Strand Magazine Critics Awards Winners

Quarterly crime-fiction and mystery magazine The Strand announced the winners of the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, The Strand Critics Awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges included those from The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press. 

Strand Magazine Critics Award Best Novel Winner

Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)

Nominees:

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)

Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Little Brown)

Her Last Affair by John Searles (Mariner Books)

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Strand Magazine Critics Award Best Debut Winner

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)

Nominees:

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)

Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho)

Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho)

Strand Magazine Critics Award Best Mystery Audiobook winner

The Maid by Nita Prose (Random House Audio)

Nominees

Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)

My Darkest Prayer by S A Cosby (Macmillan Audio)

The Paris Apartment by Lisa Foley (HarperAudio)

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz (HarperAudio)

The Bullet That Missed: Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Penguin Audio)

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper Audio)

Strand Publisher of the Year Award 

Dan Smetanka

Strand Lifetime Achievement Awards: 

James Lee Burke and Lee Child 

Congratulations to all!

James Lee Burke and Lee Child take home Strand Lifetime Achievement Awards

 

Quarterly crime-fiction and mystery magazine The Strand has announced its list of nominees for the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards.

Authors Louise Penny, Michael Connelly, and John Searles headline this year’s nominees for best novel, while Dan Smetanka of Counterpoint Press receives the Publisher of the Year Award. James Lee Burke and Lee Child are both honored with Strand Lifetime Achievement awards.

Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, The Strand Critics Awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges were chosen from The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press.

The 2022 Strand Critics Awards nominees for Best Novel and Best Debut are …

 BEST NOVEL

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)

Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Little Brown)

Her Last Affair by John Searles (Mariner Books)

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)

 

BEST DEBUT 

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)

Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho)

Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho)

Past recipients of The Strand Critics Awards include Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Richard Price, John Banville, Megan Abbot, Sheena Kamal, and William Landay.

“It’s great to see new faces for the best novel award this year,” said Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine. “And Counterpoint Press is an unstoppable publishing house, always releasing interesting and eclectic books. It’s also wonderful to see James Lee Burke and Lee Child getting the recognition they deserve. Both have contributed to the genre in a way that’s unparalleled, and on a personal level they are among the most generous and supportive authors around.”

Adding to an already impressive list of awards, James Lee Burke receives The Strand’s Lifetime Achievement Award. After finding early publishing success in the 1960s and early 70s, Burke’s works were largely ignored for over a decade. However, thanks to his undeniable versatility and talent, and the persistence of his legendary literary agent, Philip Spitzer, Burke’s 1986 novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was finally published to critical acclaim and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Since then, he hasn’t looked back. In a career spanning six decades, he has received continuous praise and comparisons to an illustrious set of authors ranging from Sartre to Hemingway.

“I’m very honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Strand and its publisher Andrew F. Gulli,” Burke said in response to the news. “The term ‘light bearer’ may seem a reach, but it is not. Every good writer has one raison d’etre for his or her art. It is the compulsion to describe a piece of the firmament in a perfect way, one that the reader will never forget. … I cannot tell you how nice it is to receive such a fine award from such a nice group of literary people.”

After writing for television for many years, Lee Child turned his talents to novels. The result? A highly successful career as one of the most popular thriller authors of the last 25 years. His very first novel, The Killing Floor (1997), hit the best-sellers lists and marked the debut of Jack Reacher, who quickly became one of the most iconic action heroes of the thriller genre. The Jack Reacher books have sold millions of copies in dozens of languages around the world and have been successfully adapted into blockbuster films.

“The Strand Magazine has been an absolute icon in our genre since its first issue in 1890,” Child said. “Its history is our history. To be recognized by it for my body of work is an unparalleled honor, which I accept with gratitude—and, to be honest, a touch of imposter syndrome.”

Past lifetime achievement award-winners include Walter Mosley, Heather Graham, Joyce Carol Oates, J.A. Jance, Sandra Brown, Nelson DeMille, Jeffery Deaver, Alexander McCall Smith, and Elmore Leonard.

This year’s recipient of The Strand Magazine’s Publisher of the Year Award is Dan Smetanka, Vice President and Editorial Chief of Counterpoint Press. During his tenure with Counterpoint Press, Smetanka has presided over record growth and distribution, launched critically acclaimed books by authors such as Tod Goldberg, Peter Houlahan, Dana Johnson, and John Verdon, and has also been instrumental in reviving the works of Eve Babitz. Based in Southern California and describing themselves as “an author-driven publishing house” centering on new literary voices, the team at Counterpoint is part of a movement of publishers like Blackstone, Sourcebooks, Bancroft Press, and Camcat Books that are helping to transform and diversify the industry. Moreover, Smetanka has been described as an editor’s editor. Unafraid to take risks, he is beloved by his authors for his hands-on approach and sharp attention to even the smallest details.

“Thank you so much for this incredible recognition of our work here at Counterpoint,” Smatenka said.

“We are all so grateful to you and the Strand for your support of writers and their work and I look forward to celebrating with the finalists this year.”

Past recipients of the Strand Publisher of the Year Award include Tom Doherty, Morgan Entrekin, Josh Stanton, and Bronwen Hruska.

The Strand Critics Awards will be held virtually in September 2023.

Strand Magazine Critics Awards

 

Strand Magazine Critics Awards were announced on 19^th September 2022. 

Best Mystery Debut (2021)

Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka, Translated by Sam Malissa (Harry Abrams) 

Best Mystery Novel (2021)

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books) 

Publisher of the Year

Morgan Entrekin, President and Publisher of Grove/Atlantic Inc. in New York City.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Sandra Brown

Nelson DeMille

Congratulations to all!

Strand Magazine Critics Award

The Strand Magazine announced the winners of the 2019 Strand Critics Awards last night at a cocktail party in New York City.

The winners are as follows -

Best Mystery Novel: Tie
Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins)

Best Debut Mystery Novel:
The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor  (Crown)

The Strand also announced the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Awards: 

Heather Graham and Donna Leon. 

Also named was Dominique Raccah, the publisher/CEO of Sourcebooks, as its Publisher of the Year Award.

Criminal Snippets

With a three part series of The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad being shown on BBC 1 starting on 17^th July 2016 there is a timely piece in the Guardian by Mark Lawson.  The whole article can be read here. You can also here Toby Jones talking about it in a trailer below.

Huge congratulations go to Attica Locke who has won the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction with her novel Pleasantville.  The full press release can be read here.  Attica Locke is the sixth winner of the prize.

The ITW have announced the winners of the 2016 Thriller Awards.  They are as follows –

Best Hardcover Novel: The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell (Simon & Schuster)
Best First Novel: Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich (Putnam)
Best Paperback Original: Against All Enemies by John Gilstrap (Pinnacle)
Best Short Story: "Gun Accident: An Investigation," by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 2015)
Best Young Adult Novel: Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud (Viking)
Best E-Book Original: The Prisoner’s Gold by Chris Kuzneski (Chris Kuzneski)
2016 ThrillerMaster Award Recipient: Heather Graham
2016 Silver Bullet Award Recipient: John Lescroart 

The Strand Magazine announced the winners for the 2016 Strand Magazine Critics Awards on July 06 in New York. They are as follows:

Best Novel: The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt (Henry Holt)
Best First Novel: Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton (HarperCollins)
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients: Colin Dexter and Jeffery Deaver 

With the rise of literary crime novels Barry Forshaw picks his favourites in the Independent.

In film news according to Bleeding Cool it seems as if Chris Hemsworth will be returning in Star Trek 4.  Read more here.

According to Deadline.com, Sundance TV have renewed Hap and Leonard for a second season. The series is based on the crime novel series by Joe Lansdale and centres on Hap Collins (James Purefoy), a former '60s idealist and an ex-con, and Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams), a gay Vietnam vet.

The Decider.com have released what they consider to be the top ten crime shows of the Millennium.  The full list can be read here but I will say that it does include Fargo.

With Bouchercon two months away the Bouchercon Conference have made all of the Anthony Award Best Short Story finalist entries available for reading online. The stories can be read here.

The Publishers Weekly have published John Verdon’s 10 best whodunits.  The whole list can be read here. Congratulations to all the authors (dead and alive) who are on the list but this is a very interesting list indeed especially since it lacks any diversity whatsoever.  A list of white male authors! Did they forget that women have also written some very good whodunits.  No women and I am not sure how you can leave out Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I think the list needs to be re-written.

ITV have commissioned a six-part murder Mystery Thriller Loch Ness.  More information can be found here. Loch Ness is written by Stephen Brady (Fortitude, Vera, Silent Witness).

ITV have also snapped up the Lethal Weapon television series which features Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford.

According to Publishing Perspectives Amazon have also launched a crime imprint in Germany.  Called Edition M it will focus on German language crime titles.

According to the Bookseller Tami Hoag has signed a 2 book deal with Trapeze Books.  Hoag’s The Boy will be published in Summer 2017 and revisits the characters and setting of her "chilling" thriller A Thin Dark Line, set in the Louisiana Bayou.  They have also signed a series of crime novels set in the Channel Islands by debut novelist Lara Dearman.  More information can be read here.

HQ is to publish a Hitchcock-inspired debut thriller titled White Bodies by journalist and author Jane Robins according to the Bookseller.  More information can be read here.

Awards - Strand Magazine Critics Award and the Maltese Falcon Prize

The 2014 Strand Magazine Critics Awards: “recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction.” were presented at a cocktail party on Wednesday 8 July 2015.

Best Novel: The Fever, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown) and After I’m Gone, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel: Dear Daughter, by Elizabeth Little (Viking)

Otto Penzler received The Strand’s Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to the crime genre.

Maltese Falcon Prize -

The 2015 Maltese Falcon Prize went to Roger Hobbs for his debut novel Ghost Man (2013). The Maltese Falcon Prize is awarded by Japan's crime-fiction Maltese Falcon Society to "the best hard-boiled/private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year."

Congratulations to all the winners.

Hat tip Janet Rudolph/Mystery Fanfare

Talking Pleasantville and Empire with Attica Locke

Attica Locke © Ayo Onatade April 2015

Attica Locke is the author of three novels.  Her first novel Black Water Rising was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar Award, a NAACP Image Award and a Strand Magazine Critics Award. It was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Award.  It also introduced readers to lawyer Jay Porter.  Her second novel The Cutting Season won the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence was long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize and was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.  Her latest book is Pleasantville and sees the return of Jay Porter now and environmental lawyer. In this interview she talks about the new book and being a writer on the hit series Empire!

Ayo:   For those who have not yet read Pleasantville – could you give a brief       explanation of what it is about?

Attica: In 1996, during a contentious mayoral race in Houston, Texas, a block-walker – the people who leave fliers for candidates at your doorstep – goes missing in the tiny hamlet of Pleasantville, in northeast Houston.  Jay Porter, who has become an environmental lawyer, represents the neighbourhood in a lawsuit against a chemical company, gets sucked into the case when the relative of a prominent Pleasantville family is accused of having something to do with the crime.  Jay eventually defends the man in court, a case that inadvertently dissects a crooked election.

Ayo:   What made you decide to go back to the character of Jay Porter in what is in essence a sequel to your brilliant debut novel Black Water Rising?

Attica: In truth, I resisted writing a “sequel.”  I thought Jay’s story was done.  But then my father ran for mayor of Houston in 2009, and I got to see a part of the political process that not many get to see up close, and I was fascinated by the ugliness of politics and devastated at the same time.  I knew I wanted to write about an election in Houston.  Still, I was going to write that book from another character’s point of view.  But the more I realized that the book would be looking in some ways deal with the on-going contradictions around race in America, post-civil rights movement, the more I realized that Jay was the right character through which to tell the story.

Ayo:   In Pleasantville Jay Porter of course finds himself back in court.  He really didn’t want to be there as he is dealing with lots of other issues. Was this deliberate?

Attica: Yes.  One of the things that made me wary of writing a “sequel” was the fear that readers would want an experience identical to Black Water Rising.  I wanted it to be a different book and Jay to be a different man.  But I also had to give him real challenges to overcome.  The changes in his personal life are a part of that.  And they mirror changes in my own life.  I wanted Jay to again have to force himself to stand up and speak for what’s right.

Ayo:   There is a lot of history about Pleasantville in Houston.  Is there a specific reason why you decided to write about it?

Attica: I grew up in Houston, but didn’t know the neighbourhood of Pleasantville until my father ran for mayor in 2009.  I went to a candidate forum there – in what at the time was a middle class neighbourhood a little worse for the wear.  I didn’t understand why every candidate was coming to Pleasantville figuratively on their knees begging for votes.  What was so special about this place?  When I learned the history of the place, then I understood.  Pleasantville was founded in 1949 as a planned community for Negro families of means, one of the first its kind in the United States.  Doctors, teachers, engineers, and lawyers moved in, some able to own their own homes for the first time.  The building of the neighbourhood also created a brand new voting district in the middle of the state.  Pleasantville since its inception has had a rich history of civic engagement.  In fact their precinct has been nicknamed “the might 259^th” by politicians who come courting for their votes every election cycle.  There’s a quote that opens the book that appeared in the Houston Chronicle, “Every politician worth his salt knows the road to elected office goes through Pleasantville.”

Ayo:   Politics plays a huge part in this novel, do you have any strong political views and if so did any of them manage to find their way into your novel?

Attica: I think anyone who reads the book – or any of my books for that matter – will know my politics swing hard to the left.  Politics are in everything I do, naturally.  I am interested in the distribution of power, in every way.  And it comes out naturally in what I write.

Ayo:   Was there any specific reason you decided to set it in 1996?

Attica: 1996 was right after The Houston Post folded, and the city became the first major

metropolis in America to have only one newspaper.  I strongly feel that my father’s election was affected by the fact that there was only one newspaper in the city.  They got to control the narrative of the election and there was never a counter view.

Ayo:   Do you enjoy writing about your home town Houston and do you think Jay Porter would make of Houston now?

Attica: I love writing about Houston.  As for how Jay would feel about the city now, I may have to write a book to find out.

Attica Locke and Ayo Onatade © Ayo Onatade April 2015

Ayo:   You have been heavily involved in Empire as co-producer and writer.  How did this come about and how pleased are you about the huge success it has been?

Attica: I was a Hollywood screenwriter for years before I wrote a novel.  I was very good at getting paid well to write movies that never got made.  The difficulty of making movies is part of the reason I started writing books.  During that time, I watched as TV has consistently gotten more and more interesting, and the kind of movies I wanted to make – grown-up dramas, political thrillers, great character studies – those stories have all moved to TV.  That’s where some of the most interesting work in Hollywood is right now.  I told my agents, “I want to play to.”  I went on a lot of meetings and read a lot of scripts, and Empire was a standout from the first page of the pilot script.  I went to lots of meetings with the executive producers and the studio and then I got the job.  It has been one of the most fun experiences of my life.

Ayo:   What is the best thing for you being a writer on this show?

Attica: The writers’ room.  Everyone makes me laugh.  I’ve made friends for life.

Ayo:   You have managed to have several cameos from a number of really well known musical artists.  How have you managed the challenges when it comes to the music and how have you decided which artists to have cameos?  You have had for example Mary J Blige and Jennifer Hudson on the show.

Attica: In the beginning, Timbaland and Lee Daniels called in a lot of favours.  No one knew the show would blow up like it has.  So no one was necessarily knocking down our doors. But I think once people heard the music that was being produced and word got around, artists were calling us to be on the show.  The music is one of the bigger challenges on the show.  It’s all original and the actors have to record while also shooting the show.  It’s to the credit of Timbaland and Jim Beanz that working under incredible time constraints they created such incredible music.

Ayo:   Timbaland and Jim Beanz are heavily involved with the music for Empire and the soundtrack for season 1 has just been released. Does the music encompass all that you think it should and do you have any favourite tracks.

Attica: I love the music.  I listen to it at the gym.  I am incredibly impressed with Timbaland and Jim Beanz’s ability to take a few sentences, snippet of an idea, from the writers and create music that adds another emotional layer to the storytelling.  They are geniuses, pure and simple.  Favourite songs: Conqueror, Remember the Music, Drip Drop and Keep it Movin’.

Ayo:   One of things about Empire which some people might miss is the social issues that it also deals with like homophobia and abuse.  Was this intentional?

Attica: That was in the pilot script and dealt with in a way I had never seen before in the pilot episode.  It’s in the DNA of the show.  Lee Daniels has said that some of the storyline about young Jamal and his father’s rejection of him is taken from his own life.

Ayo:   Any hints that you can reveal about season 2 of Empire?

Attica: My lips are sealed.

Ayo:   Aside from Empire, what are you working on next?

Attica: Being a mom and a dreaming up my next book.

Pleasantville –

Fifteen years after the events in Black Water Rising, Jay Porter is struggling to cope with catastrophic changes in his personal life and the disintegration for his environmental law practice. His victory against Cole Oil is still the crown jewel of his career, even if he hasn’t yet seen a dime, thanks to appeals. But time has taken its toll. Tired and restless, he’s ready to quit.

When a girl goes missing on election night, 1996, in the neighbourhood of Pleasantville – a hamlet for upwardly mobile blacks on the north side of Houston – single father Jay is deeply disturbed. He’s been representing Pleasantville in the wake of a chemical fire, and the case is dragging on, raising doubts about his ability.

The missing girl was a volunteer for one of the local mayoral candidates, and her disappearance complicates an already heated campaign. When the nephew of a candidate, a Pleasantville local, is arrested, Jay reluctantly finds himself serving as a defense attorney. With a man’s life and his own reputation on the line, Jay is about to try his first murder in a case that will also put the electoral process on trial, exposing the dark side of power and those determined to keep it

More information about Attica Locke and her books can be found on her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter @atticalocke and find her on Facebook.  

A review of Pleasantville can be found here.

Pleasantville by Attica Locke is out on 16^th April 2015 £14.99 (Serpent’s Tail)

Interview ©Ayo Onatade/ Shots April 2015