PWA Shamus Award Nominees 2019

Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award nominees for 2019 for works published in 2018 have been announced.  The winners will be announced at the PWA Banquet at Bouchercon. 

Best Original Private Eye Paperback 

She Talks to Angels by James D. F. Hannah (Hannah)      

No Quarter by John Jantunen (ECW Press)   

Shark Bait by Paul Kemprecos (Suspense Publishing)     

Second Story Man by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out Books)    

The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone (Redhook Books)

Best First Private Eye Novel

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco (MCD Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

Broken Places by Tracy Clark (Kensington)

Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould (Dutton)

What Doesn't Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)

Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth)

Best Private Eye Short Story 

"Fear of the Secular," by Mitch Alderman, AHMM

"Three-Star Sushi," by Barry Lancet, Down & Out

“The Big Creep,” by Elizabeth McKenzie, Santa Cruz Noir

"Game," by Twist Phelan, EQMM

"Chin Yong-Yun Helps a Fool," by S.J. Rozan, EQMM

 Best Private Eye Novel 

Wrong Light by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing)

What You Want to See by Kristen Lepionka (Minotaur Books)
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho C rime)
Baby’s First Felony by John Straley (Soho Crime)

Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe (Quercus)

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Hat Tip - Mystery Fanfare

Anthony Award Nominations

Bouchercon 2019 — “Denim, Diamonds, and Death” — will present this year’s Anthony® Awards in five categories at the 50th annual Bouchercon® World Mystery Convention to be held in Dallas, October 31 to November 3. The Anthony Awards will be voted on by attendees at the convention and presented on Saturday, November 2.

The Anthony Award nominees, for works published in 2018, have just been selected by vote of the Bouchercon membership, and we are delighted to announce the nominees:

Best Novel
Give Me Your Handby Megan Abbott (Little, Brown and Company)
November Roadby Lou Berney (William Morrow)
Jar of Heartsby Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur Books)
Sunburnby Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
Blackoutby Alex Segura (Polis Books)

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 Books)
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 (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park Books)
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day (William Morrow Paperbacks)
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Best Short Story
“The Grass Beneath My Feet” by S.A. Cosby, in Tough (blogazine, August 20, 2018)
“Bug Appétit” by Barb Goffman, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November/December 2018)
“Cold Beer No Flies” by Greg Herren, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (July/August 2018)
“The Best Laid Plans” by Holly West, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)

Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Mastering Plot Twists: How To Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure To Captivate Your Readers by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest Books)
Pulp According to David Goodis by Jay A. Gertzman (Down & Out Books)
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus Books)
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)

The Anthony® Award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (rhymes with “voucher”), a well-known California writer and critic who wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times Book Review, and also helped found Mystery Writers of America. First presented in 1986, the Anthony Awards are among the most prestigious and coveted literary awards.

Bouchercon®, the World Mystery Convention founded in 1970, is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization celebrating the mystery genre. It is the largest annual meeting in the world for readers, writers, fans, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, and other lovers of crime fiction. For more information, please visit www.bouchercon.com.

The honoured guests this year at Bouchercon in Dallas are Peter Lovesey (Lifetime Achievement), Hank Phillippi Ryan (American Guest of Honor), Felix Francis (International Guest of Honor), James Patterson (Distinguished Contribution to the Genre), Deborah Crombie (Local Guest of Honor), Harry Hunsicker (Toastmaster), McKenna Jordan (Fan Guest of Honor), and Charlaine Harris and Sandra Brown (Special Guests).

The 2018 Agatha Award Nominees

Malice Domestic have announced the 2018 Agatha Award nominees.

Best Contemporary Novel

Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)

 Beyond the Truth by Bruce Robert Coffin (Witness Impulse)

 Cry Wolf by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press)

 Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

 Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best Historical Novel  

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

 The Gold Pawn by LA Chandlar (Kensington)

 The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

 Turning the Tide by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)

 Murder on Union Square by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

Best First Novel

A Ladies Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)

 Little Comfort by Edwin Hill (Kensington)

 What Doesn't Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)

 Deadly Solution by Keenan Powell (Level Best Books)

 Curses Boiled Again by Shari Randall (St. Martin's)

Best Short Story

"All God's Sparrows" by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)

 "A Postcard for the Dead" by Susanna Calkins in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)

 "Bug Appetit" by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
"The Case of the Vanishing Professor" by Tara Laskowski (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)

 "English 398: Fiction Workshop" by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Best Young Adult Mystery

Potion Problems(Just Add Magic) by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin) Winterhouse by Ben Guterson (Henry Holt)

 A Side of Sabotage by C.M. Surrisi (Carolrhoda Books)

Best Non-fiction

Mastering Plot Twists by Jane Cleland (Writer's Digest Books)

Writing the Cozy Mystery by Nancy J Cohen (Orange Grove Press)

 Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox (Random House)

 Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson (Pegasus Books)

 Wicked Women of Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo (History Press)

The Agatha Awards will be presented on 4 May 2019 during Malice Domestic 31.    Congratulations to all of the nominees!