Bouchercon Report

Among other things that happen at Bouchercon, quite a few awards are announced. Congratulations to all the winners.

Anthony Awards – chosen by Bouchercon participants

Best Novel: Louise Penny, THE BRUTAL TELLING (Minotaur)
Best First Novel: Sophie Littlefield, A BAD DAY FOR SORRY (Minotaur)
Best Paperback Original: Bryan Gruley, STARVATION LAKE (Touchstone)
Best Short Story: Hank Phillippi Ryan, "On the House," from QUARRY: Crime Stories by New England Writers (Level Best Books)
Best Critical Nonfiction: P. D. James, TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION (Alfred A. Knopf)

Barry Awards – chosen by readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine

Best Novel: John Hart, THE LAST CHILD (Minotaur)
Best First Novel: Alan Bradley, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (Delacorte)
Best British Novel: Philip Kerr, IF THE DEAD RISE NOT (Quercus)
Best Paperback Original: Bryan Gruley, STARVATION LAKE (Touchstone)
Best Thriller: Jamie Freveletti, RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL
Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade: Stieg Larsson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Knopf)
Best Short Story: Brendan DuBois, "The High House Writer," from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July–August 2009
Don Sandstrom Award for Literary Achievement in Mystery Fandom: Len & June Moffatt; Captain Bob Napier

Crimespree Awards – chosen by readers of Crimespree magazine

Favorite Book of 2009: Charlie Huston, THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH (Ballantine)
Favorite First Book of 2009: Andrew Grant, EVEN
Best Book in an Ongoing Series for 2009: Greg Rucka, WALKING DEAD (Bantam)
The Jack Reacher Award, given to "an author who someone we would recommend to everyone we meet and is also great to their fans and gives back to the mystery community": Val McDermid

Shamus Awards – chosen by the Private Eye Writers of America

Best Hardcover P.I. Novel: Marcia Muller, LOCKED IN (Grand Central)
Best First P.I. Novel: Brad Parks, FACES OF THE GONE (Minotaur)
Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel: Ira Berkowitz, SINNER'S BALL (Three Rivers Press)
Best P.I. Short Story: Dave Zeltserman, "Julius Katz," from Ellery Queen' Mystery Magazine, September/October 2009
Best P.I. Character: Sharon McCone
Lifetime Achievement Award: Robert Crais

Editing is less frightening than rewriting, so edit more often . . .

It seems that last week* most everyone was concerned about rewriting. A necessary evil, I agree, but there are different ways to approach it. I haven’t figured out how to avoid rewriting (other than being perfect and I leave that to those few who are) but I have, over the years, avoided what, I believe, Mike* called a major rewrite.

I am a slow writer. On very good days, I do more than a thousand words, other days two hundred. I average in between those numbers. And then there are days that the blank screen is more than I can stand and write nothing new. Writer’s block? Naw. Laziness, maybe. What it usually proves to be is that I subconsciously have a problem with something I’ve written and don’t know it, yet. My subconscious has concerns I just haven’t caught up with.

Every morning before starting from where I left off, I reread what I wrote the day before. It is amazing how often I find a typo (Spell check you say? I must have fooled it!) or an incomplete thought. Always something. I go about fixing it. That’s my first, short form of rewriting but I like to call it editing.

So, the day arrives and I can not move forward. I go back to the beginning and start to read. Along the way, I often realize what I had in mind when I wrote the early chapter doesn’t happen, or happens differently than I thought later on in the story. Or, something in later chapter happens that needs to be explained or foreshadowed in an earlier chapter. I go back and I correct the problem and, I guess, you’d call it rewriting. I like to think of it as editing.

I am on the fourth book in my Mick Murphy Key West Mystery series. In my third book I began using Saturday morning to reread everything I’ve written that week. There is always something wrong or in need of correction. I rewrite it or edit it, whatever. I am continuing that in the new book.

It is amazing how often I make changes in early chapters because I now know what’s a head! And then . . . well, let me tell you about how the ending of my second book, Free Range Institution, came about.

I am at the end, almost 400 pages, and I realize the killings needed to save Mad Mick can’t happen the way I first thought, the way I planned 400 pages ago. After everything that had happened in the story it wasn’t a realistic ending and I didn’t want an ending that didn’t ring true or at least plausible just to end. I smoked a cigar (outside) and maybe sipped some of God’s nectar (Jameson on the rocks) and came up with nothing. I went back inside and began reading from chapter one. It was a late night and I had better things to do, but I read.

Before I was half way through, I found a chapter where four of my characters talked around a kitchen table and the discussion led to killing. (You know I am not going to tell you the whole story because you’d know the ending and wouldn’t buy my book! Hell, I wouldn’t buy a book I knew the ending to before I’d read it.)

Back to the topic, as soon as I finished reading that chapter (maybe even before, but I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging) I knew what the ending had to be! Somewhere in the dark, deep recesses of my weary brain I had foreshadowed the ending without even knowing it earlier in the story! I went to the last chapter and with an adrenaline rush of pride and satisfaction, I wrote the ending and still made it to the Hog’s Breath to hear the Carter Brother’s band and Schooner Wharf before last call! It was the only way I could think to thank my brain, there ain’t no doggy treats for the brain. There should be.

Anyway, I handle the rewriting and editing together. It saves me from any major rewriting after I’ve finished. It’s been that way so far and I hope it continues. I think of it more as editing because so much of what I correct or add is small – a sentence or paragraph. Rewriting is a scary thought after you’ve put down 90,000 words.

I should end by saying after I’m done the manuscript goes into the draw for a month and then I go through it again and do more editing. I also let a few friends and/or experts read it for corrections and Jim Linder, retired military intelligence, corrects my mistakes with drug smugglers, boats, airplanes and weapons.

I call it editing because if I wanted to be scared I’d read more Steven King novels!

Do you have a trick to make rewriting easier? Share it, please, share it!

*To fully understand this blog, you have to read www.writeonthewater.com. This is a blog by writers who live or have lived on a boat. I am, on occasion, a guest blogger and this blog appeared on writeonthewater.com on Sept. 14, 2010. If you are a writer, a wannabe writer or interested in boating, check the blog out.

Grammar is changing

Writers, both published and unpublished, continue to learn their craft everyday.

Sometimes we, as writers, overlook the few good books available that explain the rules of how and what we do. I don’t mean the glut of books that tells you how to write the best selling novel. Nope. I am talking about the books that explain the rules and even how to break them and how the rules are changing, being challenged.

I have talked a few times at the college library and other events about writing. I have always brought three books with me. Jack Hart’s “A Writer’s Coach,” Roy Peter Clark’s “Writing Tools,” and Steve King’s “On Writing.”

The first two books explain writing – journalist and novelist – by examining style and rules and the why-and-wherefore of the rules. Both books have been of great value to me as both a journalist and mystery writer.

King’s book, of course, tells the reader the procedures for writing that work for him. Most of them work for me. I suggest, in my talk, that these books will help anyone interested in fiction or journalism.

Clark is a scholar and vice president at the Poytner Institute, one of the most prestigious schools for journalist in the world. He writers a column for the Poytner newsletter called “Writing Tools” and his book by the same name is made up of those columns. I read the column, save them actually, so I can read them again.

God, it is said, loves drunks, fools, and Irishmen and I am batting a thousand. Late last week I emailed Clark and asked if he was going to publish the current columns in book form. He replied that his new book, The Glamour of Grammar, would be out in a week and was reviewed in the coming Sunday New York Time Review of Books. I ordered Clark’s new book before I read the review. My copy of the Time’s book review section usually comes before Sunday, via mail. I got it Friday and the review was outstanding. As I expected.

The book came Monday and I have begun reading it. I was not the best English student in high school – OK, I was lucky to get by with a C- – but if they taught English using Clark’s book as a text I might’ve been an A+ English student!

Get the title of some of his chapters: Enjoy, rather than fear, words that sound alike; Learn seven ways to invent words; Use the period to determine emphasis and space; Use the semicolon as a ‘swinging gate.’ The list goes on.

Just as the publishing world is changing, so is the world of grammar. Some fight the changes and some, like Clark, cherish the challenges the change brings.

I recommend “The Glamour of Grammar” to anyone that wants to write and understand the why and how to use grammar for today. I will be adding it to my traveling book collection, if I am eve asked to speak again.

It is also good to finally realize that while Mr. Carlin may have done his best to flunk me in his high school English class, Mr. Clark might have given me a B, maybe even a B+, if he had been teaching.

Google Poytner Institute and you too can get its almost daily report that runs Roy Peter Clark’s column, "Writing Tools." Catch up with the future.

2010 Spinetinger Award Winners

2010 Spinetingler Award Winners

This year’s turnout was greater then last years with a total of 4812 votes cast. That’s a huge increase from last year and we’ve seen growth every year. I think I speak for all of us here at Spinetingler when I say we’re glad to see more people participate in them and we have room for a lot more. We hope you enjoyed the awards as much as we did pulling them together. Hopefully at least one of the nominees made you curious enough to check it out because for us that’s the greatest reward.

You all did this. And you did something good.

Thank you and see you next year.

Winners are after the jump and are bolded

Best Novel: New Voice

A Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (D)
Balzac of the Badlands by Steve Finbow (D)
Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya (D)
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (D)
I-5 by Summer Brenner
In Their Blood by Sharon Potts (D)
The Lost Sister by Russel D. McLean
Mixed Blood by Roger Smith (D)
Ravens by George Dawes Green
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (D)

Best Novel: Rising Star category

50 Grand by Adrian McKinty
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Devil’s Staircase by Helen Fitzgerald
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Last Days by Brian Evenson
Safer by Sean Doolittle

Best Novel: Legend

The Complaints by Ian Rankin
The Midnight Room by Ed Gorman
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
Shadow Season by Tom Piccirilli
Tower by Reed Farrel Coleman & Ken Bruen

Best Short Story on the Web

M-N-S (n) murder-necrophilia-suicide by Anonymous 9 from Plots with Guns
Flesh Rule by Frank Bill from Plots with Guns
Blurred Lines by Michael Moreci from A Twist of Noir
Survival Instincts by Sandra Seamans from Pulp Pusher
At Least I felt Something by Sophie Littlefield from The Drowning Machine
My Father’s Son by Alan Griffiths from A Twist of Noir
The Present by Mark Joseph Kiewlak from A Twist Of Noir
Insatiable by Hilary Davidson from Beat to a Pulp
A Wild and Crazy Night by John Kenyon from Beat to a Pulp
The Tut by Paul D Brazill from Beat to a Pulp

Best Mystery or Crime Comic/Graphic Novel

Back to Brooklyn by Garth Ennis, Jimmy Palmiotti & Mihailo Vukelic from Image
Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry from Metropolitan Books
Chew by John Layman & Rob Guillory from Image
Leo Pulp by Claudo Nizzi & Massimo Bonfatti from IDW
Low Moon by Jason from Fantagraphics Books
Noir by Various authors by Dark Horse
Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke from IDW
Scalped by Jason Aaron & R. M. Guéra from Vertigo
West Coast Blues by Jacques Tardi & Jean-Patrick Manchette from Fantagraphic Books
You Have Killed Me by Jamie Rich & Joelle Jones from Oni Press

Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint

Bitter Lemon Press
Busted Flush Press
New Pulp Press
Serpent’s Tail
Soho
Switchblade

Special Services to the Industry & Community

The Big Adios
Bookgasm
Crimeculture
Friday’s Forgotten Books
My Little Corner

Best Reviewer

Jen Forbus
Lesa Holstine
The Nerd of Noir
Peter Rozovsky
Cory Wilde

Best Cover

Slammer – Cover design by Patrick Barry. Cover photograph by David Job/Gettyimages
The Manual of Detection – Designed by Meighan Cavanaugh
Poisonville – Graphic design by Emanuele Ragnisco
Finch – Illustration and design by John Coulthart
I-5 – Cover illustration by Roderick Constance. Designed by Courtney Utt
Inherent Vice – Jacket design – Tal Goretsky/Darren Haggar. Jacket image – Darshan Zenith/Cruiser Art
The Longshot – Horitaka’s knuckles tattooed by Dan Wysuph. Cover photograph by John Agcaoili
Nobody Move – Case illustration – Philip Earl Pascuzzo. Jacket design – Susan Mitchell
Peepshow – Cover illustration and design JT Lindroos.
The Hunch – Art – Richard Watts. Design Steve Hussy

Related posts:

1. 2010 Spinetingler Award: Best Short Story on the Web nominees
2. 2010 Spinetingler Award Nominees and Poll
3. 2009 Spinetingler Awards winners
4. 2008 Spinetingler Award winners
5. The artists and designers for the covers nominated for a Spinetingler Award

Agath Nominees

Congratulations to the Agatha nominees! The organizers of Malice Domestic have announced this year's nominees for the Agatha Awards, to be presented at Malice Domestic 22 in Arlington, VA, April 30–May 2, 2010. The awards honor the "traditional" mystery, and conference registrants vote for the winners. This year's nominees are:

Best Novel
SWAN FOR THE MONEY by Donna Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur)
BOOKPLATE SPECIAL by Lorna Barrett (Berkley Prime Crime)
ROYAL FLUSH by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)
A BRUTAL TELLING by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
AIR TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan (MIRA)

Best First Novel
FOR BETTER FOR MURDER by Lisa Bork (Midnight Ink)
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley (Delacorte Press)
POSED FOR MURDER by Meredith Cole (St. Martin's Minotaur)
THE COLD LIGHT OF MOURNING by Elizabeth Duncan (St. Martin's Press)
IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

Best Nonfiction
DUCHESS OF DEATH by Richard Hack (Phoenix Books)
TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION by P.D. James (Knopf)
BLOOD ON THE STAGE BY 1925–1950 by Amnon Kabatchnik (Scarecrow Press)
DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS by Elena Santangelo (Bella Rosa Books)
THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin's Press)

Best Short Story
"Femme Sole" by Dana Cameron, BOSTON NOIR (Akashic Books)
"Handbaskets, Drawers and a Killer Cold" by Kaye George, Crooked ezine
"The Worst Noel" by Barb Goffman, THE GIFT OF MURDER (Wolfmont Press)
"On the House" by Hank Phillippi Ryan, QUARRY (Level Best Books)
"Death Will Trim Your Tree" by Elizabeth Zelvin, THE GIFT OF MURDER (Wolfmont Press)

Best Children's/Young Adult
THE MORGUE AND ME by John C. Ford (Viking Juvenile)
THE HANGING HILL by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)
THE CASE OF THE POISONED PIG by Lewis B. Montgomery (Kane Press)
THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE by Valerie O. Patterson (Clarion Books)
THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer (Philomel)

Thanks to the Mysterious Bookstore for posting the information.

(Follow them on Twitter: @mysterybooks)
(Be a Mystery Bookstore fan on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/The-Mystery-Bookstore/308573871 87?ref=ts)

Mystery Book Award Season

It's the beginning of awards season in the mystery book world, and we're excited to see so many of our friends and neighbors on the lists.

The first set of awards given out this spring are the Leftys, awarded at Left Coast Crime right here in Los Angeles March 11 14. The Mystery Bookstore is proud to be the official bookseller for Left Coast Crime: Booked in LA [http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2010/], which will take place at the Omni Hotel downtown. This year's guests of honor are Jan Burke and Lee Child; the fan guest of honor is Janet Rudolph, director of Mystery Readers International and editor of the Mystery Readers Journal; and the toastmaster is our pal Bill Fitzhugh. It's not too late to register – hope to see you there!

What follows are lists of the award nominations announced in the last month. Most, if not all, of these titles are available from The Mystery Bookstore, often in signed first editions; email or call us to see if we have copies of the nominees you haven't read yet.

LEFT COAST CRIME AWARDS

The Lefty – recognizing a humorous mystery

Donna Andrews, SWAN FOR THE MONEY
Mike Befeler, LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER
Denise Dietz, STRANGLE A LOAF OF ITALIAN BREAD
Rita Lakin, GETTING OLD IS A DISASTER
Kris Neri, HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE

The Bruce Alexander – recognizing an historical mystery set before 1950, given at every Left Coast Crime Convention:

Tasha Alexander, TEARS OF PEARL
Rhys Bowen, IN A GILDED CAGE
Rebecca Cantrell, A TRACE OF SMOKE
Gary Phillips, FREEDOM'S FIGHT
Jeri Westerson, SERPENT IN THE THORNS

The Panik – recognizing LA noir in honor of LCC's deceased Chairman, Paul Anik, given this year only at Left Coast Crime 2010:

Gar Anthony Haywood, CEMETERY ROAD
Gregg Hurwitz, TRUST NO ONE
Linda Richards, DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE
Stephen J. Schwartz, BOULEVARD

DILYS AWARDS

Presented annually by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association to the mystery title of the year that member booksellers most enjoyed selling. The Dilys Award is named in honor of Dilys Winn, founder of Murder Ink, the nation s first specialty mystery bookstore. This year s prize will be awarded at Left Coast Crime, in March. It shouldn t surprise anyone that most of these books were staff selections and/or year-end favorites here at The Mystery Bookstore.

Alan Bradley, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
R.J. Ellroy, A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS
Craig Johnson, THE DARK HORSE
Stieg Larsson, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
Stuart Neville, THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST
Louise Penny, THE BRUTAL TELLING
S.J. Rozan, THE SHANGHAI MOON

EDGAR AWARDS

Presented by The Mystery Writers of America at an annual banquet in April, the Edgar awards recognize excellence in the field of crime writing, and are chosen by judging panels composed of MWA members. The 64th Edgar Awards Banquet is scheduled for April 29, 2010, in New York City.

Best Novel Tim Gautreaux, THE MISSING
Kathleen George, THE ODDS
John Hart, THE LAST CHILD
Charlie Huston, MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH
Jo Nesbø, NEMESIS
Malla Nunn, A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE

Best First Novel by an American Author
David Cristofano, THE GIRL SHE USED TO BE
Bryan Gruley, STARVATION LAKE
Heather Gudenkauf, THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE
Sophie Littlefield, A BAD DAY FOR SORRY
Attica Locke, BLACK WATER RISING
Stefanie Pintoff, IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM

Best Paperback Original
Megan Abbott, BURY ME DEEP
Robert Arellano, HAVANA LUNAR
Russell Hill, THE LORD GOD BIRD
Marc Strange, BODY BLOWS
L. C. Tyler, THE HERRING-SELLER S APPRENTICE

Best Critical/Biographical
P.D. James, TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION
Otto Penzler, ed.; THE LINEUP: THE WORLD S GREATEST CRIME WRITERS TELL THE INSIDE STORY OF THEIR GREATEST DETECTIVES
Lisa Rogak, HAUNTED HEART: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STEPHEN KING
Joan Schenkar, THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith
Bev Vincent, THE STEPHEN KING ILLUSTRATED COMPANION

Best Short Story
"Last Fair Deal Gone Down" by Ace Atkins, from CROSSROAD BLUES
"Femme Sole" by Dana Cameron, from BOSTON NOIR
"Digby, Attorney at Law" by Jim Fusilli, from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"Animal Rescue" by Dennis Lehane, from BOSTON NOIR
"Amapola" by Luis Alberto Urrea, from PHOENIX NOIR

Best Juvenile
THE CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY by Mac Barnett
THE RED BLAZER GIRLS: THE RING OF ROCAMADOUR by Michael D. Beil
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON by Mary Downing Hahn
CREEPY CRAWLY CRIME by Aaron Reynolds
THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer

Best Young Adult
REALITY CHECK by Peter Abrahams
IF THE WITNESS LIED by Caroline B. Cooney
THE MORGUE AND ME by John C. Ford
PETRONELLA SAVES NEARLY EVERYONE by Dene Low
SHADOWED SUMMER by Saundra Mitchell

Best Television Episode Teleplay
"Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston)
"Strike Three" – The Closer, Teleplay by Steven Kane (Warner Bros TV for TNT)
"Look What He Dug Up This Time" – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)
"Grilled" – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony)
"Living the Dream" – Dexter, Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award
"A Dreadful Day" by Dan Warthman, from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

Grand Master
Dorothy Gilman

Raven Awards
Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers' Festival

Ellery Queen Award
Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald)

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award
S. J. Bolton, AWAKENING
Blaize Clement, CAT SITTER ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Hallie Ephron, NEVER TELL A LIE
Nadia Gordon, LETHAL VINTAGE
Susan Kandel, DIAL H FOR HITCHCOCK

Thanks to the Mystery Bookstore

1036-C Broxton Avenue

Los Angeles, California 90024

for the update.

www. mystery-bookstore.com

Phone: 310/209-0415 | 800/821-9017
Fax: 310/209-0436

2010 Edgar Nominees

And the Nominees are... Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce on the 201st anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2009. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at our 64th Gala Banquet, April 29, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City. BEST NOVEL The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books) The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books) Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Random House - Ballantine Books) Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins) A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books) BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing) Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone) The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA Books) A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books) Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (HarperCollins) In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books) BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster) Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano (Akashic Books) The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Books) Body Blows by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press – Castle Street Mysteries) The Herring-Seller’s Apprentice by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press) BEST FACT CRIME Columbine by Dave Cullen (Hachette Book Group - Twelve) Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster) The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide by Dick Lehr (HarperCollins) Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (The Penguin Press) Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company) Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak (Thomas Dunne Books) The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press) The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press) BEST SHORT STORY "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" – Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins (Busted Flush Press) "Femme Sole" – Boston Noir by Dana Cameron (Akashic Books) "Digby, Attorney at Law" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Jim Fusilli (Dell Magazines) "Animal Rescue" – Boston Noir by Dennis Lehane (Akashic Books "Amapola" – Phoenix Noir by Luis Alberto Urrea (Akashic Books) BEST JUVENILE The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf) Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books) Creepy Crawly Crime by Aaron Reynolds (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers) The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers Group – Philomel Books) BEST YOUNG ADULT Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperTeen) If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press) The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking Children’s Books) Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books) Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press) BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY "Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston) "Strike Three" – The Closer, Teleplay by Steven Kane (Warner Bros TV for TNT) "Look What He Dug Up This Time" – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks) "Grilled" – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony) "Living the Dream" – Dexter, Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime) ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD "A Dreadful Day" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Dan Warthman (Dell Magazines) GRAND MASTER Dorothy Gilman RAVEN AWARDS Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers’ Festival ELLERY QUEEN AWARD Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald) THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD (Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 28, 2010) Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books) Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement (Minotaur Books) Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins – William Morrow) Lethal Vintage by Nadia Gordon (Chronicle Books) Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel (HarperCollins) click here