Grappling for Garlands in D-Town

This is certainly shaping up as crime-fiction awards season. Nominations for the 2019 Dagger Awards and the 2019 Strand Critics Awards were announced within the last week, and now comes the catalogue of contenders for this year’s Anthony Awards. The winners of those last commendations will be named during an event at Bouchercon in Dallas, Texas (October 31-November 3).

Best Novel:
• Give Me Your Hand. by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)
• November Road, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur)
• Sunburn, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
• Blackout, by Alex Segura (Polis)

Best First Novel:
• My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
• Broken Places, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• Dodging and Burning, by John Copenhaver (Pegasus)
• What Doesn’t Kill You, by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)
• Bearskin, by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco)

Best Paperback Original Novel:
• Hollywood Ending, by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
• If I Die Tonight, by Alison Gaylin (Morrow)
• Hiroshima Boy, by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park)
• Under a Dark Sky, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)
• A Stone’s Throw, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Short Story:
• “The Grass Beneath My Feet,” by S.A. Cosby
(Tough, August 20, 2018)
• “Bug Appétit,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], November/December 2018)
• “Cold Beer No Flies,” by Greg Herren (from Florida Happens:
Tales of Mystery, Mayhem, and Suspense from the Sunshine State, edited by Greg Herren; Three Rooms Press)
• “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” by Art Taylor (EQMM,
July/August 2018)
• “The Best Laid Plans,” by Holly West (from Florida Happens)

Best Critical or Non-fiction Work:
• Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession,
by Alice Bolin (Morrow)
• Mastering Plot Twists: How to Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure to Captivate Your Readers,
by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest)
• Pulp According to David Goodis, by Jay A. Gertzman (Down & Out)
• Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s, annotated by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus)
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)
• The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World, by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)

As is traditional, the winners of this year’s Anthony Awards will be chosen by Bouchercon attendees.