The Cream of Canada’s Crop

That was quick! Just a month after releasing its shortlist of nominees for the 2025 Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, the Crime Writers of Canada has announced the winners of those prizes.

The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel:
Prairie Edge, by Conor Kerr (Strange Light)

Also nominated: Wild Houses, by Colin Barrett (McClelland & Stewart); The Specimen, by Jaima Fixsen (Poisoned Pen Press); Mr. Good-Evening, by John MacLachlan Gray (Douglas & McIntyre); and The Grey Wolf, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best Crime First Novel:
Twenty-Seven Minutes, by Ashley Tate (Doubleday Canada)

Also nominated: The Burden of Truth, by Suzan Denoncourt (Suzan Denoncourt); The Roaring Game Murders, by Peter Holloway (Bonspiel); Altered Boy, by Jim McDonald (Amalit); and We Were the Bullfighters, by Marianne K. Miller (Dundurn Press)

Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
As We Forgive Others, by Shane Peacock (Cormorant)

Also nominated: Fatal Harvest, by Brenda Chapman (Ivy Bay Press); The War Machine, by Barry W. Levy (Double Dagger); Who by Fire, by Greg Rhyno (Cormorant); and The Call, by Kerry Wilkinson (Bookouture)

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery:
Black Ice, by Thomas King (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: The Corpse with the Pearly Smile, by Cathy Ace (Four Tails); The Dead Shall Inherit, by Raye Anderson (Signature Editions); A Meditation on Murder, by Susan Juby (HarperCollins); and Concert Hall Killer, by Jonathan Whitelaw (HarperNorth)

Best Crime Novella:
“The Windmill Mystery,” by Pamela Jones (Austin Macauley)

Also nominated: “Chuck Berry Is Missing,” by Marcelle Dubé (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024); “Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper,” by Liz Ireland (Kensington); “A Rock,” by A.J. McCarthy (Black Rose Writing); and “Aim,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2024)

Best Crime Short Story:
“Hatcheck Bingo,” by Therese Greenwood (from The 13th Letter, Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem; Carrick)

Also nominated: “Farmer Knudson,” by Catherine Astolfo (from Auntie Beers: A Book of Connected Short Stories, by Catherine Astolfo; Carrick); “Houdini Act,” by Billie Livingston (Saturday Evening Post, July 26, 2024); “The Electrician,” Linda Sanche (from Crime Wave3: Dangerous Games; Canada West); “The Longest Night of the Year,” Melissa Yi (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)

Best French Language Crime Book:
Une mémoire de lion, by Guillaume Morrissette (Saint-Jean)

Also nominated: La femme papillon, by J.L. Blanchard (Fides); Le crime du garçon exquis, by R. Lavallée (Fides); L’Affaire des montants, by Jean Lemieux (Québec Amérique); and Fracture, by Johanne Seymour (Libre Expression)

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book:
Shock Wave, by Sigmund Brouwer (Orca)

Also nominated: The Time Keeper, by Meagan Mahoney (DCB Young Readers); Snowed, by Twist Phelan (Bronzeville); The Dark Won’t Wait, by David A. Poulsen (Red Deer Press); and The Red Rock Killer, by Melissa Yi (Windtree Press)

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
(Tie) Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur’s Journey Through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, by Denise Chong (Random House Canada); and The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, by Nate Hendley (Dundurn Press); The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, by John L. Hill (AOS); and A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, by Dean Jobb (HarperCollins)

Best Unpublished Crime Novel (manuscript written by an unpublished author): Govern Yourself Accordingly, by Luke Devlin

Also nominated: The Man in the Black Hat, by Robert Bowerman; Dark Waters, by Delee Fromm; A Trail’s Tears, by Lorrie Potvin; and Predators in the Shadows, by William Watt

In addition, Canadian novelist, activist, and criminal lawyer William H. Deverell received the 2025 Derrick Murdoch Award, honoring “individuals who have made significant contributions to developing crime writing in Canada.”

The surprise here is that Dean Jobb’s A Gentleman and a Thief didn’t win in the non-fiction category. I loved that book, as I had his 2021 work, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, about remorseless Canadian poisoner Thomas Neill Cream. But I didn’t read either of the two books that did win, so I cannot say that they were any less exceptional.