Peepers and Prizes

I was away from my office yesterday afternoon, when the Private Eye Writers of America announced its finalists for the 2021 Shamus Awards. These prizes are given for “excellence in the field of private investigator crime fiction.” Here, now, are the contestants.

Best Original Private Eye Paperback:
• Farewell Las Vegas, by Grant Bywaters (Wild Rose Press)
• All Kinds of Ugly, by Ralph Dennis (Brash)
• Brittle Karma, by Richard Helms (Black Arch)
• Remember My Face, by John Lantigua (Arte Publico)
• Damaged Goods, by Debbi Mack (Renegade Press)

Best Private Eye Short Story:
• “A Dreamboat Gambol,” by O’Neil De Noux
(Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November/December 2020)
• “Mustang Sally,” by John M. Floyd
(Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2020)
• “Setting the Pick,” by April Kelly
(Mystery Weekly Magazine, July 2020)
• “Show and Zeller,” by Gordon Linzner
(Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2020)
• “Nashua River Floater,” by Tom MacDonald (from Coast to Coast Noir, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks; Down & Out)

Best Private Eye Novel:
• What You Don’t See, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• Do No Harm, by Max Allan Collins (Forge)
• Blind Vigil, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
• House on Fire, by Joseph Finder (Dutton)
• And Now She’s Gone, by Rachel Howzell Hall (Forge)

Best First Private Eye Novel:
• Squatter’s Rights, by Kevin R. Doyle (Camel Press)
• Derailed, by Mary Keliikoa (Epicenter Press)
• I Know Where You Sleep, by Alan Orloff (Down & Out)
• The Missing American, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime)
• Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)

Word is that winners will be named in the fall.

(Hat tip to Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes.)

* * *

Meanwhile, Shotsmag Confidential reports that Harvill Secker and the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival are recruiting participants to their latest contest for new crime-fictionists of color.

“Entrants to the competition will be asked to submit the first 5,000 words of their crime novel, along with a full plot outline,” according to the blog. “Entries will open on 2 June 2021 and will run until the 4 August 2021, with the winner announced in September 2021. The winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award will have their book published, under the Harvill Secker imprint, in a publishing deal with an advance of £5,000. The prize package alongside the winner’s publishing contract will include being programmed for a panel appearance at the Bloody Scotland festival, and a guest pass for the weekend’s events.”

Judges on tap to consider submitted manuscripts this year include India-born author Ajay Chowdhury, who won the inaugural Harvill Secker and Bloody Scotland Crime Writing competition. His first novel, The Waiter, was released last month in the UK.