Everything about this year’s Bouchercon is a just little bigger. After all it’s the 50th anniversary of the crime community’s annual conference, and fittingly enough the 2019 festivities are in Dallas, Texas (convention motto “Denim, Diamonds, and Death”). There are still a few months to go before the extravaganza begins (Bouchercon 2019 is set for Oct. 31 – Nov. 3), but in the meantime we have the Anthony Awards to stoke our interest and keep us flush with good book recommendations. The Anthony’s, nominated and chosen by the conference’s attendees, consistently offer up a snapshot of the crime world’s best and brightest. Nominations poured in throughout the early spring, and today the Bouchercon powers-that-be have announced the finalists. Appropriately, this is looking like one of the finest and most accomplished Anthony classes in memory. Final voting will occur on premises at the conference and announced at a banquet on November 2nd, which means if you haven’t read all of the nominated books you still have some long summer nights to catch up.
Below, you’ll find the full roster of Anthony nominees and some handy links for discovering their work. Enjoy, crime readers…
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BEST NOVEL
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Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown and Company)
November Road by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur Books)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
Blackout by Alex Segura (Polis Books)
Read Lou Berney on classic “chase” novels.
Read Jennifer Hillier on the fiction of women starting over.
Read Laura Lippman on the transgressive noir of James M. Cain.
Alex Segura picks the essential Miami crime novels.
Megan Abbott talks women in science, Blue Velvet, and writing for TV.
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BEST FIRST NOVEL
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My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
Broken Places by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Books)
What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco)
Read James A. McLaughlin on exploring the mysteries of the natural world.
Read Tracy Clark on a golden era of hard-boiled women.
Read John Copenhaver on closure and crime fiction.
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BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
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Hollywood Ending by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park Books)
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day (William Morrow Paperbacks)
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)
Read Naomi Hirahara on the joys and sorrows of finishing a series.
Read Lori Rader-Day on the thriving Midwestern crime fiction scene.
Alison Gaylin talks with Lisa Levy about crime fiction in the social media era.
Read an excerpt from Kellye Garrett’s nominated book.
Read James W. Ziskin on Proust and unlocking memory.
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BEST SHORT STORY
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“The Grass Beneath My Feet” by S.A. Cosby, in Tough (blogazine, August 20, 2018)
“Bug Appétit” by Barb Goffman, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November/December 2018)
“Cold Beer No Flies” by Greg Herren, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (July/August 2018)
“The Best Laid Plans” by Holly West, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)
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BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
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Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Mastering Plot Twists: How To Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure To Captivate Your Readers by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest Books)
Pulp According to David Goodis by Jay A. Gertzman (Down & Out Books)
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus Books)
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)
Read Leslie S. Klinger on the birth of American detective fiction.
Read Alice Bolin on obsession, identity and the new thriller.
Read Sarah Weinman asks whether Nabokov really hated crime fiction.
