Canada Declares Its Preferences

Right on schedule, Crime Writers of Canada has announced the winners of its 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing (former known as the Arthur Ellis Awards).

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel:
The Maid's Diary, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)

Also nominated: The Drowning Woman, by Robyn Harding (Grand Central); Everyone Here Is Lying, by Shari Lapena (Doubleday Canada); Middlemen, by Scott Thornley (House of Anansi Press); and Sunset and Jericho, by Sam Wiebe (Harbour)

Best Crime First Novel:
The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters (Harper Perennial)

Also nominated: The Bittlemores, by Jann Arden (Random House Canada); Adrift, by Lisa Brideau (Sourcebooks); The End Game, by Charlotte Morganti (Halfdan Press); and Perfect Shot, by Steve Urszenyi (Minotaur)

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
Wild Hope, by Joan Thomas (Harper Perennial)

Also nominated: The Almost Widow, by Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Harper Avenue); Elmington, by Renee Lehnen (Storeyline Press); Cruel Light, by Cyndi MacMillan (Crooked Lane); and Shapes of Wrath, by elissa Yi (Windtree Press)

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery:
The Mystery Guest, by Nita Prose (Viking)

Also nominated: The Legacy, by Gail Bowen (ECW Press); Steeped in Malice, by Vicki Delany (Kensington); The Game Is a Footnote, by Vicki Delany (Crooked Lane); and To Track a Traitor, by Iona Whishaw (TouchWood Editions)

Best Crime Short Story:
“Reversion,” Marcelle Dubé (Mystery Magazine, April 2023)

Also nominated: “Wisteria Cottage,” by M.H. Callway (from Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press); “The Canadians,” by Mary Keenan (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out); “Troubled Water,” by Donalee Moulton (Black Cat Weekly #75); and “American Night,” by Zandra Renwick (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2023)

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Non-fiction):
La sainte paix, by André Marois (Héliotrope)

Also nominated: La punition, by Jean-Philippe Bernié (Glénat Québec); Le mois des morts, by Chrystine Brouillet (Éditions Druide); Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, by Catherine Lafrance (Éditions Druide); and Rien, by Jean-Jacques Pelletier (Alire)

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book:
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, by Cherie Dimaline (Tundra)

Also nominated: Someone Is Always Watching, by Kelley Armstrong (Tundra); The Big Sting, by Rachelle Delaney (Tundra); Catfish Rolling, by Clara Kumagai (Penguin Teen Canada); and Champions of the Fox, by Kevin Sands (Puffin Canada)

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
The Human Scale: Murder, Mischief and Other Selected Mayhems, by Michael Lista (Véhicule Press)

Also nominated: The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, by Josef Lewkowicz with Michael Calvin (HarperCollins); Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream, by David Rabinovitch (Rowman & Littlefield); Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land, by Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen (ECW Press); and Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto, by Carolyn Whitzman (On Point Press)

Best Unpublished Crime Novel (written by an unpublished author):
Requiem for a Lotus, by Craig H. Bowlsby

Also nominated: The Patient, by Tom Blackwell; Murder on Richmond Road, by Sheilla Jones and James Burns; The Forest Beyond, by Nora Sellers; and Thirty Feet Under, by William Wodhams

In addition, Toronto author Maureen Jennings is this year’s recipient of the Grand Master Award, which “recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.”