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Crime Fiction | Zoho DB

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2003 Crime FictionAward Nominees & Winners (Fiction)

 

Page Modified: April 2, 2008

Books published in 2003.

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Agatha, Anthony, Barry, Mary Higgins Clark, Chester Himes, Dilys , Edgars, Arthur Ellis Awards, Hammett, Lambda, Macavity Awards, Nero Wolfe & Shamus Nominees.

The Anthony Awards are determined at Bouchercon each year. Malice Domestic Agatha Awards are for the best cozy books per category. The Barry Awards are nominated by the staff of Deadly Pleasure mystery magazine. The Mary Higgins Clark Award is given for the book written most closely in the Mary Higgins Clark tradition. The Chester Himes Award is given to a black mystery writer for a body of work. The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association presents the Dilys Winn Awards for the books most fun to sell. The Mystery Writers of America presents the Edgar Awards for achievement for the best work in the mystery field. The Arthur Ellis Awards are presented at the Canadian Crime Writers meeting. The International Association of Crime Writers' presents the Hammett Award to works of excellence by and American or Canadian writer. The Lamda Mystery awards are part of literary awards given in a a variety of areas to recognize gay/lesbian writers. The Mystery Readers International Award for Excellence is the Macavity, named in honor of T.S. Eliot's "Curious Cat". The Nero Wolfe award is given to a novel that members of the organization think best reflects the Nero Wolfe tradition. The Shamus Awards are presented by the Private Eye Writers of America to honor writers of P.I. novels.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine unless otherwise noted.

Listings are arranged alphabetically by author.

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• Cut and Run
  Author: Abbott, Jeff
  Publisher: Onyx PubDate: 2003-11 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0451411145
  Edgar Best Paperback Original Nominee
  In his third outing, Texas judge Whit Mosley investigates his own past in a search for the mother who abandoned him years ago. What he finds is a nightmare of double-crosses, murder, and a conniving woman who may be plotting the cruelest betrayal of all.
  
• Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
  Author: Andrews, Donna
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-02 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312277318
  Dilys Nominee
  Agatha Nominee Best Novel
  From the author of Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos comes a laugh-aloud adventure where Meg Langslow, working the switchboard temporarily, finds that the company's practical joker really is dead--not just pretending.
  
• Spiked
  Author: Arsenault, Mark
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen PubDate: 2003-07 $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580591
  Shamus Best First P.I. Novel Nominee
  Small-town reporter Eddie Bourque looks into the brutal murder of his beat partner and rival, who was working undercover on a hot story. But the newspaper's owners, high up in the town's power structure, discourage Bourque from pursuing his partner's investigation.
  
• The Delicate Storm
  Author: Blunt, Giles
  Publisher: Putnam PubDate: 2003-06 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399148655
  PW Booklist
  Hammett Nominee
  Macavity Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best Novel Nominee
  Arthur Ellis Award Winner
  The author of Forty Words for Sorrow --winner of Britain's Silver Dagger Award--returns with a crime thriller challenging the most cherished belief: that, in fiction, there is no such thing as the perfect crime.
  
• For the Love of Mike
  Author: Bowen, Rhys
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-12 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312313004
  Kirkus
  Macavity Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best Historical Mystery Winner
  Molly Malone is hired to track down a runaway from an aristocratic Dublin family and to go undercover to investigate a case of industrial espionage in the garment business in this Agatha Award-winning series.
  
• The Sixth Lamentation
  Author: Brodrick, William
  Publisher: Viking PubDate: 2003-07 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031917
  PW Booklist
  Dilys Nominee
  When Father Anselm gives sanctuary to a suspected Nazi criminal at Lakewood Priory, he puts in motion more trouble than he ever could have imagined.
  
• The Guards
  Author: Bruen, Ken
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-01 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312303556
  Kirkus PW LJ
  Edgar Best Novel Nominee
  Shamus Winner Best P.I. Novel
  Macavity Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  In this mesmerizing work of crime fiction, an ex-member of The Guards--Ireland's police force--is approached in a Galway bar by a dazzling woman with a strange request and a rumor about his talent for finding things.
• Deadly Legacy
  Author: Burcell, Robin
  Publisher: Avon PubDate: 2003-02 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0061057878
  Anthony Best Paperback Original Winner
  San Francisco P.D. Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie returns to investigate a bizarre apparent murder/suicide where the dead man may not be dead, the families of the deceased are hiding something, and blood-soaked threads reach into some very lofty places.
• Cry Havoc
  Author: Clare, Baxter
  Publisher: Bella PubDate: 2003-10 $ 12.95 ISBN: 1931513317
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Mystery
  
• Dragonfly Bones
  Author: Cole, David
  Publisher: Avon PubDate: 2003-09 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060511931
  
  Shamus Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel Nominee
  In the fifth explosive novel featuring part-Hopi cyber-sleuth Laura Winslow, a gruesome secret buried near Arizona's Casa Grande Monument reunites Laura and her long-lost daughter, who may become the next victim of a brutal killer
  
• Lost Light
  Author: Connelly, Michael
  Publisher: Little Brown PubDate: 2003-04 $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601
  Kirkus Booklist PW LJ
  Edgar Nominee Best Novel - withdrawn
  The bestselling author of City of Bones and Chasing the Dime brings lone wolf Harry Bosch out of retirement and on a wild excursion into evil, seeking the truth about a cold case that still haunts the LAPD, movie studios--and Bosch himself.
• 12 Bliss Street
  Author: Conway, Martha
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-06 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312315430
  Edgar Best First Novel Nominee
  A hip, edgy debut about a woman who finally takes charge, 12 Bliss Street is a deliciously sexy and suspenseful crime novel about a gal having a bad day that only gets worse.
  
• Done for a Dime
  Author: Corbett, David
  Publisher: Ballantine PubDate: 2003-07 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345447530
  Macavity Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Corbett takes readers back to the shadowy terrain of northern California in a suspenseful novel of cops and criminals--a powerful follow-up to his highly acclaimed debut, The Devil's Redhead .
  
• Mumbo Gumbo
  Author: Farmer, Jerrilyn
  Publisher: Morrow PubDate: 2003-03 $ 19.95 ISBN: 038097889x
  Agatha Nominee Best Novel
  From the author of Dim Sum Dead and Immaculate Reception . When the key writer for the hit TV show Food Freak disappears, caterer Madeline Bean fills in and soon discovers some tantalizing hints to the missing writer's whereabouts.
  
• Scavenger Hunt
  Author: Ferrigno, Robert
  Publisher: Pantheon PubDate: 2003-01 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375421734
  Booklist
  Shamus Best P.I. Novel Nominee
  Fast-paced, darkly funny, unexpected, and crowded with unforgettable characters--both high and low Hollywood, both pretty good and very bad-- Scavenger Hunt is Ferrigno at his bristling best as he explores Hollywood movies, moguls, and murder.
  
• The Small Boat of Great Sorrows
  Author: Fesperman, Dan
  Publisher: Knopf PubDate: 2003-09 $ 24 ISBN: 037541472x
  Kirkus PW
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  In an electrifying tale of international intrigue, the author of "Lie in the Dark" follows brooding investigator Vlado Petric, who is being used as bait to bring justice to a murderer whose activities in World War II make the current generation of killers look like amateurs.
  
• Dealing in Murder
  Author: Flinn, Elaine
  Publisher: Avon PubDate: 2003-11 $ 6.50 ISBN: 0060545798
  Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  Anthony Best Paperback Original Nominee
  The premiere title in a new series, set in Carmel, California, introduces Molly Doyle, a once-wrongly disgraced antiques dealer from Manhattan who is rudely plunged back into the harsh world of antiques and finds murder all around.
  
• Lost in a Good Book
  Author: Fforde, Jasper
  Publisher: Viking PubDate: 2003-04 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031909
  Library Journal Kirkus
  Dilys Winner
  Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed The Eyre Affair . To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.
  
• The Last Witness
  Author: Goldman, Joel
  Publisher: Pinnacle PubDate: 2003-03 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0786014482
  Edgar Best Paperback Original Nominee
  Kansas City trial attorney Lou Mason is hired to defend his friend, former cop Wilson "Blues" Bluestone, accused of murdering a local lawyer and political fixer. Digging deep into the case, Mason unearths the kind of secrets that someone will do anything to keep.
  
• The Seduction of Water
  Author: Goodman, Carol
  Publisher: Ballantine PubDate: 2003-01$ 23.95 ISBN: 0345450906
  Library Journal
  Hammett Winner
  On the heels of her mesmerizing bestseller The Lake of Dead Languages , Goodman has written an absorbing, richly layered novel that skillfully weaves dark fairy tale themes into a modern web of intrigue.
  
• Tropic of Night
  Author: Gruber, Michael
  Publisher: Morrow PubDate: 2003- 03 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509546
  Kirkus PW
  Hammett Nominee
  One of the most frightening and imaginative novels of suspense to arrive in decades, Tropic of Night pits an anthropologist against a powerful shaman who becomes Miami's most feared serial killer.
  Updated 1.29.03
• Blood is the Sky
  Author: Hamilton, Steve
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-06 $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312301154
  Kirkus
  Shamus Best P.I. Novel Nominee
  Anthony Best Novel Nominee
  When a longtime friend asks Alex McKnight for help in finding his brother, a hunting guide to rich clients who has vanished in northern Ontario with a group of hunters, they begin the long drive north. Soon, Alex and his friend are stranded in the heart of the Canadian wilderness with no food, no weapons--and no way out.
  
• Letter From Home
  Author: Hart, Carolyn
  Publisher: Berkley PubDate: 2003-10 $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425191796
  PW
  Agatha Winner Best Novel
  In the summer of 1944, Gretchen Gilman was working as a reporter at the local newspaper. Her assignments weren't very exciting--until Faye Tatum was found dead in her own living room.
  
• Haunted Ground
  Author: Hart, Erin
  Publisher: Scribner PubDate: 2003-05 $ 24 ISBN: 0743235053
  Booklist LJ
  Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
  Anthony Best First Novel Nominee
  This dazzling crime novel debut--already an international sensation--is from a gifted author who combines rich atmosphere with archeology, history, and extraordinary forensic detail.
  
• Offer of Proof
  Author: Heilbrun, Robert
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060538120
  Booklist
  Edgar Best First Novel Nominee
  A talented new writer, this New York City public defender makes his exciting debut with a thriller in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Lawrence Block.
  
• Wet Debt
  Author: Helms, Richard
  Publisher: Barbadoes Hall Press/Back Alley Books PubDate: 2003-04 $ 15.95 ISBN: 0971015937
  
  Shamus Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel Nominee
  The fourth book in Richard Helms' Pat Gallegher Mystery Series. Gallegher investigates the seventy year old murder of a man found entombed in a concrete floor next to Holliday's, and discovers that this murder is deviously connected with his own recent violent past.
  
• Bourbon Street Blues
  Author: Herren, Greg
  Publisher: Kensington PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23 ISBN: 0758202121
  Lambda Finalist Gay Men's Mystery
  From the drug-fueled dance floors of New Orleans's hottest bars to the body-worship of its packed gyms, Bourbon Street Blues takes readers on a dizzying tour of gay life in the French Quarter and introduces an unlikely P.I. whose ironic take on things is as cool as the city he loves.
  
• The Night of the Dance
  Author: Hime, James
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-04 $ 24.95 ISBN: 03123132255
  PW Booklist
  Edgar Best First Novel Nominee
  Macavity Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  A retired Texas Ranger, a good ol' boy sheriff and a hotheaded deputy team up to solve a Texas county's most notorious missing persons case in this jaunty debut crime novel.
  
• Take the Bait
  Author: Hubbard, S. W.
  Publisher: Pocket PubDate: 2003-04 $ 6.50 ISBN: 0743466535
  Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
  When teenaged Janelle Harvey disappears on her way home in the remote town of Trout Run in New York's Adirondacks, new Police Chief Frank Bennett finds his investigation blocked at every turn by the close-knit townsfolk who don't want their secrets uncovered.
  
• Wisdom of the Bones
  Author: Hyde, Christopher
  Publisher: Onyx PubDate: 2003-02 $ 7.50 ISBN: 0451410653
  Edgar Best Paperback Original Nominee
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  In November, 1963, Dallas homicide detective Ray Duval is investigating the mysterious deaths of several young girls as the city grapples with the unthinkable: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Amidst the panic in the city, the killer kidnaps another girl. Duval sees a pattern, and unless he can break it, the girl will be dead in 48 hours.
  
• Ricochet
  Author: Jacobs, Nancy Baker
  Publisher: Five Star PubDate: 2003-12 $ 25.95 ISBN: 1594140766
  Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee
  RICOCHET is a twisty tale of love gone wrong and danger around every corner. Annabel Nettleton marries impulsively and gives birth to a son, but she soon begins to suspect her husband Dylan is not the wonderful and romantic man she thought she'd married. When a private investigator specializing in locating missing heirs shows up at the Nettletons' California home, Dylan is far from overjoyed at the prospect of inheriting millions. Instead, he turns violent, directing his unexpected rage at his wife. He disappears briefly but, upon returning from a morning outing with her toddler son, Annabel finds Dylan dead - lying in their bed with one of her kitchen knives embedded in her chest. Annabel soon finds herself accused of murder, a little boy is kidnapped, and she comes close to dying in an arson fire. The complex plot grows more and more suspenseful as Annabel scrambles to learn the secrets of Dylan's mysterious past, to clear her name, and to save the kidnapped youngsters while her own life and that of her young son are in constant peril. - Publisher Marketing
• Let Loose the Dogs
  Author: Jennings, Maureen
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-01$ 24.95 ISBN: 0312307519
  Anthony Best Historical Mystery Nominee
  Nineteenth-century detective William Murdoch enters into an illegal gambling ring and is forced to confront his past.
• The Woman Who Found Grace
  Author: Johnson, Bett Reece
  Publisher: Cleis PubDate: 2003-05 $ 12.95 ISBN: 1573441503
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Mystery
  In the third novel in the acclaimed Cordelia Morgan mystery series, Grace "Killer" Frost is released from a mental institution and unexpectedly into the arms of international artist-turned-sleuth Cordelia Morgan, whose own shadowy past is closing in on her.
  
• A Visible Darkness
  Author: King, Jonathon
  Publisher: Dutton PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525947140
  Booklist
  Shamus Best P.I. Novel Nominee
  Following up his acclaimed debut that introduced former Philadelphia cop Max Freeman, King delivers another gripping story. When attorney Billy Manchester calls Max about a string of suspicious deaths among elderly women, Max reluctantly pries where he's not wanted to find an unseen killer.
• Keeping Watch
  Author: King, Laurie R.
  Publisher: Bantam PubDate: 2003-03 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801910
  Kirkus LJ PW
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  After years of rescuing children and on the brink of retirement, Alan Carmichael decides to rescue one last teenager from an abusive parent. But, once the boy is safely hidden, Carmichael begins to doubt his decision to intervene: Has he turned a killer free to kill again?
  
• Out
  Author: Kirino, Natsuo
  Publisher: Kodansha PubDate: 2003-08 $ 22.95 ISBN: 4770029055
  LJ
  Edgar Nominee Best Novel Nominee
  A shocking thriller from one of Japan's most lauded female mystery writers. Nothing in the sometimes hazy history of Japanese literature prepares us for the stark, tension-filled, plot-driven realism of Natsuo Kirino's award-winning mystery Out , a work that took the Japanese literary scene by storm and continues to haunt the popular consciousness as a recently released major motion picture submitted for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. - Publisher Marketing
  
• Dream House
  Author: Krich, Rochelle
  Publisher: Ballantine PubDate: 2003-09 $ 24.95 ISBN: 034544972x
  Agatha Nominee Best Novel
  The Anthony Award-winning author returns with the second installment in the adventures of true crime writer Molly Blume, who made her debut in Blues in the Night .
  
• Murder Off Mike
  Author: Krieg, Joyce
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312310269
  Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
  The winner of the 2002 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest for Best First Traditional Mystery introduces Shauna J. Bogart, a smart, sassy radio talk show host at Sacramento's top-rated local station who launches her own investigation into the "suicide" of a fellow shock jock.
  
• Mission Flats
  Author: Landay, Wiliam
  Publisher: Delacorte PubDate: 2003-09 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385336144
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  In the bestselling tradition of Scott Turow and Dennis Lehane, a former district attorney explodes onto the scene with a blistering debut set in Maine and Boston.
  
• A Bloodhound to Die For
  Author: Lanier, Virginia
  Publisher: HarperCollins PubDate: 2003-08 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060193883
  Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee
  In the sixth novel in this popular, award-winning mystery series, Georgia peach Jo Beth Sidden returns with her delightfully fast-on-their-feet bloodhounds. - Publisher Marketing.
  
• Fatal Flaw
  Author: Lashner, William
  Publisher: Morrow PubDate: 2003-05 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060508167
  
  Shamus Best P.I. Novel Nominee
  Lawyer Victor Carl agrees to represent a man accused of killing his fiance, even though he thinks he is guilty of the crime. Soon, however, Victor finds himself on a quest that will lead him to the horrifying discovery that nothing is as simple as it seems.
  
• Shutter Island
  Author: Lehane, Dennis
  Publisher: Morrow PubDate: 2003-05 $ 25.95 ISBN: 0688163173
  Kirkus PW Booklist LJ
  Hammett Nominee
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best Novel Nominee
  The New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and master of the new noir returns with a scorching psychological thriller set in 1954 at Ashcliffe Hospital--a federal institution for the criminally insane. As a storm threatens to strand U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule, they stumble into an evil darker than any nightmare.
  
• Every Secret Thing
  Author: Lippman, Laura
  Publisher: Morrow PubDate: 2003-09$ 24.95 ISBN: 0060506679
  LJ
  Hammett Nominee
  Barry Winner Best Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best Novel Winner
  The acclaimed author's first stand-alone novel is a shocking tale of lost innocence, murder, and betrayal.
  
• The House Sitter
  Author: Lovesey, Peter
  Publisher: Soho PubDate: 2003-06 $ 24.00 ISBN: 1569473269
  Booklist PW
  Macavity Winner Best Mystery Novel
  When a a top psychological profiler for the National Crime Faculty is found strangled to death on a beach, Detective Peter Diamond is called in. He must coordinate his efforts with the original investigating officer, and the cocky young officer charged with investigating the bizarre murder that the victim had been working on.
  
• The Courier
  Author: Maclarty, Jay
  Publisher: Pocket PubDate: 2003-06 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0743464893
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  In this stunning debut thriller, Simon Leonidovich is a high-tech international courier of "packages" that range from priceless works of art to human organs to nuclear materials. Suddenly, he's on the run, trying to protect secret data that could save the lives of millions.
  
• It Takes Two
  Author: Mackle Elliott
  Publisher: Alyson PubDate: 2003-02 $ 13.95 ISBN: 1555837549
  Lambda Finalist Gay Men's Mystery
  Journalist Mackle takes his wonderfully realized "why-done-it?" mystery to fascinating levels as he explores the various factions of a small southern town facing the giant implications of a rapidly changing society.
  
• Epitaph for an Angel: Connor Hawthorne
  Author: Maddison, Lauren
  Publisher: Alyson PubDate: 2003-10 $ 14.95 ISBN: 155583812x
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Mystery
  An investigation uncovers a Pettigrew family conspiracy dating from 17th-century America through Hitler's Third Reich into present day. What is the nature of the special gift of the Pettigrew family, and will Grace use it for good or for evil?
  
• Last Lessons of Summer
  Author: Maron, Margaret
  Publisher: Mysterious PubDate: 2003-08 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967803
  Kirkus PW
  Agatha Nominee Best Novel
  In this dark and suspenseful departure from her critically acclaimed Deborah Knott series, award-winning author Maron follows a young publisher's search for answers to old murders.
  
• The Samurai's Daughter
  Author: Massey, Sujata
  Publisher: HarperCollins PubDate: 2003-03 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066212901
  Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee
  The sixth book in the Agatha and Macavity Award-winning mystery series is a witty and suspenseful story that takes its young sleuth into the world of war reparations and family secrets.
  
• Lovers Crossing
  Author: Mitchell, James C.
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-07 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312315309
  Booklist
  Shamus Best First P.I. Novel Nominee
  Brinker is a private detective and former INS agent whose years policing the border ended when he was shot--most likely by one of his own men. In the tradition of Michael McGarrity, Mitchell introduces a border detective who is as fully human as he is smart and tough.
  
• The Body in the Lighthouse
  Author: Page, Katherine Hall
  Publisher: HarperCollins PubDate: 2003-05 $ 23.95 ISBN: 038097844x
  Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee
  Death takes a holiday in this captivating new mystery in the Agatha Award-winning series. Faith Fairchild heads for their island cottage off the coast of Maine, where something evil is afoot.
  
• Thicker Than Water
  Author: Parrish, P.J.
  Publisher: Pinnacle PubDate: 2003-01 $ 6.99 ISBN: 0786014202
  
  Shamus Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel Nominee
  Anthony Best Paperback Original Nominee
  Twenty years after the brutal rape and murder of a woman in Florida, the man convicted of the crime is released from prison--only days before another horrifying murder is committed. Detective Louis Kinkaid finds himself digging into a decades-old case when he's asked to clear the suspect of the more recent slaying.
  
• Death of a Nationalist
  Author: Pawel, Rebecca C.
  Publisher: Soho PubDate: 2003-02 $ 24 ISBN: 1569473048
  PW
  Edgar Best First Novel Winner
  Macavity Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best First Novel Nominee
  
• Song of the Bones: A Chantalene Mystery
  Author: Preston, M.K.
  Publisher: Corvus PubDate: 2003-12 $ 24.95 ISBN: 1890768545
  Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner
  When Oklahoma postmistress Thelma Patterson must find her long-lost husband to settle a business deal, she asks Chantalene Morrell and attorney Drew Sanders for help. But their case quickly turns deadly when a killer makes his presence known.
• Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus
  Author: Rankin, Ian
  Publisher: Little Brown PubDate: 2003-03 $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316766844
  Kirkus LJ
  Edgar Best Novel Winner
  Inspector John Rebus has messed up badly this time, so badly that he's been sent to a kind of reform school for damaged cops. While there among the last-chancers known as "resurrection men, " he joins a covert mission to gain evidence of a drug heist orchestrated by three of his classmates.
  
• Southland
  Author: Revoyr, Nina
  Publisher: Akashic PubDate: 2003-03 $ 15.95 ISBN: 1888451416
  Edgar Best Paperback Original Nominee
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Fiction
  
• Close to Home
  Author: Robinson, Peter
  Publisher: Avon Books PubDate: 2004-2 $ 7.50 ISBN:0061031097 (US)
  Anthony Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  Detective Inspector Alan Banks has never forgotten the death of his best friend in 1965. When the boy's bones are unearthed 35 years later, the skeleton in the detective's closet becomes all too real.
  
• Damn Straight: Lillian Byrd Crime Stories
  Author: Sims, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Alyson PubDate: 2003-06 $ 13.95 ISBN: 1555837867
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Mystery
  
• A Fountain Filled With Blood
  Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312304102
  PW
  Barry Nominee Best Mystery Novel
  In a small Adirondack town, the violent attack on a doctor triggers a series of gay-bashing episodes. Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne enter a reluctant partnership. As their investigation continues, closeness becomes inevitable.
  
• Black Maps
  Author: Spiegelman, Peter
  Publisher: Knopf PubDate: 2003-08 $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400040752
  PW
  Shamus Best First P.I. Novel Winner
  John March, a former cop now working as a PI in Manhattan, takes the case of Rick Pierro, a self-made man who has almost everything until he falls victim to a serial extortionist adept at psychological and physical intimidation.
  
• Tough Luck
  Author: Starr, Jason
  Publisher: Vintage PubDate: 2002-12 $ 12 ISBN: 0375727116
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  Anthony Best Paperback Original Winner
  Mickey Prada's a nice kid, but he's got a problem. A customer at the fish store keeps asking Mickey to place bets for him and the guy keeps losing. As the guy gets further in the hole, his bad luck turns out to be Mickey's, too. Now Mickey's got his bookie after him and the guy's showing him the butt of his pistol rather than paying him back. So when his best friend, Chris, asks Mickey to join him on a can't lose caper, he decides to go along. But surefire schemes have a way of backfiring, and this one is sending him into an uncharted part of Brooklyn, where fish like Chris and Mickey have trouble just staying alive. - Publisher Marketing.
  
• Bridge of Sighs
  Author: Steinhauer, Olen
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-02 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312302452
  Kirkus
  Edgar Best First Novel Nominee
  Macavity Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  Barry Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best Historical Mystery Nominee
  In this auspicious debut, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post-World War II eastern European city.
  
• O' Artful Death
  Author: Stewart, Sarah Taylor
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-06 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312307640
  Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
  When an art historian who specializes in gravestones looks into the 100-year-old death of a young girl at a Vermont art colony, she ignites the wrath of a present-day killer. Newcomer Taylor delivers a wonderfully atmospheric cozy and academic mystery featuring Sweeney St. George, a Boston art historian.
  
• Cold Quarry
  Author: Straka, Andy
  Publisher: Signet PubDate: 200304- $ 5.99 ISBN: 0451208439
  Shamus Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel Nominee
  When a falconer is found dead in the West Virginian woods, P.I. Frank Pavlicek doesn't believe it was an accidental shooting. Hunting for clues, he discovers evidence of a toxic agent contaminating the area--which leads to a group of domestic terrorists and Frank's former NYPD partner.
  
• The Barbed-Wire Kiss
  Author: Stroby, Wallace
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-02 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312300344
  PW
  Barry Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  In this brooding, blistering debut set against the spare, atmospheric background of working-class New Jersey, retired police officer Harry Rane gets caught between his past and his future, between justice and vengeance.
  
• Wearing Black to a White Party
  Author: Stukas, David
  Publisher: Kensington PubDate: 2003-08 $ 22.95 ISBN: 1750200404
  Lambda Finalist Gay Men's Mystery
  From the author of Someone Killed His Boyfriend and Going Down for the Count , comes the third book in the hilarious mystery series featuring a pair of mismatched homosexuals who get caught up in murder.
  
• Owl of the Desert
  Author: Swearingen, Ida
  Publisher: New Victoria PubDate: 2003-09 $ 12.95 ISBN: 1892281198
  Lambda Finalist Lesbian Mystery
  This adventure / mystery / thriller is a fast-paced novel which follows a young woman's journey from foot soldier for the American Patriotic Front, to inmate at the federal prison, to freedom and her chance to finally seek revenge. - Publisher Marketing.
  
• Monkeewrench
  Author: Tracy, P.J.
  Publisher: Putnam PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149783
  PW
  Dilys Nominee
  Barry Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best First Novel Winner
  Haunted by their pasts, Grace McBride and the crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught and the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone begins duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail.
  
• The Shadow of Venus
  Author: Van Gieson, Judith
  Publisher: Signet PubDate: 2004-02 $ 5.99 ISBN: 0451211340
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  The murder of a young woman takes rare book expert Claire Reynier into Albuquerque's dark streets, where she must shed light on the shadows of the past.
  
• Shop Til You Drop: A Dead-End Job Mystery
  Author: Viets, Elaine
  Publisher: Signet PubDate: 2003-05 $ 5.99 ISBN: 0451208552
  Agatha Nominee Best Novel
  Barry Nominee Best Paperback Original
  First in a brand-new series. Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne has traded in her chic life for a shabby one. And now she's jumping from city to city and dead-end job to dead-end job, trying to stay just one step ahead of her past.
  
• Find Me Again
  Author: Warsh, Sylvia Maultash
  Publisher: Dundurn PubDate: 2003-11 $ 7.99 ISBN: 1550024744
  Edgar Best Paperback Original Winner
  Anthony Best Paperback Original Nominee
  Anthony Best Historical Mystery Nominee
  In this long-awaited sequel to To Die in Spring , Jewish physician Rebecca Temple meets Michael Oginski, a charming Polish count who has written a historical novel, The Stolen Princess , based on his own family, which he claims stems from eighteenth-century royalty.
  
• Blind Eye
  Author: Wilson, John Morgan
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-10 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312309198
  Lambda Finalist Gay Men's Mystery
  When a Los Angeles Times columnist is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident, Benjamin Justice soon finds himself in the midst of a complex case involving a decades-old child murder, a powerful Cardinal, and elements from his own dark past.
  
• Maisie Dobbs
  Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
  Publisher: Soho PubDate: 2003-07 $ 24.00 ISBN: 1569473307
  Library Journall PW
  Dilys Nominee
  Edgar Best Novel Nominee
  Agatha Winner Best First Novel
  Macavity Winner Best First Mystery Novel
  Barry Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  Anthony Best First Novel Nominee
  Anthony Best Historical Mystery Nominee
  "Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie--and a rare treat for mystery fans."--Charles Dodd, A Fearsome Doubt .
  
• Clea's Moon
  Author: Wright, Edward
  Publisher: Putnam PubDate: 2003-04 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399150471
  Barry Nominee Best First Mystery Novel
  This dazzling first novel by a new voice in crime fiction won the Debut Dagger Award from the Crime Writer's Association of Great Britain.
  
• Dead Egotistical Morons
  Author: Zubro, Mark Richard
  Publisher: Minotaur PubDate: 2003-08 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312266820
  Lambda Finalist Gay Men's Mystery
  The singer for a "boy-band" has been brutally murdered. Boys4U is the world's most popular band--at least among pubescent girls. Chicago Police Detective Paul Turner has pulled the case and it's only the very start of a really, really bad time.
  

Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.

Overbooked is not an official Chesterfield County Public Library service. Overbooked.org is a nonprofit web site hosted by CVCO - Central Virginia's Community Online. Overbooked.com is a nonprofit web site in experimental mode. Overbooked does not endorse any commercial providers (or their products and services) linked to from this web site.

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Comments, suggestions, corrections: Ann Chambers Theis (AKA Ann/ACT): ann_overbooked@earthlink.net or ann@overbooked.com

I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents. Special thanks to those folks who regularly help keep me on track - you know who you are....

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"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain" - Louisa May Alcott

"Librarian is a service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind" - Richard Powers