Thriller Award Nominees

International Thriller Writers has announced the nominees for this year’s “Thriller” awards. The winners will be announced at the banquet during ThrillerFest 2008, held in New York in July.

The nominees are as follows:

BEST NOVEL
No Time For Goodbye, Linwood Barclay
The Watchman, Robert Crais
The Ghost, Robert Harris
The Crime Writer, Gregg Hurwitz
Trouble, Jesse Kellerman

BEST FIRST NOVEL
Interred With Their Bones, Jennifer Lee Carrell
Big City, Bad Blood, Sean Chercover
From the Depths, Gerry Doyle
Volk’s Game, Brent Ghelfi
Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill

Two Highly Recommended Books

I just read two original crime novels that I would like to recommend to hard-boiled mystery fans. The first is Macus Sakey’s The Blade Itself. This is Sakey’s first novel, and it’s a real winner. In a nutshell, it’s an excellent character study of an ex-con, who finally goes legit, and then his old, psychopathic partner shows up after being paroled early. Sakey builds the tension to an almost overwhelming level. And that’s why it’s so good, it’s so visceral you feel as if you’ve just been kicked in the gut.

The second book is Charlie Huston’s Already Dead. I’d heard a lot of good things about Charlie Huston, so I finally decided to pick up one of his books. After reading Already Dead, I’m a true believer. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Huston surprised me at every turn. The main character is a private detective in New York (nothing new there, right?), but he’s also a vampire. Joe Pitt is a rogue vampire, who doesn’t want to be associated with any of New York’s clans, even though he sometimes takes jobs from these warring factions. However, this time, he is trying to find a teenage run-away and daughter of one of New York’s leading human families, who likes to dress in goth. The world Huston creates is absolutely fascinating. I was drawn into it, and I wanted to stay. Good thing there’s a sequel.

News: Gumshoe Award Nominees Announced

Mystery Ink announced today the nominees for the seventh annual Gumshoe Awards.

The Gumshoe Awards are given by Mystery Ink each year to recognize the best achievements in the world of crime fiction. The nominated books were chosen from those published for the first time in the United States in 2007. The winners will be announced on April 21, 2008.

The nominees are:

BEST MYSTERY

James Lee Burke – Tin Roof Blowdown
John Connolly – The Unquiet
Ariana Franklin – Mistress of the Art of Death
Charlie Huston – The Shotgun Rule
Laura Lippman – What the Dead Know

BEST THRILLER

Lee Child – Bad Luck and Trouble
Robert Crais – The Watchman
Joseph Finder – Power Play
Michael Gruber – The Book of Air and Shadows
Richard K. Morgan – Thirteen

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Sean Chercover – Big City, Bad Blood
Philip Hawley, Jr. – Stigma
Lisa Lutz – The Spellman Files
Craig McDonald – Head Games
Nick Stone – Mr. Clarinet