2009 Barry Award Nominations

The 2009 Barry Award nominations have been announced by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine and Mystery News. The Barry Awards will be given out at Bouchercon in Indianapolis.

The nominations are as follows:-

BEST NOVEL
Trigger City by Sean Chercover
The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason
Envy the Night by Michael Koryta
Red Knife by William Kent Krueger

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow

BEST FIRST
The Kind One by Tom Epperson
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer
City of the Sun by David Levien
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn D. Wall

BEST BRITISH
A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
Ritual by Mo Hayder
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson
Shatter by Michael Robotham

Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins
Money Shot by Christa Faust
State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy

The Black Path by Asa Larsson

Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski
Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin

BEST THRILLER

Collision by Jeff Abbott
The Deceived by Brett Battles
Finder by Colin Harrison
The Survivor by Tom Cain
Night of Thunder by Stephen Hunter
Good People by Marcus Sakey

BEST SHORT STORY
"The Drought" by James O. Born (The Blue Religion)
"The Fallen" by Jan Burke (August EQMM) "A Trace of a Trace" by Brendan DuBois (At the Scene of the Crime)
"A Killing in Midtown" by G. Miki Hayden (January/February AHMM)
"Proof of Love" by Mick Herron (September/October EQMM)
"The Problem of the Secret Patient" by Edward D. Hoch (May EQMM)

Congratulations to all the nominees!

James Ellroy and Colin Harrison interviewed by Sarah Weinman

Sarah Weinman has an excellent interview that took place between herself, Colin Harrison and James Ellroy on her website. The interview was done during Book Expo American on May 29. It can be found here. I am not sure how long it is going to be up for but I would certainly urge fans of both James Ellroy and Colin Harrison to have a look at it. Sarah does a wonderful job in the interview.

George Pelecanos and David Simon

Best-selling crime writer George Pelecanos and David Simon writer of The Wire will be in conversation on Wednesday 22 July 2009 at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. The event is being organised by Waterstones Gower Street and more information about how to get your hands on tickets can be found here.

For those of you that won't be going to Harrogate this year, this event may be your only opportunity to see these two brilliant writers together.

2009 Nero Award Finalists announced

The Nero Wolf Organisation have announced the finalists of the 2009 Nero Award.

The "Nero" is an annual award presented to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre. The award is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, which is traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City.

This year, the finalists are:

THE DARK TIDE Andrew Gross, Harper Collins
THE TENTH CASE Joseph Teller, MIRA
THE FAULT TREE Louise Ure, Minotaur Books

Rex Stout (1886-1975) was the author of over seventy novels and stories featuring the brilliant, irascible, and corpulent private detective Nero Wolfe, a lover of food, beer, and orchids. Stout was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1959 and his Nero Wolfe stories continue to be popular throughout the world.

The Wolfe Pack has been around since 1978, and celebrates all things Nero Wolfe. For example, the society publishes a semi-annual Gazette and sponsors a variety of activities with Wolfean themes including a regular book discussion group and tours of locations mentioned in the corpus. The group has been holding its annual Black Orchid Banquet for more than thirty years. Congratulations to all the nominees.

Publish Post

Newsy Stuff

Allan Guthrie is interviewed by The Scotsman on everything relating to Edinburgh and other personal stuff. It is interesting to note that Allan and I share the same birthday!

Laura Wilson via the Guardian does a round-up crime novels - The Way Home by George Pelecanos, Ice Cold by Andrea Maria Schenkel, The Information Officer by Mark Mills and Rage by Sergio Bizzio.

The Time Magazine has an interview with best-selling author Janet Evanovich who assures her legion of fans that she hs not got any plans to stop writing the Stephanie Plum series as she is having too much fun.

Publishers Harper Collins are to sponsor a season of crime programmes on Virgin Media Channel, Living. They will use the sponsorship to promote a series of crime and thriller releases across the summer and raise awareness of its bestselling authors.

Orion are due to publish six more books by thriller writer James Rollins.

CWA Dagger Shortlists announced

The Crime Writers Association of Great Britain have announced the short-lists for the CWA International Dagger, The CWA Short Story Dagger, The CWA Dagger in the Library and the CWA Debut Dagger.


Last year the winner of the International Dagger was Dominique Manotti with the Lorraine Connection. Martin Edwards won the Short Story Dagger with his story The Bookbinder's Apprentice. The Dagger in the Library went to Craig Russell while the Debut Dagger was won by Amer Anwar with Western Fringes.

This year The International Dagger certainly has a Scandinavian flair to it with 5 out of the 6 short-listed novels having been written by a Scandinavian author. The only exception is Fred Vargas who has once again been short-listed and who has already won the International Dagger twice. Once in 2007 with Wash this Blood Clean From My Hand and in 2006 with The Three Evangelists.

The Short Story Dagger shortlist has been equally split between UK and US authors and includes a number of well-known names and a relative newcomer to some in the UK scene in the presence of Sean Chercover.

The Dagger in the Library short list covers a wide spectrum which includes the historical, police procedural and thriller sub-genres of crime fiction.

The awards will be given out on July 15 at the Tiger, Tiger Bar, in London. The same evening the short-lists for the Gold Dagger, John Creasey (New Blood) and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger will be announced.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

The Times To Run Shortlists For Dagger Awards

On Saturday, 6 June, The Times will run an exclusive listing of several shortlists for this year's Annual CWA Dagger Awards, the most prestigious crime fiction prize in the world.

The Daggers acknowledge the best in crime writing (including fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, psychological and historical mysteries, first novels, short stories and authors whose work has won the approval of libraries and readers' groups). Not all of the shortlists are yet available, but short commentaries about the nominated books and authors will accompany the listings.

The Times will also run an essay by Barry Forshaw on the history and continuing importance of the Dagger awards.

Martina Cole Article

There is an interesting article on Martina Cole in the Observer. The article was done as a prelude to the showing of the dramatisation of Martina Cole's The Take which starts on 17 June on Sky 1.

Shortlist Announced For 5th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year Award

The shortlist has been announced for the 5th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The award is the only one of its kind to be voted for by the general public it represents the very best in crime writing. and once again represents crime writing from right across the board. The shortlist covers the who's who in the crime fiction world.

The nominees are Death Message by Mark Billingham, The Accident Man by Tom Cain, Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child, Gone to Ground by John Harvey, Ritual by Mo Hayder, Garden of Evil by David Hewson, A Cure for all Diseases by Reginald Hill,The Colour of Blood by Declan Hughes, Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James, Broken Skin by Stuart MacBride, Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid, Exit Music by Ian Rankin, Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson and Savage Moon by Chris Simms.

More information can be found here. Please go and vote!

Rick Mofina Interview

Further to my earlier post about Rick Mofina which can be found here, my interview with Rick can be found on the Shots website here.

Newsy Stuff

Comic Crime writer Christopher Brookmyre has been shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize. Christopher Brookmyre is a previous winner of this award. He won it in 2006 with his novel All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye. This year the nominated book is A Snowball in Hell. See here for further information.

According to the Sunday Times, the former partner of the best selling author Stieg Laarson is currently locked in battle with the family over the crime writer's fortune. See here for further information.

Radio 4 is going to be having a Le Carre-fest as it starts to dramatise all of John Le Carré's eight Smiley novels on the radio. Radio 4 will begin the dramastisation on Radio 4 on Saturday (23 May) with the Call of the Dead. The other books that are due to be dramatised will be A Murder of Quality, The Spy who came in from the Cold The Looking Glass War, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People and the Secret Pilgrim. See here for further information.

Bouchercon 2009 Anthony Award nominations!

And the nominations are out!!! They are as follows:-

Best Novel
Trigger City by Sean Chercover [William Morrow]
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly [Little, Brown and Company]
Red Knife by William Kent Krueger [Atria]
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson [Knopf]
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny [Minotaur]

Best First Novel
Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris [Minotaur]
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer [Doubleday]
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson [Knopf]
Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet [Midnight Ink]
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith [Grand Central]

Best Paperback Original
The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins [Hard Case Crime]
Money Shot by Christa Faust [Hard Case Crime]
State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy [Berkley]
In a Dark Season by Vicki Lane [Dell]
South of Hell by P. J. Parrish [Pocket Star]

Best Short Story
“The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron from Wolfsbane and Mistletoe [Ace]
“A Sleep Not Unlike Death” by Sean Chercover from Hardcore Hardboiled [Kensington]
“Killing Time” by Jane K. Cleland from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (November)
“Skull and Cross Examination” by Toni L. P. Kelner from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (February)
“Scratch a Woman” by Laura Lippman from Hardly Knew Her [William Morrow]
“The Secret Lives of Cats” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (July)

Best Critical Nonfiction Work
African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey [McFarland]
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson [Perseverance Press]
Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography by Jeffrey Marks [McFarland]
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale [Walker & Company]

Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein [Random House]
Paper Towns by John Green [Dutton Juvenile]
Kiss Me, Kill Me by Lauren Henderson [Delacorte]
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart [Little, Brown]
Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash by Wendelin Van Draanen [Knopf]

Best Cover Art
Death Was the Other Woman designed by David Rotstein and written by Linda L. Richards [Minotaur]
Death Will Get You Sober designed by David Rotstein and written by Elizabeth Zelvin [Minotaur]
The Fault Tree designed by David Rotstein and written by Louise Ure [Minotaur]
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo designed by Peter Mendelsund and written by Stieg Larsson [Knopf]
Money Shot designed by Steve Cooley and written by Christa Faust [Hard Case Crime]

Special Service Award
Jon and Ruth Jordan
Ali Karim
David Montgomery
Gary Warren Niebuhr
Sarah Weinman

Registered attendees will vote during Indianapolis Bouchercon where the winners will be announced during a gala awards ceremony on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Huge congratulations to all the nominees.

Shots Team Meet Michael Connelly

Mike Stotter and I would like to thank Ayo for her hard work blogging here, during Crimefest in Bristol.

I’m a tad busy catching up following Crimefest; but just had time to post this photo of Micheal Connelly, and the Shots Team, following our extensive interview over beer and sandwiches. We recommend his latest THE SCARECROW [Orion Publishing], and in case you are not aware additional audio-visual material is available from http://www.michaelconnelly.com/ –

So what’s THE SCARECROW all about?

Jack McEvoy is at the end of the line as a crime reporter. Forced to take a buy-out from the Los Angeles Times as the newspaper grapples with dwindling revenues, he's got only a few days left on the job. His last assignment? Training his replacement, a low-cost reporter just out of journalism school. But Jack has other plans for his exit. He is going to go out with a bang — a final story that will win the newspaper journalism's highest honor — a Pulitzer prize.
Jack focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer from the projects who has confessed to police that he brutally raped and strangled one of his crack clients. Jack convinces Alonzo's mother to cooperate with his investigation into the possibility of her son's innocence. But she has fallen for the oldest reporter's trick in the book. Jack's real intention is to use his access to report and write a story that explains how societal dysfunction and neglect created a 16-year-old killer.

But as Jack delves into the story he soon realizes that Alonzo's so-called confession is bogus, and Jack is soon off and running on the biggest story he's had since

The Poet crossed his path years before. He reunites with FBI Agent Rachel Walling to go after a killer who has worked completely below police and FBI radar—and with perfect knowledge of any move against him.

What Jack doesn't know is that his investigation has inadvertently set off a digital tripwire. The killer knows Jack is coming—and he's ready.

Click Here for an excerpt

Shots Ezine will feature a special interview with Michael Connelly shortly -

Shots would like Gaby Young of Orion Publishing for arranging time with Mike Connelly as we all had a great time [and laughed a great deal].

Incidentally Mike Connelly is a Guest of Honour at Bouchercon Indianapolis – so book now and see you in the bar.

Crimefest 2009 - Part 6

Sadly, this is my last post about Crimefest! I did manage to go to my room just after 3:00am this morning (Sunday 17 May) and finally got to bed at 4:00am. Even Ali left before me and he was then followed by Mike sometime afterwards.

My day of course started once again with me joining Zoe Sharp and Andy for breakfast. Breakfast with the two of them is always such good fun and I hope that I get the opportunity to do so again.

I wasn't surprised that I didn't manage to get to some of the panels on Sunday morning, it wasn't that I was suffering for a hangover it was more that I was too lethargic to do anything quickly. I did however help out very briefly on the registration desk again. Being at the desk is a strategic post and enables one to see and speak to a vast number of people as they are bustling around the corridors as they leave one panel and then go to another or as they stop at the "mini" bookshop.

There was one panel that I was determined to see and from the amount of attendees who were still there it was one that held vast anticipation. For the first time at Crimefest there was a Crimefest Mastermind. Crossfire: Criminal Mastermind was the very last panel of the Convention. The participants were Simon Brett, David Stuart Davis, Martin Edwards and Meg Gardiner. Their chosen subjects were Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie, The Detection Club and American Crime Fiction post 1945. For anyone that is used to watching Mastermind on television then I am sure that you can imagine the scenario. The organisers went to great lengths to re-create the Mastermind set that one normally sees on television down to even having a spotlight that was focused on each of the Mastermind contestants. Even the lights were turned off to give the room that atmospheric feel to it. All the attendees were given the opportunity to suggest who would win and by how many points. The quiz master was Maxim Jakubowski and they could not have chosen a better person to put the contestants through their paces. Simon Brett was the first of the contestants to go under the spotlight and his chosen subject was Dorothy L Sayers. Simon was followed by David Stuart Davis who is acknowledge as an expert on Sherlock Holmes. However he was not allowed to chose Sherlock Holmes and instead chose Agatha Christie. Martin Edwards the third contestant chose The Detection Club whilst Meg Gardiner the Toastmistress for the convention chose American Crime Fiction post 1945. After the first round the results were as follows:-

Simon Brett - 6 points
David Stuart Davis - 7 points
Martin Edwards - 6 points and
Meg Gardiner - 6 points.

Rather sadly neither Mike Stotter nor I could stay until the end as we had to make tracks back to London. I do however know what the results were courtesy of course of Ali Karim. The winner was Martin Edwards, (whilst I had predicted Martin Edwards to win, I believe that I was way out on how many points that he scored) followed by David Stuart Davis, Simon Brett and then Meg Gardiner. The person who managed to accurately predict the winner and points were being given as a prize a full pass to next year's conference. Mike Stotter came second. He predicted that Martin Edwards would win but was two points out when it came to the correct score. I hope that Martin Edwards is going to be back to defend his title.

Sunday had for me a slight tinge of sadness. It was the last day of the conference and it was clear from listening to conversations and talking to people that this was a brilliantly run conference. Like many others I am intending to be back in Bristol next year. The dates for next year are 20-23 May 2010 and Authors already confirmed include - M C Beaton, Natasha Cooper, Colin Dexter, Ariana Franklin and Gyles Brandreth as toastmaster. Also present will be John Curran, author of Agatha Christe and the Mystery of the Secret Notebooks which will be published in September and which will include two previously unpublished Poirot short stories.

Thanks to Adrian and Myles for organising such a wonderful conference. Crimefest may be over for this year but next year's convention can't come soon enough!

Crimefest 2009 - Part 5

My last post was rather brief and as promised I said I would post again! Seriously though this has been an excellent conference and those of us that get to go to them know that one of the best things about conventions is the camaraderie that is part and parcel of it. Think late nights, sometimes getting up late in the morning and generally hanging out in the bar. This time around I have been rather good, so I think anyway. On Thursday I managed to get to bed at 11:30pm, on Friday I got to bed at 2:00pm and Saturday evening/ Sunday morning is still ongoing. I am not sure whether or not I will get to bed before 4:00am. I am going to be shattered tomorrow if I don't go to bed soon.

At the Gala Dinner the Toastmistress Meg Gardiner had the lovely job of introducing the featured guests of honour all of whom spoke briefly and all of whom received a small gift. Amongst those on my table were Lizzie Hayes who runs the group Mystery Women, Maureen Carter, Mary Ann Clarke and Linda Regan all who have books published by Creme de La Crime, Sarah Rayne and Michael Walters who rights police procedurals set in Mongolia. The dinner did not in fact last too long and as can be expected we all converged on the bar immediately. I even managed to find the time to persuade Ali that he should post on twitter the fact that the blog has been updated. I spent most of the evening talking to Zoe Sharp and then later to Kevin Wignall and then Zoe Sharp's ever charming husband Andy. I also got the opportunity to have a quick talk to quite a number of crime writers before they all started wander in off to bed. I finally left the bar at 3:15am in the morning. Tomorrow's panel's look quite interesting! I am not sure at this stage that I am going to make the first panel in the morning I will try but I am not holding out to much hope. I do know however that I will be putting a post on line pretty soon. There is only half a day left.