The awards are judged by 21 volunteers from among the large body of award-winning writers, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, academics and avid crime fiction fans across Canada.
Best Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo with a $1000 prize
Michael Christie, Greenwood, McClelland & Stewart
The Best First Novel with a $500 prize
Philip Elliott, Nobody Move, Into the Void Press
Best Novella sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $200 prize
Wayne Arthurson, The Red Chesterfield, University of Calgary Press
Best Short Story sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $300 prize
Peter Sellers, Closing Doors, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Best French Book
Andrée A. Michaud, Tempêtes, Éditions Québec Amériques
Best Juvenile or YA Book sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize
Tom Ryan, Keep This to Yourself, Albert Whitman & Company
Best Nonfiction Book
Charlotte Gray, Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
The Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript sponsored by Dundurn Press with a $500 prize
Liz Rachel Walker, The Dieppe Letters
The Arthur Ellis Awards are not named after a writer, but after the official pseudonym of Canada’s hangman and the trophy is a jumping jack type wood figure on a gallows, which must certainly be one of the more disturbing award trophies out there.
The prize was created to celebrate the very best in crime fiction
and is open to UK and Irish crime authors whose novels were published in
paperback from May 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019. The
winner is announced at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival,
hosted in Harrogate each July.
ITW THRILLER AWARDS. The finalists for the 2019 International
Thriller Writers Awards have been announced. The award
is given by the International
Thriller Writers, whose board of directors boasts such famous
members as Lee Child and R.L. Stine. ITW will announce
the winners at ThrillerFest XIV on July 13, 2019 at the Grand
Hyatt, New York City.
BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL
Lou Berney — NOVEMBER ROAD (William Morrow)
Julia Heaberlin — PAPER GHOSTS (Ballantine Books)
Jennifer Hillier — JAR OF HEARTS (Minotaur Books)
Karin Slaughter — PIECES OF HER (William Morrow)
Paul Tremblay — THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD (William Morrow)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Jack Carr — THE TERMINAL LIST (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)
Karen Cleveland — NEED TO KNOW (Ballantine Books)
Ellison Cooper — CAGED (Minotaur Books)
Catherine Steadman — SOMETHING IN THE WATER (Ballantine Books)
C. J. Tudor — THE CHALK MAN (Crown)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL NOVEL
Jane Harper — THE LOST MAN (Pan Macmillan Australia)
John Marrs — THE GOOD SAMARITAN (Thomas & Mercer)
Andrew Mayne — THE NATURALIST (Thomas & Mercer)
Kirk Russell — GONE DARK (Thomas & Mercer)
Carter Wilson — MISTER TENDER’S GIRL (Sourcebooks Landmark)
BEST SHORT STORY
Jeffery Deaver — “The Victims’ Club” (Amazon Original Stories)
Emily Devenport — “10,432 Serial Killers (In Hell)” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
Scott Loring Sanders — “Window to the Soul” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Helen Smith — “Nana” in KILLER WOMEN: CRIME CLUB ANTHOLOGY #2 (Killer Women Ltd.)
Duane Swierczynski — “Tough Guy Ballet” in FOR THE SAKE OF THE GAME: STORIES INSPIRED BY THE SHERLOCK HOLMES CANON (Pegasus Books)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Teri Bailey Black — GIRL AT THE GRAVE (Tor Teen)
Gillian French — THE LIES THEY TELL (HarperTeen)
Marie Lu — WARCROSS (Penguin Young Readers/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
Dana Mele — PEOPLE LIKE US (Penguin Young Readers/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
Peter Stone — THE PERFECT CANDIDATE (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
BEST E-BOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL
Clare Chase — MURDER ON THE MARSHES (Bookouture)
Gary Grossman — EXECUTIVE FORCE (Diversion Books)
Samantha Hayes — THE REUNION (Bookouture)
T.S. Nichols — THE MEMORY DETECTIVE (Alibi)
Alan Orloff — PRAY FOR THE INNOCENT (Kindle Press)
The Arthur Ellis Awards are not
named after a writer, but after the official pseudonym of Canada’s hangman and
the trophy is a jumping jack type wood figure on a gallows. Cora
Buhlert says “It’s the only award with a creepier trophy than the old World
Fantasy Award.”
BEST
CRIME NOVEL
Though
the Heavens Fall,
by Anne Emery (ECW Press)
BEST
FIRST CRIME NOVEL
(Sponsored by Rakuten Kobo)
Cobra
Clutch, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
BEST
CRIME NOVELLA –
The Lou Allin Memorial Award
Murder
Among the Pines,
by John Lawrence Reynolds (Orca Book Publishers)
BEST
CRIME SHORT STORY
(Sponsored by Mystery Weekly Magazine)
“Terminal
City,” by Linda L. Richards (Vancouver Noir, Akashic Books)
BEST
CRIME BOOK IN FRENCH
Adolphus
– Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme, by Hervé Gagnon (Libre Expression)
BEST
JUVENILE/YOUNG ADULT CRIME BOOK
Escape, by Linwood Barclay (Puffin
Canada)
BEST
NONFICTION CRIME BOOK
The
Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the
World,
by Sarah Weinman (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)
BEST
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT –
aka The Unhanged Arthur (Sponsored by Dundurn Press)
James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (Translated by Þórdís Bachmann)
Keigo Higashino: The Devotion of Suspect X (Translated by Ásta S. Guðbjartsdóttir)
Shari Lapena: A Stranger in the House (Translated by Ingunn Snædal)
Pierre Lemaitre: Three Days and a Life (Translated by Friðrik Rafnsson)
Henning Mankell: After the Fire (Translated by Hilmar Hilmarsson)
The jury for the award is composed of Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime
Minister of Iceland, Kolbrún Bergþórsdóttir journalist and literary critic, and
Ragnar Jónasson, crime writer.
The Arthur Ellis Awards are not named
after a writer, but after the official pseudonym of Canada’s hangman and the
trophy is a jumping jack type wood figure on a gallows, which must certainly be
one of the more disturbing award trophies out there.
BEST
CRIME NOVEL
Cape
Diamond by
Ron Corbett, ECW Press,
Though
the Heavens Fall by
Anne Emery ECW Press
The
Winters by
Lisa Gabriele, Doubleday Canada
Kingdom
of the Blind by
Louise Penny, Minotaur Books
The
Girl in the Moss by
Loreth Anne White, Montlake Romance
BEST
FIRST CRIME NOVEL (Sponsored by Rakuten Kobo)
Cobra
Clutch by
A.J. Devlin NeWest Press
Operation
Wormwood by
Helen C. Escott, Flanker Press,
Full
Disclosure by
Beverley McLachlin, Simon & Schuster Canada
Why
Was Rachel Murdered? By
Bill Prentice, Echo Road,
Find
You in the Dark by
Nathan Ripley, Simon & Schuster Canada
BEST
CRIME NOVELLA – The Lou Allin Memorial Award,
The
B-Team: The Case of the Angry First Wife, by Melodie Campbell Orca Book Publishers
Blue
Water Hues by
Vicki Delany Orca Book Publishers
Murder
Among the Pines by
John Lawrence Reynolds Orca Book Publishers
BEST
CRIME SHORT STORY (Sponsored by Mystery Weekly Magazine)
A
Ship Called Pandora by
Melodie Campbell, Mystery Weekly Magazine
The
Power Man, Baby It’s Cold Outside by Therese Greenwood Coffin Hop Press
Game
by Twist
Phelan Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Terminal
City by
Linda L. Richards, Vancouver Noir, Akashic Books,
Wonderful
Life by
Sam Wiebe, Vancouver Noir, Akashic Books
BEST
CRIME BOOK IN FRENCH
Un
dernier baiser avant de te tuer, by Jean-Philippe Bernié, Libre Expression
Adolphus
– Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme, by Hervé Gagnon Libre Expression
Ces
femmes aux yeux cernés by
André Jacques, Éditions Druide
Deux
coups de pied de trop,
by Guillaume Morissette , Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur
Rinzen
la beauté intérieure,
by Johanne Seymour, Expression noir
BEST
JUVENILE/YOUNG ADULT CRIME BOOK
Escape by Linwood Barclay, Puffin
Canada
The
House of One Thousand Eyes by
Michelle Barker, Annick Press
Call
of the Wraith by
Kevin Sands, Aladdin
The
Ruinous Sweep by
Tim Wynne-Jones, Candlewick Press
The
Rumrunner’s Boy by
E.R. Yatscoff, TG & R Books
BEST
NONFICTION CRIME BOOK
Dying
for a Drink: How a Prohibition Preacher Got Away With Murder by Patrick Brode,
Biblioasis
The
King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled
the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale by Thomas Giacomaro and
Natasha Stoynoff, BenBella Books, Inc,
The
Boy on the Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto by Nate Hendley, Five Rivers
Publishing
Murder
by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic
Killer by
Eve Lazarus, Arsenal Pulp Press,
The
Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the
World by
Sarah Weinman, Alfred A. Knopf Canada
BEST
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT – aka The Unhanged Arthur (Sponsored by
Dundurn Press)
Hypnotizing
Lions by
Jim Bottomley,
Omand’s
Creek by
Don Macdonald
The
Scarlet Cross by
Liv McFarlane
One
for the Raven Darrow Woods, The Book of Answers by Heather McLeod,
Derrick
Murdoch Award
The
2019 Derrick Murdoch Award recipient is Vicki Delany. The Derrick
Murdoch Award is a special achievement award for contributions to the
crime genre.