2020 Arthur Ellis Award Winners

Crime Writers of Canada have announced the Winners of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Awards. Congratulations to all!

Best Crime Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo with a $1000 prize
Greenwood by Michael Christie (MacClelland & Stewart)

The Best Crime First Novel sponsored by Maureen Jennings with a $500 prize , Nobody Move by Philip Elliott (Into the Void Press)

Best Novella sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $200 prize 

The Red Chesterfield by Wayne Arthurson (University of Calgary Press)

Best Short Story sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $300 prize,

Closing Doors by Peter Sellers (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Best French Book

Tempêtes by Andrée Michaud (Éditions Québec Amériques)

Best Juvenile or YA Book sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize
Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman & Company)

Best Nonfiction Book
Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise by Charlotte Gray (HarperCollins)

The Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript sponsored by Dundurn Press with a $500 prize
The Dieppe Letters by Liz Rachel Walker

The complete shortlist can be found here.

2016 Arthur Ellis Shortlist

The 2016 Arthur Ellis Awards shortlist have been revealed.  The winners will be announced at a gala dinner that will take place on 26th May 2016 at the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto.

Best Novel

Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair (Simon & Schuster)

The Storm Murders by John Farrow (Minotaur)

Hungary by Andrew Hunt (Minotaur)

Open Season by Peter Kirby (Linda Leith Publishing)

The Night Bell by Inger Ash Wolfe (McClelland & Stewart)

Best First Novel

Hard Drive by J. Mark Collins (iUniverse)

What Kills Good Men by David Hood (Vagrant Press)

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur)

Encore by Alexis Koetting (Five Star)

Old Bones by Brian R. Lindsay (Volumes Publishing)

Best Novella

Black Canyon by Jeremy Bates (Dark Hearts)

Deadly Season by Alison Bruce (Imajin Books)

Glow Glass by M.H. Callway (Carrick Publishing)

The Night Thief by Barbara Fradkin (Orca Book Publishers)

Beethoven’s Tenth by Brian Harvey (Orca Book Publishers)

Best Short Story

With One Shoe, The Playground of Lost Toys by Karen Abrahamson (Exile Press)

The Seige by Hilary Davidson (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine)

The Water Was Rising by Sharon Hunt (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine)

The Avocado Kid by Scott Mackay (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine)

Movable Type by S. G. Wong AB Negative Anthology, (Coffin Hop Press)

Best Book in French

L'Affaire Myosotis by Luc Chartrand (Québec Amérique)

L'affaire Céline by Jean-Louis Fleury (Éditions Alire)

La bataille de Pavie by André Jacques (Druide)        

Le mauvais côté des choses by Jean Lemieux (Québec Amérique)

L'affaire Mélodie Cormier by Guillaume Morrissette, (Guy Saint-Jean éditeur)

Best Juvenile/YA Book

Diego’s Crossing by Robert Hough (Annick Press)

Set You Free by Jeff Ross (Orca)

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands (Aladdin)

The Dogs by Allan Stratton (Scholastic)

Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromley (Kathy Dawson Books)

The Dundurn Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel

When the Flood Falls by Jayne Barnard

Knight Blind by Alice Bienia

Brave Girls by Pam Isfeld

Better the Devil You Know by J.T. Siemens

Give Out Creek by J.G. Toews

Best Nonfiction Book

Human on the Inside: Unlocking the Truth about Canada’s Prisons by Gary Garrison (University of Regina Press)

Empire of Deception by Dean Jobb (Harper Collins Publishers)

The Bastard of Fort Stikine: The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Murder of John McLoughlin Jr by Debra Komar (Goose Lane Editions)

Cold War by Jerry Langton (Harper Collins Publishers)

Mr. Big: The Investigation into the Deaths of Karen and Krista Hart by Colleen Lewis and Jennifer Hicks (Flanker Press)

Congratulations to all the nominees.

A Siege of Bitterns with Steve Burrows

Today’s guest blog is by Steve Burrows who is the author of the novel A Siege of Bitterns. It was named Globe and Mail 100: Best Books of 2014, won the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was shortlisted in 2015 for the Best Mystery Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

Having spent a long time shaping their novel into a complex, multi-layered story, considering how they can condense it into a tiny fraction of its original size probably isn’t high on any writer’s list of priorities. But perhaps it should be.

When I looked down the ‘to-do’ list my publisher sent me in the lead up to the release of my first novel, A Siege of Bitterns, one item set the alarm bells ringing immediately; produce a series of synopses that captured the essence of the work. And do it in ever-decreasing word counts. Five-hundred, one hundred and twenty-five, thirty, even. Imagine it, a tweet to convey the major points of a full-length novel. It would be easier to create a cast of a hundred and forty characters for your novel.

So where to start? Clearly I had to outline the book’s scope. The series sub-title helped. But A Birder Murder Mystery still left plenty of ambiguities. Are the birders the murderers, or the murdered? Both? Neither? And what about the birding aspect? Do readers need to be birders to enjoy this murder mystery? (No). Do they need any special knowledge about birds or birding? (Again, no.) Is it primarily a murder mystery, then, with birding as merely a sub-theme? (Exactly. Glad you asked.)

After that, it was a case of trying to anticipate what people might want to know about my book. But, of course, this varies wildly from reader to reader. I have a friend who always reads the last page of a mystery first. He wants to know whether the resolution is worth the effort of getting to it. (For the record, I don’t understand this approach either, but I saved him the trouble in this case, and simply told him the answer was a resounding YES). Other friends wanted to know whether the book contained gratuitous violence (no), excessive foul language (no) or sex (yes, in that each character has one).

Still others had specific questions about a particular aspect of the book. Why, for example, did I choose to set my novel in a picturesque seaside village on the north Norfolk coast? There was a reason; three of them, in fact, but they are inextricably tied to other aspects of the story, and offering any sort of a lucid explanation would run well beyond my allotted word counts.

Most, though, acknowledged that the engine of a good murder mystery is a compelling plot, filled with twists and turns and surprises. How did mine stack up? If there’s a formula for answering this in a hundred and forty characters or less, I never found it. All I could do was ask people to read the book and let me know. Many have. I hope you will, too.

In the end, I decided to concentrate my synopses mostly on the characters. After all, if things continue to go well (three Birder Murders completed already, and another three commissioned), it’s the characters who are going to endure, with whom the readers are going to connect, and in whose lives they are going to invest their leisure-reading hours. So I told people about the young transplanted Canadian Detective Chief Inspector, who has achieved marvelous things already in his short career but now must prove himself all over again to a bunch of skeptical, seasoned coppers in his new posting. And how this task is made all the more difficult since he would really rather be birdwatching than solving crimes. I moved then to the main character’s girlfriend; smart and sassy and very much in love with her man, even if she’s totally befuddled by this birding nonsense of his. The birding doesn’t make much sense to the older sergeant assigned to the new DCI, either. But he recognizes a special talent when he sees one, and he’s prepared to give his new boss all the support he can. He’ll even introduce him the ways and by-ways of the local area as a bonus. The protagonist’s DCS is a smart, savvy politico who recognizes the benefits of having a poster-boy media star on her crew, and so is prepared to indulge his eccentric lines of questioning and his ever more eccentric theories. But not indefinitely.

In the end, I never did manage to convey all this in the thirty words that were allotted to me, or even in one hundred and twenty-five, or five-hundred. But I hope I’ve just demonstrated how it might be done in seven hundred and fifty.

A SIEGE OF BITTERNS by Steve Burrows is published by Point Blank, paperback £7.99.

Domenic Jejeune is a reluctant police hero but an enthusiastic birdwatcher. After he's promoted to a post in the heart of Britain's birding country, his first case involves the murder of an environmentalist. Torn between loyalties to his job and his hobby, Jejeune faces mistrust from his colleagues and self-doubt as he works to solve the case.

More information about Steve Burrows can be found on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @birddetective and find him on Facebook.

Recent Awards and Nominations! - Edgar Awards, Arthur Ellis, Crimefest

The Edgar Awards®

Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards tonight, honouring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012.

Best Novel
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)

Best First Novel By An American Author

The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown Publishers)

Best Paperback Original
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)

Best Fact Crime
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted
the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin Group USA – Penguin Books)

Best Critical/Biographical
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien (Oxford University Press)

Best Short Story
"The Unremarkable Heart" – Mystery Writers of America Presents:  Vengeance by Karin Slaughter (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)

Best Juvenile
The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams – Amulet Books)

Best Young Adult
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion)

Best Television Episode Teleplay 

“A Scandal in Belgravia” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Steven Moffat (BBC/Masterpiece)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"When They Are Done With Us" – Staten Island Noir by Patricia Smith (Akashic Books)

Grand Masters
Ken Follett and Margaret Maron

Raven Awards
Oline Cogdill
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego & Redondo Beach, CA

Ellery Queen Award

Akashic Books

The Simon & Schuster - Mary Higgins Clark Award
Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books)

Crimefest Awards

The Crimefest Award Nominees are as follows -

AUDIBLE SOUNDS OF CRIME AWARD
The Audible Sounds of Crime Award recognises the best crime audiobook published in both print and audio in 2012. Courtesy of sponsor Audible UK, the winning author and audiobook reader share the £1,000 prize equally and each receives a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass vase.

The nominees are:
The Black Box by Michael Connelly read by Michael McConnohie (Orion Audio)

The Racketeer by John Grisham read by J.D. Jackson (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Lewis Man by Peter May read by Peter Forbes (Quercus)
Phantom by Jo Nesbø read by Sean Barrett (Random House with Isis Publishing)
Standing In Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin read by James MacPherson (Orion Audio)
Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and Audible UK listeners established the shortlist and the winning title.

GOLDSBORO LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel of 2012. The £500 prize is sponsored by Goldsboro Books, the book collector's bookseller. The winner also receives a Bristol Blue Glass vase.

The nominees are:
The Prisoner of Brenda by Colin Bateman (Headline)
The Corpse on the Court by Simon Brett (Severn House)
Slaughter's Hound by Declan Burke (Liberties Press)
Killing The Emperors by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Allison & Busby)
Bryant & May and the Invisible Code  by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday, Transworld)
The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats  by Hesh Kestin (Mulholland Books, Hodder & Stoughton)
Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

eDUNNIT AWARD
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook published in 2012 in both hardcopy and in electronic format. The winning author receives £500, an eReader, as well as a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass vase.

The nominees are:
The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri (Mantle, Macmillan) 

Killing The Emperors by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Allison & Busby)
Bryant & May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler (Transworld)
Dominion by C.J. Sansom (Mantle, Macmillan)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

THE H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biography or critical book related to crime fiction published between 2008 and 2012. The award is named for Harry Keating, who died in 2011, one of Britain's most esteemed crime novelists, a reviewer for The Times, and writer of books about crime fiction. The winning author receives a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass vase.

The nominees are:
Books to Die For Declan Burke & John Connolly by (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012)
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran (HarperCollins, 2009)
British Crime Writing: an Encyclopaedia Barry Forshaw (editor) (Greenwood World Publishing, 2008)
Invisible Ink by Christopher Fowler (Strange Attractor, 2012)

Following the Detectives by Maxim Jakubowski (editor) (New Holland Publishers, 2010)
Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D. James (The Bodleian Library, 2009)

Eligible titles were collated by author and crime fiction expert Martin Edwards, and from submissions by CRIMEFEST newsletter subscribers. A team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Winners will be announced at the CrimeFest Gala Dinner on June 1. 

The Crime Writers of Canada have announced the nominees for the 2013 Arthur Ellis Awards.

Best First Novel:
The Beggar’s Opera by Peggy Blair (Penguin Canada)
Confined Space by Deryn Collier (Simon & Schuster)
The Dead of Winter by Peter Kirby (Linda Leith)
A Private Man by Chris Laing (Seraphim)
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (NAL)

Best Novel:
Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay (Doubleday Canada)
Until the Night by Giles Blunt (Random House Canada)
The Trinity Game by Sean Chercover (Thomas & Mercer)
The Messenger by Stephen Miller (Delacorte Press)
Niceville by Carsten Stroud (Knopf)

Best Novella:
Contingency Plan by Lou Allin (Orca Rapid Reads)
A Winter Kill by Vicki Delany (Orca Rapid Reads)

Evil Behind that Door by Barbara Fradkin (Orca Rapid Reads)
Reunion by Christopher G. Moore (from Phnom Penh Noir, edited by Christopher G. Moore; Heaven Lake Press)

Best Short Story:
“Life without George” by Melodie Campbell (Over My Dead Body!, August 2012)
“Sins of the Fathers” by Sandy Conrad (from Daughters and Other Strangers, The Brucedale Press)
“Cruel Coast” by Scott MacKay (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July 2012)
“Mad Dog” Jas R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, October 2012)
“Spring-blade Knife” by Yasuko Thanh (from Floating Like the Dead, McClelland & Stewart)

Best Non-fiction:
Bloody Justice: The Truth behind the Bandidos Massacre at Shedden by Anita Arvast (John Wiley)
Octopus: Sam Israel, the Secret Market, and Wall Street’s Wildest Con by Guy Lawson (Crown/Random House)
The Devil’s Cinema: The Untold Story behind Mark Twitchell’s Kill Room by Steve Lillebuen (McClelland & Stewart)
Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians by Bruce Livesey (Random House Canada)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult:
Live to Tell by Lisa Harrington (Cormorant Books)
The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee (Candlewick Press)
Crush Candy Corpse by Sylvia McNicoll (James Lorimer)
Becoming Holmes by Shane Peacock (Tundra)

The Lynching of Louie Sam by Elizabeth Stewart (Annick Press)

Best Crime Book in French:
La Nuit des albinos: Sur les traces de Max O’Brien by Mario Bolduc (Libre Expression)
De pierres et de sang by André Jacques (Druide)
L’homme du jeudi by Jean Lemieux (La courte échelle)
Je me souviens by Martin Michaud (Goélette)
L’inaveu by Richard Ste Marie (Alire)

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (“The Unhanged Arthur”):
Cold Black Tide by William Hall
The Raffle Baby by Ilonka Halsband
Sins Revisited by Coleen Steele

Winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards will be announced on May 30 2013 during a ceremony at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, Canada.

The Romantic Times Readers Choice Awards were recently announced and the winners of the mystery awards are as follows with the winner in bold.

Contemporary Mystery
Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton

The Sleeping and the Dead by Jeff Crook

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand

Cop to Corpse by Peter Lovesey

Historical Mystery
A Dark Anatomy by Robin Blake

The Yard by Alex Grecian

When Maidens Mourn by C.S. Harris

A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry

The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland

The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd

First Mystery

Hush Money by Chuck Greaves

The Anatomist's Apprentice by Tessa Harris

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Viral by James Lilliefors

The Deep Zone by James M. Tabor

Suspense/Thriller
A Deeper Darkness by J.T. Ellison

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner

And She Was by Alison Gaylin

The Line Between Here and Gone by Andrea Kane

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Amateur Sleuth
Popped Off by Jeffrey Allen

The Twelve Clues of Chrismas by Rhys Bowen

Postcards from the Dead by Laura Childs

Bad Little Falls by Paul Doiron

Gem of a Ghost by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Blood, Bath and Beyond by Michelle Rowen

Romantic Suspense

Betrayal by Christina Dodd

Last Man Standing by Cindy Gerard

Beautiful Sacrifice by Elizabeth Lowell

Against the Sun by Kat Martin

Sleepwalker by Karen Robards

The Witness by Nora Roberts

2012 Arthur Ellis Award Winners.

On 31 May 2012 at a banquet in Toronto, The Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of the 2012 Arthur Ellis Awards. A full list of the nominees can be found here.

Best Novel:
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson (M&S)

Best Non-Fiction
Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman, (Douglas & McIntyre)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult
Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick Press/Random House)

Best First Novel
The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton (Spiderline/House of Anansi)

Best Short Story
“What Kelly Did” by Catherine Astolfo (Northword Magazine)

Unhanged Arthur (Best Unpublished First Crime Novel)
Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe

Best Crime Writing in French
La Chorale Du Diable by Martin Michaud (Les Éditions Guélette)

In addition, The Derrick Murdoch Award was given to Catherine Astolfo and Donald Graves (posthumously). The award is for special for contributions to the field.

Congratulations to all of the winners.

Awards, nominations and winners!

The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at their 64th Gala Banquet, on April 29, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City and the winners are:-

Grandmaster: Dorothy Gilman, author of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries
Best Novel: The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books)
Best First Novel by an American Author: In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

Best Paperback Original: Body Blows by Marc Strange (Castle Street Mysteries)
Best Short Story: "Amapola" by Luis Urrea in Phoenix Noir (Akashic Books)
Best Critical/Biographical: The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group-Little, Brown)
Best Juvenile: Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn (HMH Children's Book)
Best Young Adult: Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (HarperTeen)
Best TV Episode Teleplay: "Place of Execution," teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS) (based on the novel by Val McDermid)
Best Fact Crime: Columbine by Dave Cullen (Twelve)
Ellery Queen Award: Poisoned Pen Press, Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald
Raven Award #1: Zef Buffman, International Mystery Writers Festival
Raven Award #2: Mystery Lovers Bookshop (Oakmont, PA)
Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: "A Dreadful Day" by Dan Warthman, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (Dell Magazines)

More information can be found here from the MWA and here from the Wall Street Journal.

On Wednesday 28 April 2010 SJ Bolton won the Simon & Schuster- Mary Higgins Clark Award for her novel Awakening (Minotaur Books). The award was presented at the MWA's Agents and Editors Party. More info can be found here.

The winners of the annual Reviewers' Choice Awards were announce by RT Book Reviews (Romantic Times). The nominees and winners of these awards, given in many categories, are selected by a staff of over 50 reviewers representing the readers' voice in the women's fiction industry.

The winners in the Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller category are (for books published in 2009):
Amateur Sleuth: Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke (Kensington)
Contemporary Mystery: Kill For Me by Karen Rose (Grand Central)
First Mystery: A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Historical Mystery: What Remains of Heaven by C. S. Harris (NAL)
PI/Police Procedural Novel: A Darker Domain by Val McDermid (Harper)
Suspense/Thriller: The Messenger by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster)
A complete list of all the nominees and winners can be found here


Deadly Ink have announced the following nominations for the 2010 David G. Sasher, Sr. Award-aka "The David"- for the best mystery published during the prior year (2009).

Lincoln Child - Terminal Freeze
Mary Jane Clark - Dying For Mercy
Harlan Coben - Long Lost
Hallie Ephron - Never Tell a Lie
Parnell Hall - Dead Man's Puzzle
Elaine Viets - Killer Cuts

Attendees at the 2010 Deadly Ink Mystery Conference will vote for their favorite, and the winner will be announced at the Saturday Night Awards Banquet. The 2010 Deadly Ink Mystery Conference will take place June 25-27, 2010 at Parsippany Sheraton, Parshippany, NJ where the Guest of Honor will be Gillian Roberts.

The Arthur Ellis Award Shortlist was announced on Thursday April 22, 2010. These are the annual awards for the Best in Canadian crime fiction presented by the Crime Writers of Canada

Best Crime Novel:
Aloha, Candy Hearts by Anthony Bidulka
Arctic Blue Death by R.J. Harlick
Finger's Twist by Lee Lamothe
Death Spiral by James W. Nichol
High Chicago by Howard Shrier

Best First Novel:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan
The Weight of Stones by C.B. Forrest
A Magpie's Smile by Eugene Meese
Darkness at the Stroke of Noon by Dennis Richard Murphy

Best Crime Writing in French:
Je compte les morts by Genevieve Lefebvre
Le mort du chemin des Arsène by Jean Lemieux
La faim de la terre by Jean-Jacques Pelletier
Peaux de chagrin by Diane Vincent

Best Non-Fiction:
The Fat Mexican: The Bloody rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club by Alex Caine
Runaway Devil by Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose
The Slasher Killings by Patrick Brode
Post Mortem by Jon Wells
Murder without Borders by Terry Gould

Best Juvenile:
Not Suitable for Family Viewing by Vicki Grant.
Haunted by Barbara Haworth-Attard.
Homicide Related by Norah McClintock.
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel(the Unhanged Arthur)
This Cage of Bones by Pam Barnsley
Confined Space by Deryn Collier
The Corpse Flower by Gloria Ferris
A Bait of Pleasure by Blair Hemstock
Putting Them Down by Peter Kirby

Best Short Story
"Backup" by Rick Mofina
"Prisoner in Paradise" by Dennis Richard Murphy
"Nothing is Easy" by James Petrin
"Time Will Tell" by Twist Phelan
"Clowntown Pajamas" by James Powell

The winners will be announced on May 27


Agatha Awards -

The winners of the Agatha Awards have been announced and they are:-

Best Novel:
The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny

Best First Novel:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley

Best Short Story:


"On the House," by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best Nonfiction:
Dame Agatha's Shorts, by Elena Santangelo

Best Children's/Young Adult:
The Hanging Hill, by Chris Grabenstein


China Miéville has won a third Arthur C Clarke Award with his novel The City and The City. More information can be found in an article in the Guardian. Last month the book won the British Science Fiction Association prize for best novel.


The Short Mystery Fiction Awards also known as the Derringer Awards have been announced.

The 2010 Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer For Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Lawrence Block.

BEST FLASH STORY (Up to 1,000 Words)
"And Here's To You, Mrs. Edwardson," by Hamilton Waymire (Winner)Published in the webzine *Big Pulp*, November 23, 2009
"Awake" by David Dean Published in EQMM, July 2009
"Gutterball" by Stephen D. Rogers Published in Woman's World Magazine, Sep 7, 2009
"The Right Track" by R.T. Lawton Published in Woman's World Magazine, 10/26/09
"Unplanned" by Libby Cudmore Published in Thrillers, Killers 'n' Chillers, August 2009


BEST SHORT STORY (1,001 - 4,000 Words)
"Identity Theft" by Robert Weibezahl Published in Beat to a Pulp, March 2009
"The Biography of Stoop the Thief" by Steven Torres Published in Uncage Me!, July 2009
"The Hard Sell" by Jay Stringer Published in Beat to a Pulp, 2009
"The Right to Remain Silent" by Debbi Mack Published in Back Alley Webzine, August 2009
"Twas the Night" by Anita Page (Winner)Published in The Gift of Murder, 2009


BEST LONG STORY (4,001 - 8,000 Words)
"A Stab in the Heart" by Twist Phelan Published in EQMM, February
"Famous Last Words" by Doug Allyn (winner) Published in EQMM, November
"Regarding Certain Occurrences in a Cottage at the Garden of Allah" by Robert S. Levinson Published in AHMM, November
"Snow on Bloedkoppie" by Berhard Jaumann (translated from the German by Mary Tannert)Published in EQMM, August
"The Shipbreaker" by Mike Wiecek Published in EQMM, March/April


BEST NOVELETTE (8,001 - 17,500 Words)
"Adjuncts Anonymous" by B.K. Stevens Published in AHMM, June
"Julius Katz" by Dave Zeltserman (Winner)Published in EQMM, September/October
"The Last Drop" by R.W. Kerrigan Published in EQMM, February
"The Pirate's Debt" by Toni L.P. Kelner Published in EQMM, August
"Uncle Brick and Jimmy Kills" by Allan Leverone Published in Mysterical-E

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.