The Macavity Award Nominees 2020

The Macavity Award Nominees 2020 

(for works published in 2019)

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the Virtual Sacramento Bouchercon. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI, a subscriber to MRJ, or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot by August 1.

Best Mystery Novel 
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Ecco)
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (Wm. Morrow)
The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Mulholland)
The Murder List by Hank Philippi Ryan (Forge)
Sarah Jane by James Sallis (Soho Crime)

Best First Mystery 
The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge (Agora Books)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (Penguin)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (Sarah Crichton Books)
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (Random House)

Best Mystery Short Story 
“West Texas Barbecue” by Michael Chandos (The Eyes of Texas, edited by Michael Bracken—Down & Out Books)
“Alex's Choice” by Barb Goffman (Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman—Wildside Press)
“The Cardboard Box” by Terence Faherty (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2019)
"Whiteout” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2019)
“Brother’s Keeper” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, May/June 2019)
“Better Days,” by Art Taylor (EQMM, May/June 2019)

Best Mystery Nonfiction/Critical 
Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer (University Press of Kentucky)
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan (Bloomsbury)
Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan (Counterpoint)
The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin (Counterpoint Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 
Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
The Pearl Dagger by L.A. Chandlar (Kensington)
A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Vintage)

CrimeFest Awards 2019

CrimeFest Awards were announced on Saturday 11 May at the CrimeFest banquet.

Audible Sounds of Crime Award:
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

eDunnit Award:
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (Faber and Faber)

Last Laugh Award:
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss (Bloomsbury)

H.R.F. Keating Award:
Difficult Lives – Hitching Rides by James Sallis (No Exit Press)

Best Crime Novel for Children:
Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St. John (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults
Run, Riot by Nikesh Shukla (Hodder Children’s Books)

**
The Petrona Award Winner was also announced:
The Kathrarina Code by Jorn Lier Horst, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce, published by Michael Joseph

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors.

Books to look Forward to from No Exit Press

October 2018

Autumn 1915. World War I is raging across Europe but Woodrow Wilson has kept Americans out of the trenches--though that hasn't stopped young men and women from crossing the Atlantic to volunteer at the front. Christopher "Kit" Cobb, a Chicago reporter with a second job as undercover agent for the U.S. government, is officially in Paris doing a story on American ambulance drivers, but his intelligence handler, James Polk Trask, soon broadens his mission. City-dwelling civilians are meeting death by dynamite in a new string of bombings, and the German-speaking Kit seems just the man to figure out who is behind them--possibly a German operative who has snuck in with the waves of refugees coming in from the provinces and across the border in Belgium. But there are elements in this pursuit that will test Kit Cobb, in all his roles, to the very limits of his principles, wits, and talents for survival.  Paris in the Dark is by Robert Olen Butler

Originally published by Gryphon Books in 1993, Difficult Lives was one of the earliest attempts to track the legacy of original paperback writers such as Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Chester Himes.  The individual essays on these three first appeared in literary magazines.  Difficult Lives visits a rare moment when daylight was showing around the seams of American society and visions quite in contrast to the sanctioned version drifted to the surface in books one bought off racks in drugstores and bus stations -- stark, bonelike, disturbing books.  No Exit Press are to make Difficult Lives available again, doubling our pleasure by pairing it with Hitching Rides, an equal volume of new essays on other crime writers including Derek Raymond, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson.  Difficult Lives – Hitching Rides is by James Sallis.

The Lonely Witness is by William Boyle.  Amy was once a party girl, but now she lives a lonely life. Helping the house-bound to receive communion in the Gravesend neighbourhood of Brooklyn, she knows the community well.  When a local woman goes missing, Amy senses something isn’t right.  Tailing the woman’s suspicious son, she winds her way through Brooklyn’s streets. But before she can act, he is dead.  Captivated by the crime she’s witnessed and the murderer himself, Amy doesn’t call the cops. Instead, she collects the weapon from the sidewalk and soon finds herself on the trail of a killer.

November 2018

Death Rope is by Leigh Russell. Mark Abbott is dead. His sister refuses to believe it was suicide, but only Detective Sergeant Geraldine Steel will listen.  When other members of Mark’s family disappear, Geraldine’s suspicions are confirmed.  Taking a risk, Geraldine finds herself confronted by an adversary deadlier than any she has faced before… Her boss Ian is close, but will he arrive in time to save her, or is this the end for Geraldine Steel?

December 2018

One Law For The Rest of Us is by Peter Murphy.  Two generations of abuse... one shocking conspiracy... a woman determined to expose it all.  When Audrey Marshall sends her daughter Emily to the religious boarding school where she herself was educated a generation before, memories return – memories of a culture of child sexual abuse presided over by a highly-regarded priest.  Audrey turns to barrister Ben Schroeder in search of justice for Emily and herself.  But there are powerful men involved, men determined to protect themselves at all costs.

Heart Attacks is California’s last secret spot – the premier mysto surf haunt, the stuff of rumour and legend. The rumours say you must cross Indian land to get there. They tell of hostile locals and shark-infested waters where waves in excess of thirty feet break a mile from shore. For down-and-out photographer Jack Fletcher, the chance to shoot these waves in the company of surfing legend Drew Harmon offers the promise of new beginnings. But Drew is not alone in the northern reaches of the state. His young wife, Kendra, lives there with him. Obsessed with the unsolved murder of a local girl, Kendra has embarked upon a quest of her own, a search for truth – however dark that truth may prove to be.  In this desolate wasteland the search for the perfect wave becomes a quest for survival, as events lead inevitably to their final, tragic climax.  The Dogs of Winter is by Kem Nunn.

January 2019

On leave from Canada's Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country’s beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak’s supposed break from work is cut short when he’s approached by a Canadian government agent in Iran, asking him to look into the death of renowned Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Zahra Sobhani. Zahra was murdered at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where she’d been seeking the release of a well-known political prisoner. Khattak quickly finds himself embroiled in Iran’s tumultuous politics and under surveillance by the regime, but when the trail leads back to Zahra’s family in Canada, Khattak calls on his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, for help.  Rachel uncovers a conspiracy linked to the Shah of Iran and the decades-old murders of a group of Iran’s most famous dissidents. Historic letters, a connection to the Royal Ontario Museum, and a smuggling operation on the Caspian Sea are just some of the threads Rachel and Khattak begin unraveling, while the list of suspects stretches from Tehran to Toronto. But as Khattak gets caught up in the fate of Iran’s political prisoners, Rachel sees through to the heart of the matter: Zahra’s murder may not have been a political crime at all.  Among the Ruins is by Ausma Zehanat Khan.

February 2019

Jack Harper isn’t a bad man, but he’s stuck in a loveless marriage with a mediocre job just trying to keep sober. The only good thing in his life is his son. When an old college friend introduces him to a new extramarital dating website, he tentatively reaches out to find a distraction from his misery. But when he goes to meet up with his steamy online date, he quickly realises it was a dire choice.  Soon, Jack finds himself desperately trying to prove his innocence for crimes he did not commit, and the life he once had – unhappy as it was – is nothing but a dream. Now, he’s living his worst nightmare. . .  Too Far is by Jason Starr.

Fade to Grey is by John Lincoln.  Gethin Grey is the man you call when there’s nowhere else to turn. His Last Resort Legals team investigates miscarriages of justice. But Gethin is running out of options himself: his gambling is out of control, his marriage is falling apart and there’s no money left to pay the wages…  Izma M was sent down years ago for the brutal murder of a young woman. In jail he’s written a bestseller and become a cult hero, and now the charismatic fading-film-star Amelia Laverne wants to bankroll Gethin to prove Izma's innocence. For Gethin – low on luck and cash – the job is heaven sent. But is Izma M really as blameless as his fans believe?  This seemingly cold case is about to turn very hot indeed…

March 2019

The Conviction of Cora Burns is by Carolyn Kirby.  Birmingham, 1885.  Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her.  Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood.  Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora…?

After Brooklyn mob widow Rena Ruggiero hits her eighty-year-old neighbour Enzio in the head with an ashtray when he makes an unwanted move on her, she retreats to the Bronx home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and her granddaughter, Lucia, only to be turned away at the door. Their neighbour, Lacey “Wolfie” Wolfstein, a one-time Golden Age porn star and retired Florida Suncoast grifter, takes Rena in and befriends her. When Lucia discovers that Adrienne is planning to hit the road with her ex-boyfriend, she figures Rena is her only way out of a life on the run with a mother she can’t stand. The stage is set for an explosion that will propel Rena, Wolfie, and Lucia down a strange path, each woman running from their demons, no matter what the cost. A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself is by William Boyle.

 

Iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser delves into the black market art scene to investigate a decades-long unsolved crime of dangerous proportions.  The heist was legendary, still talked about twenty years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas, or, worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help.  Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor, an aged, unlikable Boston socialite, sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, murder, and double crosses.  Robert B Parker’s Old Black Magic is by Ace Atkins.

May 2019

Ungentlemanly Warfare is by Howard Linskey. A soldier and a spy, an officer but not quite a gentleman, Captain Harry Walsh is SOE’s secret weapon.  Loathed by his own commanding officer, haunted by the death of his closest friend and trapped in a loveless marriage, Harry Walsh is close to burn out when he is ordered to assassinate the man behind the ME 163 Komet, Hitler’s miracle jet fighter. If Walsh fails, there is no prospect of allied victory in Europe.  Harry Walsh is ruthless, unorthodox and ungentlemanly. He is about to wreak havoc.

Five Favorite Detectives by Antti Tuomainen

Today I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Antti Tuomainen for the latest stop oh his Finish Invasion blog tour.  Antti's latest book The Mine is out now.  Like most crime writers he is also a big reader and in his post he talks to us about his five favourite detectives.  I guess that one should not really be too surprised about those he chose.

Rust Cohle

"World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door." - Rust Cohle

The first season of True Detective is probably my favorite single season of television. (Although any season of The Wire might come close.) And Rust Cohle, played so memorably by Matthew McConaghey, is the ultimate world-weary detective. He's a true loner and a philosopher and quite probably the most obsessed man on the planet. What makes him such a great character also is that he is full of faults, almost enough to destroy him, and yet I completely understand him. That takes some great writing.

 

Matthew Scudder

Lawrence Block is one of the greats of crime writing, ever. He's written about 100 books in a career that's been going now for over 50 years. He has had, and still has, at least three series going. To me, Matthew Scudder is my favorite of his series characters. Scudder is an ex-cop, recovering alcoholic and not even a licensed PI, but still takes on cases as favors to people in exchange of cash, of course. The Scudder novels (and short stories) take place in New York City and it's perfectly rendered in these excellent, atmospheric books. Noir and good. Highly recommended. You could start with Eight Million Ways To Die or A Walk Among The Tombstones. 

 

Philip Marlowe

It's not really Marlowe, it's Chandler, of course. He's the one writing Marlowe's thoughts and lines. And they're still excellent.

 

Turner

I don't remember if Turner has a first name. James Sallis is one of my favorite crime authors and the Turner trilogy is very good, even if we never even find out the main character (and the narrator's) name. Turner is, or becomes, a sheriff in a small Southern town and investigates whatever brutality comes up. There are time shifts as Turner reminisces his days as a big city detective and currently serves the small community. Sallis writes so well. It is always a pleasure to read him even if the plot doesn't take you where you expect it, or don't expect it to. I can't decide which one.

 

Jackie Brown (not a detective, but…)

Elmore Leonard wrote a novel titled Rum Punch whichwas made into a film by Quentin Tarantino titled Jackie Brown. And Jackie Brown is indeed the name of the main character. She is a flight stewardess caught in the web of arms dealing, drug trafficking, thugs, cops, feds and who knows what else. She's a great character and it's a great story of survival, growth and standing up for yourself. A very classical character journey in a highly entertaining fashion. Also, you can't beat Leonard's dialogue.



The Mine

Janne Vuori, an investigative journalist for the Helsinki Daily, receives an anonymous tip about illegal activity at a nickel mine in the small town of Suomalahti in northern Finland. According to his source, the mining company is causing an environmental disaster. Janne and a photographer drive to the mine to investigate, but are briskly kept off the grounds by the head of mine security at Finn Mining Ltd. Determined to find out the truth, Janne begins to investigate the company in order to shed some light on its shady business. When executives of the company start dying one after the other in mysterious accidents, he realizes that he’s become embroiled in a dangerous game that might just cost him his life.

You can find out more about Antti Tuomainen and his books can be found on his website.  You can also follow him on Twitter @antti_tuomainen.

Books to Look Forward to from No Exit Press in 2016

  February 2016

Robert B Parker’s Kickback by Ace Atkins. The iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser returns in an outstanding new addition to the New York Times-bestselling series from author Ace Atkins. When he set up a prank twitter account for his vice principal as a joke, seventeen-year-old Dillon Yates never dreamed he could be brought up on criminal charges, but that’s exactly what happened. This is Blackburn, Massachusetts, where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life. Leading the movement is hard-as-nails Judge Joe Scali, who gives speeches about getting tough on today’s wild youth. But Dillon’s mother isn’t buying Scali’s line and she hires Spenser to find out the truth behind the draconian sentencing. Spenser and trusted ally Hawk follow a trail through the Boston underworld and eventually uncover a culture of corruption and cover-ups in the old mill town, where hundreds of kids are sent off to for-profit juvie jails.

 

March 2016

Brit Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to British Crime Fiction, Film & TV is by Barry Forshaw. Barry Forshaw is acknowledged as a leading expert on crime fiction from European countries, but his principal area of expertise is in the British crime arena. After the success of earlier entries in the series, Nordic Noir and Euro Noir, he returns to the UK to produce the perfect reader’s guide to modern British crime fiction. Every major living British writer is considered, often through a concentration on one or two key books, and exciting new talents are highlighted for the reader. Forshaw’s personal acquaintance with writers, editors and publishers is unparalleled, so Brit Noir features interviews with (and quotations from) the writers, editors and publishers themselves.

Dodgers by Bill Beverly.  When East, a low-level lookout for a Los Angeles drug organisation, loses his watch house in a police raid, his boss recruits him for a very different job: a road trip – straight down the middle of white, rural America – to assassinate a judge in Wisconsin. Having no choice, East and a crew of untested boys – including his trigger-happy younger brother, Ty – leave the only home they’ve ever known in a nondescript blue van, with a roll of cash, a map and a gun they shouldn’t have. Along the way, the country surprises East. The blood on his hands isn’t the blood he expects. And he reaches places where only he can decide which way to go – or which person to become.

May 2016

 

 

‘Hearing footsteps pounding along the street behind him he glanced back, fleetingly worried, then laughed because the street was deserted. All the same, he felt uneasy. Everything looked different in the dark. Then he heard more footsteps approaching, and a hoarse voice called out. Turning his head, he made out a figure hovering in the shadows and as it raised one arm, the barrel of a gun glinted in the moonlight!’ The dead body of unassuming David Lester is discovered in a dark side-street, and DI Geraldine Steel is plunged into another murder investigation. The clues mount up along with the suspects, but with the death of another man in inexplicable circumstances, the case becomes increasingly complex. As Geraldine investigates the seemingly unrelated crimes, she makes a shocking discovery about her birth mother.  Murder Ring is by Leigh Russell.
 

June 2016

In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have been discovered, unnerving the community and unsettling Dr Lamar Hale, the town’s all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience.  At the same time, Bobby Lowndes – his military records missing, and followed by the FBI – mysteriously reappears in his hometown, at Hale’s door. Over the ensuing months, the daily dramas Hale faces as he tends to his town and to his partner, Richard, collide with the inexplicable vagaries of life in Willnot. And when a gunshot aimed at Lowndes critically wounds Richard, Hale’s world is truly upended.  Willnot is written by James Sallis. 

Video journalist Jonas Brand is on a rail journey from Zurich to Basel when stock trader Paolo Contini appears to throw himself from the train to his death. Brand sets his footage of the aftermath of the incident aside to investigate a strange coincidence: two 100-Swiss-franc banknotes bearing the same serial number have come into his possession. Sensing an opportunity to graduate from celebrity journalism to serious investigation, he has the banknotes analysed, with bizarrely contradictory . . . and fatal results. Set in the tangled world of finance, politics and the media, Montecristo is a pacy conspiracy thriller full of betrayal and underhand tactics – a sharp and entertaining demonstration of the topical maxim that some banks are simply ‘too big to fail’.  Montecristo is written by Martin Suter.

CrimeFest Day 2 Part 1

Late nights!  Thursday evening was certainly a late night.  I managed to get to get to bed at 1:45am.  How I also managed to get up and be out of bed in time for breakfast, I don’t know.  I can only say that Coffee is my God at the moment. 

Anyway, because of me having to traipse up to Starbucks on Friday morning I had to miss a couple of panels.  I did get to the panel on Law or Justice?  How Does Your Protagonist Choose, which had Gerald O’Donovan, Zoe Sharp, Andrew Taylor, and James Sallis as panellists and it, was moderated by Stanley Trollip (one-half of Michael Stanley).  It was an interesting panel with a wide range of questions being asked.  These included whether or not the author’s felt that vigilantism was justified.  From the responses received, clearly they did not.  We also learnt that at the age of 65 James Sallis is learning to play the fiddle; Andrew Taylor can play the Ukulele and Gerald O’Donovan is still the under 9 backstroke champion at his prep school!

The other panel that I attend was the brilliant Kicking Ass: Spirited Protagonists and Tricky Situations.  The panellists were Brian McGilloway, Sue Grafton, Lee Child and Jacqueline Winspear.  Zoë Sharp was the participating moderator.  She always has been a brilliant moderator and listening to her with the panellists confirmed to me why I will always go to a panel where she is either a member or is the moderator.  She started off the panel with 5 degrees of separation between all the panel members.  This had the audience in fits of laughter as she managed to link all the panel members together.  Sue Grafton amazed me as she was much more grounded than I expected her to be and Lee Child was his usual charming self.  Brian McGilloway always gets me with his accent.  I could sit and listen to him talk for ages.  All the panel members worked well together.  Anyway, fan girl moment over now!  I am not going to go into intimate details about what was said because I have also been tweeting and therefore I am hoping that most people will have seen my tweets.  Nevertheless, they were asked if they fear killing off their character? Lee explained that with Reacher it will run its course and that it would not and could not be left unresolved.  At the end, Reacher would die.  Sue Grafton explained that for her books equalled life, death and crime.  She said that she would not kill off Kinsey Milhone.  Jacqueline Winspear that she would but would find it very upsetting.  She went on further to say that she had killed off a character in one of the books and that she had found that hard.  Brian directly said that he could not kill off Devlin. They were also all asked which were their favourite books.  For Brian it was his first one but, the one he considered to be the most personal is Little Girl Lost.  Sue Grafton like Brian said that her first book was the one that she was most proud of (A is for Alibi) but that she considered J is for Judgment the most personal.  For Lee it was the first Reacher novel The Killing Floor because he had no expectations.  Maise Dobbs, which was the first book in the series for Jacqueline Winspear as it, was a turning point in her life when she was recovering from a bad riding accident.  However, her most personal is one of the more recent ones The Mapping of Love & Death. It was inspired by a true story.  Once again it was standing room only for the event.  Some people even had to sit down at the front on the floor.  This year CrimeFest has been wonderful! Well organised, brilliant panels and wonderful people.

I did want to attend the Jeffrey Deaver interview but managed to get side-tracked.  Okay, I was at the Severn House drinks!  I also had to get my act together for the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger Shortlist Announcement Reception. My duties were to announce the shortlist for the short story nominations. I stupidly managed to leave my speaking notes at home, so I was rather pleased that I did manage to remember what I wanted to say off the top of my head.  I would before I forget like to thank my fellow Judges Adrian Magson and Paul Johnston for all their hard work.

The shortlists are as follows –

Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction (sponsored by ALCS)

To Live Outside the Law by Leaf Fielding published by Serpent’s Tail

DarkMarket by Misha Glenny published by Vintage

Hood Rat by Gavin Knight published by Pan Macmillan

The Negotiator by Ben Lopez published by Little, Brown

Witness David Smith with Carol Ann Lee published by Mainstream

The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan published by Doubleday

Debut Dagger (sponsored by Orion)

Beached by Sandy Gingras (USA)

Broken Winged Bird by Renata Hill (Canada)

Chasing Shadows by Lesley McLaren (France)

Death by Glasgow by Jon Breakfield (UK)

Death Knell by Rob Lowe (UK)

Easy to Die by Sean Carpenter (UK)

Message from Panama by Britt Vasarhelyi (Panama)

One Man Army by Bram E Gieben (UK)

Port of Spain by Elizabeth Wells (Canada)

The Watchers by Karen Catalona (USA)

The Wrong Domino by Simon Miller (UK)

Trick by Sean Hancock (UK)

Short Story Dagger

The Golden Hour by Bernie Crossthwaite

From – Guilty Consciences, Edited by Martin Edwards and published by Severn House

Hixton by William Kent Krueger

From – Crimes by Moonlight, Edited by Charlaine Harris and published by Gollancz

The Message by Margaret Murphy

From - Murder Squad: Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories, Edited by Martin Edwards and published by The Mystery Press

He Did Not Always See Her by Claire Seeber

From – Guilty Consciences, Edited by Martin Edwards and published by Severn House

A Long Time Dead by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

From - Best American Crime Stories 2011, Edited by Harlan Coben and published by Corvus

Laptop by Cath Staincliffe

From - Murder Squad: Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories, Edited by Martin Edwards and published by The Mystery Press

The Ellis Peters Historical Dagger

A Willing Victim by Laura Wilson published by Quercus

Bitter Water by Gordon Ferris published by Corvus

Icelight by Aly Monroe published by John Murray

I Will Have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni published by Hersilla Press

Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr published by Quercus

Sacrilege by S J Parris published by Harper Collins

The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau published by Orion

Dagger in the Library (Sponsored by Random House)

Steve Mosby

Belinda Bauer

Imogen Robertson

S J Bolton

Susan Hill

Peter May

The International Dagger for crime fiction in translation

The Potter’s Field by Andrea Camilleri tr. Stephen Sartarelli published by Mantle

 I Will Have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni tr Anne Milano Appel published by Hersilla Press

Until They Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson tr Laurie Thompson published by MacLehose Press

Trackers by Deon Meyer tr T K L Seegers published by Hodder & Stoughton

Phantom by Jo Nesbø tr Don Bartlett published by Harvil Secker

The Dark Valley by Valerio Varesi tr Joseph Farrell published by MacLehose Press.

Congratulations to all the nominees! More to follow later!

Newsy Stuff - Good News and Bad News

The Good News

There will be a number of well-known Russian authors attending the London Book Fair later on this year. According to the press release (via Booktrade info) The programme will feature 49 authors, poets, critics and academics, representing Russia and will be bringing the best in contemporary Russian writing and publishing to London in April and through a series of high-profile trade and public events will foster mutual understanding between Russia and the UK through literature and help facilitate long-term partnerships. Amongst those due to attend will be Boris Akunin. He will be London Book Fair's Market Focus Author of the Day on Tuesday 12th April. Boris Akunin is one of the most widely read authors in Russia and his Erast Fandorian novels have sold over eighteen million copies in Russia alone.

The Los Angeles Times have announced the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists.

The authors in the Mystery and Thriller category are –

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (William Morrow)

Faithful Place by Tana French (Viking)

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Collusion by Stuart Neville (SoHo Press)

City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur Books/A Thomas Dunne Book)

The full list of nominees can be found here.

The 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be awarded April 29, 2011, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building.

No Exit Press have according to the Bookseller acquired The Killer is Dying by James Sallis. The book follows three characters: a hitman on his final job, a detective caring for his ill wife and a young boy living on the streets, and how their lives are linked despite them never meeting. Sallis is also the author of the acclaimed novel Drive which has been made into a film featuring Ryan Gosling and is due to be released in September 2011.

According to the Bookseller Headline have acquired The God of Gotham, a novel set in 19th-century New York. Set in 1845 during the establishment of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the potato famine in Ireland, the novel follows a fledgling police officer's investigation into a murderer intent on fanning the flames of anti-Irish immigrant sentiment.

Headline’s fiction publisher at large Martin Fletcher has also acquired two sets of acquisitions. The first is a two-book deal by Cityboy author Geraint Anderson. His debut novel Just Business will be published in June 2011. The second is two novels by thriller writer Steven Dunne. Dunne is moving from HarperCollins as part of the deal. The first book entitled Deity, is about five college students who appear to have committed suicide. It will be published in May 2012.

Orion have launched a new imprint. The new imprint to be known as Swordfish will publish a wide range of commercial non-fiction as well as a small selection of fiction. The fiction selection will be aiming for "big, distinctive thrillers". The first fiction title will be Spartan by Matthew Dunn, a début thriller by the ex-MI6 field operative.

Gordon Ferris’s novel The Hanging Shed has received some rave reviews on its early release as an ebook.

However, according to The Daily Record some readers are having problem with The Hanging Shed because they can’t understand the Ayrshire and Glaswegian slang in the novel.

And the Bad news ---

Is that the BBC have decided to axe the excellent crime series Zen. According to the Guardian BBC 1 Controller Danny Cohen has decided not to renew the series despite the excellent reviews that it received. Not sure what this is about as Zen was one of the better crime dramas to be shown earlier this year. It is a shame and I hope that this decision will be reviewed.