L. Johnson;
Coffin Hop Press)
• “Game,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
• “Terminal City,” by Linda L. Richards (from Vancouver Noir, edited by Sam Wiebe; Akashic)
• “Wonderful Life,” by Sam Wiebe (from Vancouver Noir)

Best Crime Book in French:
• Un dernier baiser avant de te tuer, by Jean-Philippe Bernié
(Libre Expression)
• Adolphus—Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme, by Hervé Gagnon
(Libre Expression)
• Ces femmes aux yeux cernés, by André Jacques (Éditions Druide)
• Deux coups de pied de trop, by Guillaume Morissette
(Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur)
• Rinzen la beauté intérieure, by Johanne Seymour (Expression Noir)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book:
• Escape, by Linwood Barclay (Puffin Canada)
• The House of One Thousand Eyes, by Michelle Barker (Annick Press)
• Call of the Wraith, by Kevin Sands (Aladdin)
• The Ruinous Sweep, by Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick Press)
• The Rumrunner's Boy, by E.R. Yatscoff (TG & R)

Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
• Dying for a Drink: How a Prohibition Preacher Got Away with Murder, by Patrick Brode (Biblioasis)
• The King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale, by Thomas Giacomaro and Natasha Stoynoff (BenBella)
• The Boy on the Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto, by Nate Hendley (Five Rivers)
• Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World, by Sarah Weinman (Knopf)

Best Unpublished Manuscript (aka the Unhanged Arthur):
• Hypnotizing Lions, by Jim Bottomley
• Omand’s Creek, by Don Macdonald
• The Scarlet Cross, by Liv McFarlane
• One for the Raven, by Heather McLeod
• The Book of Answers, by Darrow Woods

In addition, the CWC will present Ontario author Vicki Delany with this year’s Derrick Murdoch Award for special achievement.