Skip to main content

Anthony, Barry, Duncan

In the, unfortunately, prolonged absence through the end of May and early June I missed making some timely comments about all of the nominations that appeared for the Barry, Anthony and Dagger awards. The events that lead to the temporary shut down of THD will one day be published in another little read blog. For now let us look forward, not back.

The full list of nominations for the Anthony's can be found at the B'Con 2008 blog. The big three are as follows.

Best Novel:
Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke
Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child
The Watchman - Robert Crais
Thunder Bay - William Kent Krueger
What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman

A pretty safe list. All the authors are beloved by the B'Con crowd. Impossible to pick a favorite. Ms. Lippman and Mr. Krueger have won the last four awards in this category. I'll say that Mr. Krueger and Ms. Lippman cancel each other out and the award goes to Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble. Picking against Ms. Lippman in Baltimore is a bold move, but that is what THD is know for... bold moves.

Best First Novel
Big City, Bad Blood - Sean Chercover
In the Woods - Tana French
The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
Head Games - Craig MacDonald
The Blade Itself - Marcus Sakey

I think this is a pretty easy call. The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey will win this category. No contest. See what I mean about bold moves.

Best Paperback Original
Queenpin - Megan Abbott
Slide - Ken Bruen & Jason Starr
Blood of Paradise - David Corbett
Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues - Robert Fate
A Thousand Bones - P.J. Parrish

I've got Queenpin for the Barry, so I going with Bruen, Starr and Slide. They produced some good funk music back in 1978. And everyone has been talking about their latest LP. I'll go with the Robert Fate book as a close runner-up.

Full nominations are here for the Barry Awards. My kickback to The Rap Sheet is in the mail.

Best Novel
Soul Patch - Reed Farrel Coleman
The Unquiet - John Connolly
Down River - John Hart
Dirty Martini - J.A. Konrath
What the Dead Know, - Laura Lippman
Red Cat - Peter Spiegelman

Super tough category. I think it comes down to Soul Patch or Red Cat, call them co-favorites for right now. I must be nuts to pick against Ms. Lippman twice. TWICE! This 'bold moves' initiative can really lead to some stupid choices.

Best First Novel
Missing Witness - Gordon Campbell
Big City, Bad Blood - Sean Chercover
In the Woods - Tana French
The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
The Collaborator of Bethlehem - Matt Beynon Rees
The Blade Itself - Marcus Sakey

If one author is going to do the double it is going to be Marcus Sakey and that is why he is my pick here. Four out of the five Anthony noms are here, plus the Edgar nominated Missing Witness. Good list.

Best Paperback Original:
Queenpin- Megan Abbott
Black Widow Agency - Felicia Donovan
Choke Point - Jay MacLarty
The Mark - Jason Pinter
Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand - Fred Vargas
Who is Conrad Hirst - Kevin Wignall

I would kill to see Jason Pinter's The Mark win here, but I really like the Vargas book to win here. The smart, safe pick is Queenpin.

And in closing the Dagger Nominations. I have read a grand total of zero of these books. THD is including them here to seem more cosmopolitan and less xenophobic.

The Duncan Lawrie International Dagger
The Patience of the Spider - Andrea Camilleri
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
Loraine Connection - Dominique Manotti
A Deal with the Devil - Martin Suter
The Night's Foul Work - Fred Vargas

Again I have read none of these books, but the buzz on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been enormous. Now press doesn't equal awards, but it don't hurt. Second favorite to Ms. Vargas, cause I like women with male names.

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
Ritual - Mo Hayder
I See You - Gregg Hurwitz
Shatter - Michael Robotham
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Echelon Vendetta - David Stone

Not to beat a dead horse but if press equals awards then Child 44 has this in a walk away. I remember enjoying Michael Robotham's first book, Suspect. Only Child 44 is in my to be read pile. All of the rest have intriguing plot summaries though. The Robotham and Hurwitz are likely going to end up in a to be read pile at some point.

The John Creasey Dagger
The Night of the Mi'raj - Zoe Ferraris
Die With Me - Elena Forbes
Absolution - Caro Ramsay
The Bethlehem Murders - Matt Rees
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

I suspect that this is where Mr. Smith's Child 44 will receive its reward. I quick scan for plot summaries and press leave me with the vague feeling that Ms. Ferraris's and Mr. Rees also have a good shot at it, but really this is Child 44 to lose.

More than anything I have my fingers crossed that those book yet to be released in the US will find an American publisher soon... so I can read them. The exchange rate is just terrible right now so THD will have to wait.

I have a little more to say about these noms, especially the Barry and Anthony awards. I'll save it for the announcement of the winners at the B'Con in October.
Labels:

Comments

Felicia Donovan said…
Thanks for the mention of THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY. I'm honored to be in such esteemed company.

Felicia Donovan
The Black Widow Agency
Spun Tales
www.feliciadonovan.com
3:24 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is it 'Aughts' or 'Oughts' - The Best of the Decade Pt. II

Better late than what quite possibly could have been never. I found the whole task of formulating and compiling this list to be not very enjoyable. Ugh. Not sure why this list proved laborious to produce. Holidays are not a good time for anything except opening gifts... like a 47" LG LCD television. Let's quit with the complaining and finish the list. If you started here you should go back to the beginning . 5 . DIRT - Sean Doolittle (2001) This was a real toss up for me. I could just as easily gone with the funny and brutal THE CLEAN UP. DIRT gets it by a nose because a lot of what I enjoy about Crime Fiction is discovery. THE CLEAN UP is a great book, one that you should read, but I knew it was going to be good going in. Mr. Doolittle is a terrific writer of human frailty. DIRT contains one of the great truisms of human behavior that we frantically keep secrets from our closest friends and family while just as equally hoping these secrets will be discovered and accepted. I ...
4 comments
Read more

The Very Best of Mr. Michael Connelly - Part 2

My August 31 post of The Hungry Detective ranked all the non-Bosch books. This list returns to take on the larger task of Mr. Heironimous Bosch. 9 Dragons made its appearance right before the Indy B'Con, and try as I might... ok I didn't try that hard... I didn't have time to read it for inclusion in these rankings. As a quick aside I don't want to undersell any of the books at the bottom of the list. Mr. Connelly doesn't know how to write a bad book, but in my case there have been occasions where I have not connected with his work. 13. THE NARROWS - 2004 It is because I love THE POET so much that this book is at the end of the list. When Mr. Connelly is at his best his works has the precision of a watchmaker. THE NARROWS just felt forced and not worthy of the intricacy of THE POET. 12. BLACK ICE - 1993 Second book. Third read. I thought the story was pretty flat. It has been well over a decade since I read this book, but the story of Mexican drug runner...
1 comment
Read more

Murder, Mayhem and the Return of Patrick and Angie

Back from Murder and Mayhem in Muskego IV . It was an ultimately very good weekend if not for a few hiccups. The original intention was to attend the mini-con with my sister who lives in Appleton. Alas, she caught one of the fifty or so colds she will have in the next three months. Everyone at The Hungry Detective office hopes she feels better, and we are already looking forward to attending the fifth installment with her next year. The second minor disappointment was the, I'm sure, entirely unavoidable absences of Duane Swierczynski and Harry Hunsicker . Bummer. (Ed Note. Duane's twitter feed notes a Christening... Cheers to that Mr. Swierczynski!) All of this is, of course, is weighted by the very wonderful news that Dennis Lehane , after taking the balance of a year off after finishing The Given Day, is writing a new book. And it is a Kenzie and Gennaro book. Woo-Hoo! In terms of my own education about Crime Fiction, Dennis is an important figure. I was reading a lot by the...
4 comments
Read more