Books & Authors

Crime fiction readers are a breed apart. They read voraciously and they read loyally, following favorite authors to the end (and sometimes long past the point the books warrant; we can all think of authors whose later books were sad shadows of earlier triumphs). Most important, mystery lovers love to talk about what they read, sharing recommendations and reactions through traditional magazines, fanzines, electronic forums and annual conventions. For their part, most mystery authors welcome this feedback, participating in online forums and attending fan conferences throughout the year.

Many of these fan organizations recognize their favorite authors with awards. These are generally presented at fan conferences: Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention; Left Coast Crime, which targets U.S. fans west of the Rocky Mountains; Malice Domestic, for fans of less violent mysteries, held annually outside Washington, DC; the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, UK; and countless smaller gatherings around the United States throughout the year.

Fan awards are a way to recognize emerging talent and reward lasting skills. Like the awards determined by judges, individual fan awards tend to recognize a particular type of book; if you know that you liked last year’s Lefty winner, chances are good that you’ll enjoy this year’s as well.

• The Agatha Awards have been given annually since 1988 at Malice Domestic, a fan convention that celebrates the traditional mystery. Conference organizers define “traditional mysteries” as those that “contain no explicit sex; contain no excessive gore or gratuitous violence; usually feature an amateur detective; take place in a confined setting, and contain characters who know one another.” Attendees vote on nominees for Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Non-Fiction, Best Short Story, and Best Children’s/Young Adult. Past Best Novel winners include The Cruelest Month and A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny, Bootlegger’s Daughter by Margaret Maron, and She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb. A complete list of past winners is online here.

• The Anthony Awards honor legendary mystery critic and author Anthony Boucher. Since 1986, registrants from the previous year’s Bouchercon (World Mystery Convention) have nominated titles for Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story, Best Critical Nonfiction Work, and up to three wild card awards. (An award for Special Service to the Genre is being discontinued after this year’s conference.) Registrants vote for winners during the three days of Bouchercon, and the awards are presented at a ceremony on the last night of the conference. The Best First Novel category has been a strong predictor of future success for winning authors, with past winners including Jonathan Kellerman (When the Bough Breaks, 1986), Patricia Cornwell (Postmortem, 1991), Lee Child (Killing Floor, 1998) and Julia Spencer-Fleming (In the Bleak Midwinter, 2003). This year’s winners included The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly, for Best Novel; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, for Best First Novel; and State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy, for Best Paperback Original. A complete list of past winners is online here.

• The Crimespree Awards have been given since 2006 by the editors of Crimespree Magazine, based on voting by its readers. Current categories include Favorite Book, Best in an Ongoing Series, Favorite Comics Writer, Favorite Original Paperback, and Favorite Mystery Bookstore. This year’s winners included Trigger City by Sean Chercover, for favorite book; Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais, for Best in an Ongoing Series; and Money Shot by Christa Faust, for Favorite Original Paperback.

• The Lefty Award, voted on by attendees of the annual Left Coast Crime conference has honored the year’s best humorous mystery since 1996, when the prize went to The Fat Innkeeper by Alan Russell. Janet Evanovich, Donna Andrews and Jerrilyn Farmer have all won this award more than once; the 2009 Lefty went to Greasing the Pinata by Tim Maleeny. A complete list of past winners is online here.

• The Macavity Awards, named for T.S. Eliot’s “mystery cat,” are voted on annually by the members of Mystery Readers International, the largest mystery fan/reader organization in the world. Since 1987, Macavitys have been awarded in four categories: Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Critical/Biographical, and Best Short Story. Recent Best Novel winners include Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie, What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, and The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard, while recent Best First Novel winners have included Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, In the Woods by Tana French, and Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone. In 2006, MRI added the Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award, which this year went to A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen.

• The Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award differs from other fan awards in that it comes with a cash prize of £3,000 — and a small, handmade engraved beer barrel. The public votes for candidates nominated by a jury, and the prize is awarded annually at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival (now also sponsored by Theakston’s Old Peculier). Since the award’s inauguration in 2005, Mark Billingham has won it twice (for Lazy Bones, in 2005, and Death Message, in 2009); other winners include The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (2008), Two Way Split by Allan Guthrie (2007), and The Torment of Others by Val McDermid.

- Written by Clair Lamb, Bookreporter.com

*************

Want to know more about us? Check out “What is Books & Authors and Why Should You Care?

Tags: awards, mystery, mystery fiction

This entry was posted by BNA_Editor on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under mystery fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.