Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures are pleased to announce the 2008 Barry Award nominations. The Barry Awards are named for of one of the most ardent and beloved ambassadors of mystery fiction, Barry Gardner, and are voted on by the readers of Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures. The 12th Annual Barry Awards presentation will take place at Bouchercon in Baltimore, Maryland in early October. (10/19/08 update: winners in blue below)

The 2008 Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom was awarded at the Anthony Brunch to Bill and Toby Gottfried, mystery fans extraordinaire who were the hosts for Left Coast Crime 2004 and will host next year's LCC in Hawaii. And in a surprise move, George Easter, founder and editor of Deadly Pleasures was also presented with the "Don Award" - the one award he always hoped to receive. The committee that chooses the winner of this award is made up of all of the prior winners of this award. Previous winners of the Don Sanstrom Award are Marv Lachman, Bill Crider, Gary Warren Niebuhr, Maggie Mason, Ted Fitzgerald, Janet Rudolph, and Beth Fedyn.

Best Novel (Published in the U.S. in 2007)

Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)
The Unquiet by John Connolly (Atria)
Down River by John Hart (St Martin's Minotaur)
Dirty Martini by J.A. Konrath (Hyperion)
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman (Knopf)

Best First Novel (Published in the U.S. in 2007)

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (Morrow)
Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover (Morrow)
In the Woods by Tana French (Viking)
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)
The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees (Soho Press)
The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best British Crime Novel (Published in the U.K. in 2007, not necessarily written by a British writer nor set in the U.K.)

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory (Orion)
Pig Island by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)
One Under by Graham Hurley (Orion)
The Death List by Paul Johnston (Mira)
The 50/50 Killer bySteve Mosby (Orion)
Damnation Falls by Edward Wright (Orion)

Best Thriller

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
The Cleaner by Brett Battles (Delacorte)
The Watchman by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)
Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi (Henry Holt)
Silence by Thomas Perry (Harcourt)
Midnight Rambler by Jim Swain (Ballantine)

Best Paperback Original

Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Black Widow Agency by Felicia Donovan (Midnight Ink)
Choke Point by Jay MacLarty (Pocket)
The Mark by Jason Pinter (Mira)
Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas (Penguin)
Who Is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

Best Short Story

"Dead As a Dog" by Doug Allyn (EQMM July 2007)
"The Book Case" by Dale C. Andrews and Kurt Sercu (EQMM May 2007)
"The Missing Elevator Puzzle" by Jon L. Breen (EQMM February 2007)
"Bump" by Jeffery Deaver (Dead Man's Hand)
"The Problem of the Summer Snowman" by Edward D. Hoch (EQMM November 2007)
"The Old Wife's Tale" by Gillian Roberts (EQMM March-April 2007)
"Murder: A User's Guibe" by Neil Schofield (AHMM July-August 2007)


Page updated 10/19/08

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