The Crime Writers of Canada have announced the 2024 winners of their annual Awards of Excellence.
THE PETER ROBINSON AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL
sponsored by Rakuten Kobo, with a $1000 prize
Loreth Anne White, The Maid’s Diary, Montlake
BEST CRIME FIRST NOVEL
sponsored by Melodie Campbell, with a $1000 prize
Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers, Harper Perennial
THE HOWARD ENGEL AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL SET IN CANADA
sponsored by Charlotte Engel and Crime Writers of Canada, with a $500 prize
Joan Thomas, Wild Hope, Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
THE WHODUNIT AWARD FOR BEST TRADITIONAL MYSTERY
sponsored by Jane Doe, with a $500 prize
Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest, Viking
BEST CRIME SHORT STORY
Marcelle Dubé, Reversion, Mystery Magazine
THE BEST FRENCH LANGUAGE CRIME BOOK (FICTION AND NONFICTION)
André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
BEST JUVENILE/YA CRIME BOOK
sponsored by Shaftesbury Films with a $500 prize (Fiction and Nonfiction)
Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books
THE BRASS KNUCKLES AWARD FOR BEST NONFICTION CRIME BOOK
sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton), with a $300 prize
Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press
BEST UNPUBLISHED CRIME NOVEL MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN BY AN UNPUBLISHED AUTHOR
Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
2024 GRAND MASTER AWARD
Maureen Jennings
Established in 2014, the Grand Master (GM) Award recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.
Maureen Jennings, a long-time Crime Writers of Canada member, is a prolific author of non-fiction, short stories and book series featuring Christine Morris, Detective Murdoch, and D.I. Tom Tyler. The Detective William Murdoch television series, set in Victorian era Toronto, was optioned in 2003 by Shaftesbury Films. Murdoch Mysteries are shown in over 120 countries and feature innovative crime-solving techniques, social justice subplots and surprise guest appearances.
Mary Keenan The Canadians (Killin’ Time in San Diego), Down & Out Books
donalee Moulton, Troubled Water, Black Cat Weekly (Wildside Press)
Zandra Renwick, American Night, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)
Jean-Philippe Bernié, La punition, Glénat Québec
Chrystine Brouillet,Le mois des morts, Éditions Druide
Catherine Lafrance, Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, Éditions Druide
André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
Jean-Jacques Pelletier, Rien, Alire
Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book
sponsored by Shaftesbury Films with a $500 prize (Fiction and Nonfiction)
Kelley Armstrong, Someone is Always Watching, Tundra Books
Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books
Rachelle Delaney, The Big Sting, Tundra Books
Clara Kumagai, Catfish Rolling, Penguin Teen Canada
Kevin Sands, Champions of the Fox, Puffin Canada
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book
sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton), with a $300 prize
Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin, The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press
David Rabinovitch, Jukebox Empire, Rowman & Littlefield
Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen, Cheated, ECW Press
Carolyn Whitzman, Clara at the Door with a Revolver, UBC Press, On Point Press
Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author
Tom Blackwell, The Patient
Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
Sheilla Jones and James Burns, Murder on Richmond Road: An Enquiry Bureau Mystery
Nora Sellers, The Forest Beyond
William Wodhams, Thirty Feet Under
2024 Grand Master Award
Maureen Jennings
Established in 2014, the Grand Master (GM) Award recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.
Maureen Jennings, a long-time Crime Writers of Canada member, is a prolific author of non-fiction, short stories and book series featuring Christine Morris, Detective Murdoch, and D.I. Tom Tyler. The Detective William Murdoch television series, set in Victorian era Toronto, was optioned in 2003 by Shaftesbury Films. Murdoch Mysteries are shown in over 120 countries and feature innovative crime-solving techniques, social justice subplots and surprise guest appearances.
SPOTTED OWL
Friends of Mystery logo
The winner of the 2024 Spotted Owl Award was announced on March 28 by the Friends of Mystery. The award is for a mystery published during the previous calendar year by an author whose primary residence is Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. The winner is:
Breakneck by Marc Cameron
The runners-up were:
2. Dana Stabenow for Not the Ones Dead 3. Dana Haynes for The Saint of Thieves 4. Sam Wiebe for Sunset and Jericho 5. Jon Talton for The Nurse Murders 6. James Bryne for Deadlock 7. Haris Orkin for License to Die 8. Frank Zafiro for Hope Dies Last 9 (tie). Orlando Davidson for Baseline Road and J.A. Jance for Collateral Damage
PINCKLEY PRIZES
The winners of the 2022 and 2023 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, awarded by the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, honor three women writers. The winners receive a financial award of $2,500. This year the prize winners Douaihy and Rothchild participated at the 2024 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival.
2022 Pinckley Prize for Debut Fiction
Sascha Rothchild for Blood Sugar
2023 Pinckley Prize for Debut Fiction
Margot Douaihy for Scorched Grace
2023 Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work
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 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.
