Abundant Bouchercon Winnings

I’ll have more to say (and show) regarding this last weekend’s Bouchercon in San Diego. But for now, let’s at least run through the awards given out during that delightful five-day event.

To begin, here are the winners of the 2023 Anthony Awards, named for author-critic Anthony Boucher and chosen by Bouchercon attendees.

Best Hardcover:
Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Devil Takes You Home, by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland); The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine); and Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best Paperback/E-book/Audiobook:
The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated: Real Bad Things, by Kelly J. Ford (Thomas & Mercer); Dead Drop, by James L’Etoile (Level Best); Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia); and In the Dark We Forget, by Sandra S.G. Wong (HarperCollins)

Best First Novel:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Pegasus); and Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)

Best Historical:
Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)

Also nominated: The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Mobius); Danger on the Atlantic, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington); Under a Veiled Moon, by Karen Odden (Crooked Lane); and Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

Best Humorous:
Scot in a Trap, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House)

Also nominated: Bayou Book Thief, by Ellen Byron (Berkley); Death by Bubble Tea, by Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley); A Streetcar Named Murder, by T.G. Herren (Crooked Lane); and Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)

Best Short Story:
“Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, February 2022)

Also nominated: “Still Crazy After All These Years,” by E.A Aymar (from Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out); “The Impediment,” by Bruce Robert Coffin (from Deadly Nightshade: Best New England Crime Stories 2022, edited by Christine Bagley, Susan Oleksiw, and Leslie Wheeler; Crime Spell); “The Estate Sale,” by Curtis Ippolito (Vautrin Magazine, Summer 2022); and “C.O.D.,” by Gabriel Valjan (from Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry; Berry Contest)

Best Anthology:
Crime Hits Home: A Collection of Short Stories from Crime Fiction’s Top Authors, edited by S.J. Rozan (Hanover Square Press)

Also nominated: Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry (Berry Contest); Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor (Down & Out); Land of 1,000 Thrills: Bouchercon Anthology 2022, edited by Greg Herren (Down & Out); and Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out)

Best Critical/Non-fiction:
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Also nominated: The Alaska Blonde: Sex, Secrets, and the Hollywood Story That Shocked America, by James T. Bartlett (Terrirory); American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur); Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction, edited by Diane Vallere (Sisters in Crime); Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free, by Sarah Weinman (Ecco); and Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Children’s/Young Adult:
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Also nominated: In Myrtle Peril, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers); #Shedeservedit, by Greg Herren (Bold Strokes Press); The New Girl, by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Sourcebooks Fire); and Vanish Me, by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Wise Wolf)

The Anthonys were handed out amid much applause on Saturday, September 2, following a special awards banquet.

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This year’s Shamus Awards, sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America, and recognizing “outstanding achievement in private eye fiction,” were presented on Friday evening, September 1. The ceremony took place at a restaurant away from the convention hotel.

Best P.I. Hardcover:
The Wheel of Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Big Bundle, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); The Goodbye Coast, by Joe Ide (Mulholland); Holmes Coming, by Kenneth Johnson (Blackstone); and The Blackmail, by M. Ravenel (Chikara Press)

Best P.I. Paperback:
Dead-Bang Fall, by J.R. Sanders (Level Best)

Also nominated: Quarry’s Blood, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); DoubleBlind, by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Red Herrings Press); Canary in a Coal Mine, by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out); and Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia/Level Best)

Best First P.I. Novel:
The Goldenacre, by Philip Miller (Soho Crime)

Also nominated: Big Fat F@!k-up, by Lawrence Allan (M.S. Wooten Press); Pay Dirt Road, by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur); Foote, by Tom Bredehoft (West Virginia University Press); and What Meets the Eye, by Alex Kenna (Crooked Lane)

Best P.I. Short Story: “Charlie’s Medicine,” by Libby Cudmore (from Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor; Down & Out)

Also nominated: “No Place for a Dame,” by Lori Armstrong (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection from the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer; Down & Out); “A Jelly of Intrigue,” by O’Neil De Noux (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden); “The Pearl of Antilles,” by Caroline Garcia-Aguilera (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden); and “Bad Actor,” by Elliot Sweeney (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2022)

A list of previous Shamus recipients can be found here.

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Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine bestowed its 2023 Barry Awards upon three novels during Bouchercon’s opening ceremonies, on Thursday, August 31. As Mystery News once explained, the Barry Awards are named in honor of Barry W. Gardner, a longtime “friend of mystery fiction,” who died “while reading in his easy chair at his Dallas home on July 19, 1996.” There were three categories of winners

Best Mystery or Crime Novel:
Desert Star, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

Also nominated: The Accomplice, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion); The Dark Flood, by Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly Press); Shifty’s Boys, by Chris Offutt (Grove Press); Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron); and City on Fire, by Don Winslow (Morrow)

Best Debut Mystery or Crime Novel:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/EmilyBestler); Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); Blood Sugar, by Sascha Rothchild (Putnam); and Dirt Creek, by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron)

Best Thriller:
Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)

Also nominated: In the Blood, by Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester); Winter Work, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf); Sierra Six, by Mark Greaney (Berkley); Bad Actors, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); and Goering’s Gold, by Richard O’Rawe (Melville House)

Don Sandstrom Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom: Mike Bursaw, the owner of Mystery Mike’s in Indianapolis, Indiana

Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter had previously announced there would be no Best Paperback Original prize given out in 2023 (“[It’s] more and more difficult to come up with a good list that the nominating committee members have read, so at least this year,” he said, “we included the good ones in the longlists for the other categories.”). He added, however, that if a paperback original had been honored last week, his preferred beneficiary would’ve been Pesticide, by Kim Hays (Seventh Street).

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Finally, three additional commendations were conferred during the Thursday-night opening ceremonies.

Star Award: Marvin Lachman, author of The Heirs of Anthony Boucher: A History of Mystery Fandom (who could not attend).

Dotty Award: Dotty Morefield, for her longtime volunteer activities at various mystery-fiction conventions.

David Thompson Special Service Award: Sara Paretsky, the creator of private eye V.I. Warshawski, for her “extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the mystery and crime fiction field.”