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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
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Crime Fiction 2006
Winners Include
The Faithful Spy
by Alex Berenson
Oh Danny Boy
by Rhys Bowen
Restless
by William Boyd
Priest
by Ken Bruen
Ashes and Bones
by Dana Cameron
Lost Angel
by Mike Doogan
The Cleanup
by Sean Doolittle
Killer Instinct
by Joseph Finder
The Jannissary Tree
by Jason Goodwin
The Snakeskin Shamisen
by Naomi Hirahara
The Wrong Kind of Blood
by Declan Hughes
The Last Templar
by Raymond Khoury
No Good Deeds
by Laura Lippman
Riders Down
by John McEvoy
Bloodline
by Fiona Mountain
An Unquiet Grave
by P.J. Parrish
The Heat of the Moon
by Sandra Parshall
The Night Gardner
by George P. Pelecanos
Still Life
by Louise Penny
The Tenderness of Wolves
by Stef Penney
The Virgin of Small Plains
by Nancy Pickard
The Messenger
by Daniel Silva
Mr. Clarinet
by Nick Stone
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2006 Mystery Award Nominees & Winners (Fiction)
Page Modified: April 7, 2008
Books published in 2006.
Agatha, Anthony, Barry, Mary Higgins Clark, Dilys, Edgars, Arthur Ellis Awards, Hammett, Lambda, Macavity Awards, Nero Wolfe & Shamus Nominees, Thriller Writers - and assorted others when possible.
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.
- False Impression
Author: Archer, Jeffrey
Publisher: St Martins $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312353723 Date: 2006
LJ
Thriller Award Best Novel Finalist
Anna Petrescu takes advantage of being missed and presumed dead in the days after 9/11 to seek the killer of an aristocratic old lady and to recover a priceless Van Gogh, which is stolen that night. In his first thriller since The Eleventh Commandment, Archer takes the reader on a breathtaking journey, full of twists and turns.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 1.31.06 - Hallowed Ground
Author: Armstrong, Lori
Publisher: Gold Medallion $ 6.99 ISBN: 9781932815740 Date: 2006
Shamus Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Grisly murders are rocking the small county of Bear Butte where Julie Collins has spent the last few months learning the PI biz. She takes a case involvinga missing Native American girl who could be the innocent pawn in her parents'child custody dispute, or a hostage in a fight to keep a casino from opening
Updated 9.24.07
- White Shadow
Author: Atkins, Ace
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780399153556 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Novel
Inspired by true events, this thriller tells the story of the murder of criminal kingpin Charlie Wall in Tampa, Florida, and those who benefited from his death. "A tour de force from one of the best crime writers at work today."--Michael Connelly
Updated 9.24.07
- The Pale Blue Eye
Author: Bayard, Louis
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060733977 Date: 2006
PW Kirkus
Edgar Nominee Best Novel
In this ingenious tale of murder and revenge at West Point, a retired New York City detective recruits a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe to help him narrow down the suspects, even as they deal with their own personal demons.
Suggested Reading: Poe
Updated 4.24.06 - Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery
Author: Benn, James R.
Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569474338 Date: 2006
Dily Award Nominee
A 22-year-old Irish American cop thinks he's avoiding military service by becoming a general's staff member, but the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dispatched as an "investigator," Billy searches for a German spy amongst the exiled Norwegian government.
Updated 1.30.06 - The Faithful Spy
Author: Berenson, Alex
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345478991 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Booklist
Edgar Winner Best First Novel
Barry Award Best First Novel Nominee
A New York Times reporter has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. Alex Berenson's debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes readers inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Espionage
Updated 3.16.06 - Christine Falls
Author: Black, Benjamin
Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 9780805081527 Date: 2007 (US)
Kirkus PW
Macavity Award Nominee Best Novel
In the debut crime novel from a Booker Prize-winning author, a Dublin pathologist follows the corpse of a mysterious woman into the heart of a conspiracy among the city's high Catholic society.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Lightning Rule
Author: Block, Brett Ellen
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060525064 Date: 2006
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award Nominee
The tale of Detective Martin Emmett as he tracks a killer through the underground tunnels of Newark while the city above erupts in race riots.
Updated 9.24.07
- Oh Danny Boy
Author: Bowen, Rhys
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312328176 Date: 2006
LJ
Barry Award Best Novel Nominee
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award Winner
An Edgar Award finalist captures early 1900s New York as P.I. Molly Murphy sets out to catch a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes.
Updated 2.28.06 - Restless
Author: Boyd, William
Publisher: $ ISBN: 1596912367 Date: 2006
Costa (formerly Whitbread) Award Best Novel
In this masterful and thrilling espionage story, the secrets of Sally Gilmartin's past still haunt her. Someone is trying to kill her and at last she has decided to trust her daughter with her story.
Updated 9.24.07
- Priest
Author: Bruen, Ken
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312341407 Date: 2007 (US)
PW
Barry Award Winner Best British Novel
From the award-winning author of The Dramatist comes an unsettled and original novel. "Readers will appreciate Bruen's stripped-down noir poetry, his superbly rendered sense of place and his evocative portrait of a person balanced on the razor's edge" ("Publishers Weekly").
Updated 9.24.07
- The Dramatist
Author: Bruen, Ken
Publisher: Minoatur $ 22.95 ISBN: 031234167x Date: 2006
PW
Shamus Best PI Novel Nominee
A shadowy killer is stalking Galway in the fourth entry in the critically-acclaimed, award-winning Jack Taylor series.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled | Noir Stars
Updated 1.17.06 - Bust
Author: Bruen, Ken & Jason Starr
Publisher: Hardcase $ 6.99 ISBN: 0843955910 Date: 2006
PW
Barry Award Best Paperback Original Nominee
Two of crime fiction's hottest rising stars collaborate for the first time in this suspenseful story. Everything goes wrong when cheating husband Max Fisher hires a psychotic hitman to murder his wife.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled | Noir Stars
Updated 3.16.06 - Kidnapped
Author: Burke, Jan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743273850 Date: 2006
LJ
Anthony Award Nominee Best Novel
Nero Wolfe Award Nominee
Reporter Irene Kelly and her husband, Detective Frank Harriman, are back in this "New York Times" bestseller, in which they work to untangle the threads of a past crime and a haunting disappearance while trying to survive the present.
Updated 9.24.07
- Ashes and Bones: Emma Fielding
Author: Cameron, Dana
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060554673 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Winner Best Paperback Original
While archaeologist Emma Fielding is haunted by her past, a stalker zeroes in on her every move in this sixth mystery from real-life archaeologist Dana Cameron.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Goodbye Kiss
Author: Carlotto, Massimo
Publisher: Europa $ 14.95 ISBN: 1933372052 Date: 2006
Edgar Nominee Best Paperback Original
An unscrupulous womanizer, as devoid of morals now as he once was full of idealistic fervor, returns to Italy, where he is wanted for a series of crimes. To earn himself the guise of respectability, he is willing to go as far as murder. Massimo Carlotto, master of the Mediterranean noir-hard-boiled crime novels that call enticing but violent cities like Marseilles, Naples, and Algiers home-and ex-con himself, has gained a reputation as one of the genre's most talented writers. Carlotto's first book, The Fugitive, deals with his time on the run in Latin America.
Updated 2.19.07 - Ghost Dancer
Author: Case, John
Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345464737 Date: 2006
Hammett Prize Nominee
Jack Wilson, brilliant mathematician and diabolical madman, plans to adapt a harmonic resonance weapon to dismantle the technologically interdependent components of Western civilization.
Updated 2.19.07 - Consigned to Death
Author: Cleland, Jane K.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312347251 Date: 2006
Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
Macavity Nominee Best First Novel
After a price-fixing scandal at her prestigious New York auction house, Josie Prescott moves to the New Hampshire coast to restore her reputation. When the owner of the collection she has just assessed is found stabbed to death, Josie's fingerprints are found on the murder weapon.
Updated 2.19.07 - Bee's Kiss
Author: Cleverly, Barbara
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 078671736x Date: 2006
PWLJ
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Nominee
It's 1926, and Joe Sandilands is back from Ranipur, yet there is a darkness behind all the postwar gaiety. Against the background of a looming general strike and pressure from an unseen governmental presence, Joe struggles to solve four murders, picking his way through the political panic and rebelling against authority.
Updated 7.11.06 - The Last Quarry
Author: Collins, Max Allan
Publisher: $ ISBN: 0843955937 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
On the 30th anniversary of his first appearance, enigmatic assassin Quarry stars in this gritty novel inspired by Collins's award-winning short film "A Matter of Principal," written for his acclaimed anthology movie "Shades of Noir." Lured out of retirement, Quarry is hired to kill a young librarian. He doesn't count on falling in love.
Updated 9.24.07
- 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers
Author: Cook, Troy
Publisher: Capital Crime $ 14.95 ISBN: 0977627667 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Macavity Nominee Best First Novel
Updated 9.24.07
- Lost Angel
Author: Doogan, Mike
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153713 Date: 2006
Booklist
Edgar Award Winner Best First Novel
Shamus Award Nominee Best First P.I. Novel
The icy interior of Alaska is the setting for this breathtaking first mystery by the winner of the Robert L. Fish Award for short fiction. An astonishing debut in the tradition of Nevada Barr and C.J. Box, Lost Angel explores the darker side of man's nature.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Cleanup
Author: Doolittle, Sean
Publisher: Dell $ 6.99 ISBN: 0440242827 Date: 2006
Booklist
Anthony Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Barry Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Busted to night patrol at a robbery-prone Omaha supermarket, Matthew Worth is doing time, wearing his uniform, and asking shoppers if they want paper or plastic. If that isn't enough, he suspects he might be falling for Gwen, the shy checkout girl who may be an even bigger mess than he is. When Gwen comes to him one night scared and desperate for help, Worth discovers just how far he's willing to go to protect and serve.
Updated 10.2.06 - The Last Assassin
Author: Eisler, Barry
Publisher: $ ISBN: 0399153594 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Novel
When freelance assassin John Rain learns that his former lover Midori has been raising their son in New York, he senses a chance for reconciliation, perhaps even redemption. But Midori is being watched by Rain's enemies, and his sudden appearance would put mother and child in danger.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Open Curtain
Author: Evenson, Brian
Publisher: Coffee House $ 14.95 ISBN: 1566891884 Date: 2006
Edgar Nominee Best Paperback Original
When Rudd, a troubled teenager, embarks on a school project, he runs across a series of articles from the 1902 New York Times chronicling a vicious murder committed by the grandson of Brigham Young. Delving deeply into the Mormon ritual of blood sacrifice used in the murders, Rudd, along with his newly discovered half-brother, Lael, becomes swept up in the psychological and atavistic effects of this violent, antique ritual.
As the past and the present become an increasingly tangled knot, Rudd is found at the scene of a multiple murder at a remote campsite with minor injuries and few memories. Lyndi, the daughter of the victims, tries to help Rudd recover his memory and, together, they find a strength unique to survivors of terrible tragedies. But Rudd, desperate to protect Lyndi and unable to let the past be still, tries to manipulate their Mormon wedding ceremony to trick the priests (and God) by giving himself and Lyndi new secret names-names that match the killer and the victim in the one hundred-year-old murder. The nightmare has just begun . .
Updated 2.19.07 - Baby Shark
Author: Fate, Robert
Publisher: Capital Crime $ 14.95 ISBN: 0977627691 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Updated 9.24.07
- The Prisoner of Guantanamo
Author: Fesperman, Dan
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 1400044669 Date: 2006
LJ
Hammett Prize Nominee
Barry Award Best Novel Nominee
Revere Falk--an FBI veteran and Arabic speaker--is an interrogator at "Gitmo," assigned to a Yemeni prisoner who may have valuable information about al Qaeda. But these duties are temporarily suspended when the body of an American soldier is found washed ashore in Cuban territory. Suddenly, Cold War tension is back and Falk finds himself at the heart of it.
Updated 2.19.07 - Killer Instinct
Author: Finder, Joseph
Publisher: St Martins$ 24.95 ISBN: 0312347472 Date: 2006
PW
Thriller Award Winner Best Novel
Barry Award Best Thriller Nominee
Killer Instinct is the latest "high octane thrill ride" ("San Francisco Chronicle") from the international bestselling "CEO of Suspense" hailed by critics as "perhaps the finest of the contemporary thriller novelists" ("Pittsburgh Post Gazette").
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.16.06 - The Chef Who Died Sauteing
Author: Fingelstein, Honora & Susan Smily
Publisher: Hilliar & Harris $ 28.95/14.66 ISBN: 1591331595/1591331609Date: 2006
Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
The Chef Who Died Sautiing is the first mystery in a series featuring Ariel Quigley, a young English professor who is also an Army veteran, a poet, and a psychic detective who reads Tarot cards and talks to ghosts. Early in the book Ariel moves in with her friend Bernice Wise, a psychotherapist with a large Colonial house in Alexandria, Virginia, college-age twins-and a resident ghost from the pre-Civil War era, whose murder Ariel uncovers. Bernice introduces Ariel to the crew at the Riviera, a nearby French restaurant, where the famous chef Daniel Lafayette creates magic with food while the waiters entertain the guests with Monty Python humor. The head waiter takes a shine to Ariel and asks her out. But before their romance can begin to bud, a bombing, a murder, and a suspicious accident occur. Is someone out to destroy the staff of the Riviera? Will Ariel find the killer with help from the resident ghost? - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.19.07 - Sharp Objects
Author: Flynn, Gillian
Publisher: Shambhala $ 24 ISBN: 0307341542 Date: 2006
Kirkus
LJ
Edgar Nominee Best First Novel
Barry Award Nominee Best First Novel
After eight years, the murders of two preteen girls--timed nearly a year apart--bring reporter Camille Preaker reluctantly back to her hometown. As she works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past.
Updated 8.10.06 - The Saddlemaker's Wife
Author: Fowler, Earlene
Publisher: Berkley $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425207781 Date: 2006
Kirkus PW
Agatha Nominee Best Novel
After the death of her husband, Ruby McGavin is shocked to learn she's inherited part of a cattle ranch in California. She's even more shocked to learn the family he claimed died years ago is very much alive. Driven to discover the whole story, Ruby discovers a legacy of pain and denial.
Updated 3.21.06 - City of Shadows
Author: Franklin, Ariana
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95ISBN: 0060817267 Date: 2006
LJ
Barry Award Best Novel Nominee
Gorky Park meets Fatherland in this wonderfully vivid, thoroughly engrossing novel of suspense set in Germany between the two wars.
Updated 5.4.06 - A Safe Place for Dying
Author: Fredrickson, Jack
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312351682 Date: 2006
PW
Shamus Award Nominee Best First P.I. Novel
An extortion letter arrives at Crystal Waters, one of Chicago's wealthiest gated communities. It makes no specific threats, gives no instructions, demands only that $50,000 be gotten ready---chump change for an enclave where the cheapest house is worth three million. It's easy to see it as harmless---a note from a nut.
Then a mansion explodes. The homeowners panic, and want it hushed up. If word gets out that a bomber is targeting Crystal Waters, their multimillion-dollar homes will become worthless, a last catastrophe for people strung out from living the good life too well. They hire Dek Elstrom to investigate.
Another bomb goes off, and Dek realizes the culprit must be someone who is angry, needs money, and used to live at Crystal Waters. Then he realizes something else. He himself is the prime suspect.
A sly and clever caper among the richest of the rich, A Safe Place for Dying is for fans of Carl Hiaasen and Robert Crais. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.23.06 - The Foreign Correspondent
Author: Furst, Alan
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400060192 Date: 2006
PWKirkusBooklistLJ
Barry Award Best Thriller Nominee
"The greatest living writer of espionage fiction" ("Houston Chronicle") returns with his most suspenseful and stylish novel yet, in which an international news correspondent's secret life leads him to become a target for assassination.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Espionage
Updated 5.15.06 - The Berlin Conspiracy
Author: Gabbay, Tom
Publisher: Morrow $24.95 ISBN: 0060787856 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best First Novel
Jack Teller stopped being a company man after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. But a spy is never really out of the game, and just days before President John F. Kennedy is scheduled to visit Berlin, a mysterious contact claims to have information on a treacherous plot he will only tell Jack.
Updated 9.24.07
- Shotgun Opera
Author: Gischler, Victor
Publisher: Dell $ 6.99 ISBN: 0440241715 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
A retired hitman gets back into the game to help out a nephew, but soon finds himself up against a hot young female assassin and a whole new set of rules in this new work by the Edgar Award-nominated author of Gun Monkeys.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Janissary Tree
Author: Goodwin, Jason
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374178607 Date: 2006
Edgar Winner Best Novel
Macavity Award Nominee Best Novel
The author of Lords of the Horizons, a history of the Ottoman Empire, makes a welcome shift to fiction with the first book in an impressive new mystery series set in the empire's declining decades.
Updated 2.19.07 - A Stolen Season
Author: Hamilton, Steve
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 031235360x Date: 2006
Nero Award Finalist
The seventh in the series by an Edgar Award-winning author escalates with all the unrelenting tension and furious energy that have won Hamilton a special place in crime fiction.
Updated 9.24.07
- Gentlemen and Players
Author: Harris, Joanne
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060559144 Date: 2006
PW Booklist LJ
Edgar Nominee Best Novel
Friendship, murder, revenge, and class conflict collide in an upper-crust English school. As a new term gets under way, a number of annoying incidents befall students and faculty, escalating to murder.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | School Stars
Updated 12.27.05 - The King of Lies
Author: Hart, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 031234161x Date: 2006
PW
Booklist LJ
Edgar Nominee Best First Novel
Anthony Nominee Best First Novel
Macavity Nominee Best First Novel
Barry Award Nominee Best First Novel
When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface, and he sees his own carefully constructed facade begin to crack.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 3.20.06 - The Prop
Author: Hautman, Pete
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 ISBN: 0743284658 Date: 2006
Booklist
Shamus Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
A National Book Award winner pens a fast-paced mystery featuring a professional poker player who ups the ante in a deadly game of winner-take-all.
Suggested Reading: Best Bets
Updated 3.6.06 - Why Casey Had to Die: Harry Bronson
Author: Hayden, L.C.
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 1594144931 Date: 2006
Agatha Award Nominee Best Novel
Updated 3.1.07 - Snakesin Shamisen
Author: Hirahara, Naomi
Publisher: Delta $ 12 ISBN: 0385339615 Date: 2006
Edgar Winner Best Paperback Original
Anthony Nominee Best First Novel
A battered snakeskin "shamisen" (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of a crime leads Mas Arai to a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of L.A.--a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.
Updated 2.19.07 - Holmes on the Range
Author: Hockensmith, Steve
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312347804 Date: 2006
LJ PW Booklist
Dily Nominee
Edgar Nominee Best First Novel
Anthony Nominee Best First Novel
Shamus Award Nominee Best First PI Novel
Somewhere due west of Deadwood, a pair of unlikely cowboy sleuths investigate murder just like their hero, Sherlock Holmes, who they come to know by scouring "Harper's Weekly" for the detective stories.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres | Elementary Stars | All Stars | Debuts
Updated 2.21.06 - The Wrong Kind of Blood
Author: Hughes, Declan
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060825464 Date: 2006
Shamus Award Winner Best First PI Novel
After 20 years in Los Angeles, Ed Loy returns home to Dublin to bury his mother. Suddenly, a tragic homecoming could prove fatal for the grieving private investigator.
Updated 9.24.07 - A Dangerous Man
Author: Huston, Charlie
Publisher: Ballantine $ 13.95 ISBN: 034548133x Date: 2006
Anthony Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
The thrilling conclusion of the revered Henry Thompson trilogy, this text follows crime fiction fan's hero as he makes one final, desperate play for his parents' lives.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Darkest Place
Author: Judson, Daniel
Publisher: Minotaur $ ISBN: Date: 2006
Shamus Award Nominee Best PI Novel
From Shamus Award winner Judson comes a riveting, accomplished crime novel set in the seedy underside of the Hamptons.
Updated 9.24.07
- Relentless
Author: Kernick, Simon
Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 0593054717 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Thriller
There is only one truth left in your world. They want you. And they want you dead — the new stand-alone thriller by crime-writing’ s rising star.
John Meron, a happily married father of two, who’ s never been in trouble, receives a phone call that will change his life forever. His friend, Jack Calley, a high-flying city lawyer, is screaming down the phone for help. As Meron listens, Calley is murdered. His last words, spoken to his killer, are the first two lines of Meron’ s address.
Confused and terrified, Meron scoops up his children and hurries out of the house. Just in time. Within minutes a car pulls up outside and three men get out. It’ s clear that they’ re coming for him. He’ s being hunted and he has no idea why. And with his wife missing, an unidentified corpse in her office, and the police after him for murder, his life’ s about to get one hell of a lot worse.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Last Templar
Author: Khoury, Raymond
Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525949410 Date: 2006
Quill Award Winner Debut Author
An antiterrorist specialist and an archeologist are drawn into the dark, hidden history of the crusading Knights of Templar--a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers as they race across three continents to recover a lost secret.
Updated 9.24.07
- Do-Re-Mi
Author: Kuhlken, Ken
Publisher: Poisoned Press $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058337x Date: 2006
Kirkus
Shamus Award Nominee Best PI Novel
Clifford Hickey, scheduled to perform a guitar gig at a music festival, arrives at his brother Alvaro's peaceful woodland campsite, and within moments their camp is stormed by armed men who arrest the brothers for murder. Soon they are pitched into not just a murder but a duel between the Hickeys and a motorcycle gang, and the locals.
Updated 8.28.06 - The Mournful Teddy
Author: Lamb, John J.
Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 ISBN: 0425211126 Date: 2006
Dilys Award Nominee
This first title in a new mystery series introduces retired San Francisco cop Bradley Lyon and his wife, who have settled into life in the Shenandoah Valley, where they make and collect teddy bears. When a pricey teddy with historical significance goes missing from a collector's convention, and a murder seems tied to it, Brad starts an investigation.
Updated 2.19.07 - Cold Kill
Author: Leather, Stephen
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton $ 29.95/14.95 ISBN: 0340834102/0340834110 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Thriller Award Best Novel Finalist
Barry Award Nominee Best Thriller
A trawler in the North Sea is in trouble. Its cargo: hundreds of illegal immigrants. Dan Shepherd is sent to lead the rescue operation, and then to investigate the tragedy. What he finds is a counterfeit currency ring and a huge people-trafficking network. But the web reaches wider still, and as his investigation deepens, he discovers that the criminal proceeds are destined to finance the greatest terrorist attack of all. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.8.06 - The Deep Blue Alibi
Author: Levine, Paul
Publisher: Bantam $ 6.99 ISBN: 0440242746 Date: 2006
Edgar Nominee Best Paperback Original
Mismatched Miami attorneys Victoria Lord and Steve Solomon (Solomon Vs. Lord) return for this second courthouse drama. As an explosive trial looms, Solomon and Lord are fighting against time, the law, and each other to expose a killer who came to paradise--and hasn't left.
Updated 2.19.07 - Feint of Art: Annie Kincaid
Author: Lind, Hailey
Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 ISBN: 0451216997 Date: 2006
Agatha Award Nominee Best First Novel
Annie tells her ex-boyfriend Ernst that his museum's new $15 million Caravaggio is a fake. Then the janitor is killed, Ernst disappears, and a dealer takes several Old Master drawings.
Updated 3.1.07 - No Good Deeds
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060570725 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Winner Best Novel
Quill Winner Mystery & Suspense
The unsolved murder of a prosecutor becomes too personal when Tess's boyfriend brings home a street kid who holds an important key to the case. Tess finds out how far official authorities will go to get their way. Soon she's facing felony charges, and the boy has gone into hiding beyond her reach.
Updated 9.24.07
- Dying Light
Author: MacBride, Stuart
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312339976 Date: 2006
Booklist LJ
Barry Award Nominee Best British Novel
With this follow-up to Cold Granite, MacBride proves himself to be a rising star of crime fiction, as his ferocious and funny Scottish wit combines with detailed authenticity in this story about a cop whos charged with solving a series of vicious crimes in Aberdeens red-light district.
Updated 9.24.07
- Murder on the Rocks: Gray Whale Inn
Author: MacInerney, Karen
Publisher: Midnight Ink $ 12.95 ISBN: 0738709085 Date: 2006
Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
Trading Texas heat for Maine''s tangy salt air, Natalie Barnes risked it all to buy the Gray Whale Inn, a quaint bed and breakfast on Cranberry Island. She adores whipping up her signature blueberry coffee cake and killer cranberry scones for her guests. But when her guests start turning up dead, the police and most of the townspeople think Natalie has added murder to the mix.
Now, Natalie must get cooking to solve the mystery and find the true killer before she loses the Gray Whale Inn. Or her life... - Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.1.07 - Riders Down
Author: McEvoy, John
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590582586 Date: 2006
Booklist
Ben Franklin Award Winner
No one really notices that a fix may be in until Matt O'Connor, a Chicago-based columnist for a national racing newspaper, gets a call from Moe Kellman, a horse-owning acquaintance. Kellman's question for Matt: Was the death of ninety-two-year-old Bernard Glockner, Chicago's oldest active bookmaker, suicide or murder?
Suggested Reading: Horse Tales
Updated 2.16.06 - Live WIre
Author: Maclarty, Jay
Publisher: Pocket $ 7.99 ISBN: 1416503471 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
In this third novel featuring professional courier Simon Leonidovich, Simon is ensnared in an elaborate scheme to overthrow the president of the United States. Trapped in hostile North Korea, Simon uses all his resources to escape and to track the conspiracy to the CIA.
Updated 9.24.07
- Dead Hour
Author: Mina, Denise
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 0316735949 Date: 2006
PW Kirkus
Edgar Nominee Best Novel
Anthony Nominee Best Novel
Macavity Award Nominee Best Novel
Paddy Meehan, a scrappy, self-doubting yet determined reporter, returns with a complex and deadly crime to investigate. Making a connection between a dead prosecutor and a suicide victim, Paddy follows her idea to its shocking--and deadly--conclusion.
Updated 5.24.06 - Bloodline
Author: Mountain, Fiona
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312323255 Date: 2006
PW
Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner
"Cinderella is in the bluebell woods at Poacher's Dell...." The anonymous note means nothing to ancestor detective Natasha Blake. Then one of her clients, an enigmatic old man who had commissioned a family tree of his granddaughter's boyfriend, is shot dead at his isolated farm in the Cotswolds, just as shocking facts about the past are brought to light. Is there a link? Seemingly unconnected yet haunting stories begin to emerge, like slowly developing photographs: two young soldiers---one German, one British---playing football; two young women---inseparable friends until a fatal mistake tears them apart; and the eerie echo of a child in an English country house. It is these individual lives that becomes the clues in Natasha's investigation, ghostly fingerprints that she must use to solve a cold-blooded, blue-blooded crime, hidden for generations in the bluebell woods at Poacher's Dell. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.19.07 - Vanishing Point
Author: Muller, Marcia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.99 ISBN: 0892968052 Date: 2006
LJ
Shamus Award Nominee Best PI Novel
In the latest installment in this critically acclaimed series, McCone is hired to investigate one of San Luis Obispo County's most puzzling cold cases. New evidence suggests that a missing woman may have led a strange double life.
Updated 6.20.06 - City of Tiny Lights
Author: Neate, Patrick
Publisher: Riverhead $ 14 ISBN: 1594481865 Date: 2006
Booklist
Edgar Nominee Best Paperback Original
From an award-winning novelist comes a literary mystery that introduces a new kind of British detective, Ugandan-Indian Tommy Akhtar, and a side of London that the mystery world has never seen.
Updated 2.19.07 - Days of Rage: Smokey Dalton
Author: Nelscott, Kris
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312325290 Date: 2006
PWKirkusBooklist
Shamus Award Nominee Best PI Novel
Spotted Owl Award
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 3.16.06 - Dark Companion
Author: Nisbet, Jim
Publisher: Dennis McMillan $ 30 ISBN: 0939767546 Date: 2006
PW
Hammett Prize Nominee
Updated 2.19.07 - An Unquiet Grave
Author: Parrish, P.J.
Publisher: Pinnacle $ 6.99 ISBN: 0786016078 Date: 2006
PW
Thriller Award Winner Best Paperback Original
Shamus Award Winner Best Paperback Original
When the body of a stranger is found in the grave of a woman in the forgotten cemetery of an abandoned, notorious sanitarium in Michigan, Louis Kincaid investigates. On his darkest journey yet, Kincaid is led to the long, dark tunnels below the asylum, where he unearths crimes of unimaginable depravity.
Updated 12.5.05 - The Heat of the Moon
Author: Parshall, Sandra
Publisher: Poisone Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058256x Date: 2006
Agatha Nominee Best First Novel
In this debut novel, a young veterinarian turns detective to investigate her own past. The heartbreaking truth she uncovers will shatter her world and force her to make an unthinkable choice.
Updated 3.1.07 - The Night Gardener
Author: Pelecanos, George P.
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 0316156507 Date: 2006
BooklistLJPW
Barry Award Winner Best Novel
It's been 20 years since three teenagers were killed and their abused bodies were left in public parks. The case was never solved, but the two lead detectives on the case have pursued very different paths during the last two decades.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 6.20.06 - Still Life
Author: Penny, Louise
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312352557 Date: 2006
Booklist
PW Kirkus
Dilys Award Winner
Anthony Winner Best First Novel
Barry Award Winner Best First Novel
A Debut Dagger honor book in the U.K., this work introduces an engaging series hero in Inspector Armand Gamache who commands his forces with integrity and quiet courage. Locals are convinced a murder was no more than a tragic hunting accident, but Gamache uncovers something more sinister.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 5.10.06 - Tenderness of Wolves
Author: Penny, Stef
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781416540748 Date: 2007 (US)
KirkusLJ PW
Costa (Whitbread) Award Winner Best First Novel
In this brutal, epic debut novel, a man is found murdered and a 17-year-old boy is on the run. While vigilantes and rescue searchers head out to look for the fugitive, all the mother of the boy wants is her son back. She will do anything to see him home safe, even at the peril of her own life.
Updated 9.24.07
- Dark Assassin
Author: Perry, Anne
Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345469291 Date: 2006
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award Nominee
Thames River Police Superintendent William Monk witnesses a young couple's plunge into the icy waters. Is it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? The ensuing investigation leads him toward a conspiracy that reverberates into the highest levels of Her Majesty's government.
Updated 9.24.07
- Virgin of Small Plains
Author: Pickard, Nancy
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345470990 Date: 2006
Dilys Award Nominee
Edgar Nominee Best Novel
Agatha Winner Best Novel
Anthony Nominee Best Novel
Macavity Award Winner Best Novel
Some of the leading citizens of Small Plains, Kansas, are determined to keep the truth buried when a long-ago murder resurfaces with devastating and deadly consequences.
Updated 2.19.07 - The Crimes of Jordan Wise
Author: Pronzini, Bill
Publisher: Walker $ 23.95 ISBN: 0802714935 Date: 2006
LJ
Hammett Prize Nominee
This classic tale of love, greed, betrayal, and violence is told with Pronzini's characteristic twists and turns and his special brand of suspense. It is also a powerful psychological examination of a man, a woman, and the wages of sin.
Updated 2.19.07 - Field of Darkness
Author: Read, Cornelia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 22.95 ISBN: 089296023x Date: 2006
Kirkus
Booklist LJ
Edgar Nominee Best First Novel
Anthony Nominee Best First Novel
Barry Award Nominee Best First Novel
Macavity Award Nominee Best First Novel
A tough-talking, shotgun-toting debutante gets in over her head investigating a pair of cold case murders in this assured, thrilling first novel.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 3.20.06 - Piece of My Heart
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $24.95 ISBN: 006054435X Date: 2006
Kirkus
Macavity Award Nominee Best Novel
The sins of the past come back with a vengeance in this complex, multilayered thriller which finds Detective Inspector Alan Banks investigating the case of a murdered freelance music journalist, a case which will take him back through more than 30 years into an old murder that may be chillingly connected.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 4.24.06 - Soverign
Author: Sansom, C.J.
Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780670038312 Date: 2007(US)
Kirkus
Barry Award Nominee Best British Novel
From one of P.D. James's favorite mystery authors comes the third Shardlake novel, set in autumn 1541 during the reign of Henry VIII. This time Matthew Shardlake is faced with the most terrifying fate of the age: imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Case of the Missing Books
Author: Sansom, Ian
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 12.95 ISBN: 9780060822507 Date: 2007 (US)
Barry Award Nominee Best British Novel
Israel Armstrong is a passionate soul, lured to Ireland by the promise of an exciting new career. Alas, the job that awaits him is not quite what he had in mind. Still, Israel is not one to dwell on disappointment, as he prepares to drive a mobile library around a small, damp Irish town. After all, the scenery is lovely, the people are charming--but where are the books? The rolling library's 15,000 volumes have mysteriously gone missing, and it's up to Israel to discover who would steal them . . . and why. And perhaps, after that, he will tackle other bizarre and perplexing local mysteries--like, where does one go to find a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper? - Publisher Marketing
Updated 9.24.07
- The Thirteenth Tale
Author: Setterfield, Diane
Publisher: Atria $ 26 ISBN: 0743298020 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Dilys Award Nominee
"All children mythologize their birth... "So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the 12 that do exist.
Updated 2.19.07 - 18 Seconds
Author: Shuman, George D.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25.95 ISBN: 0743277163 Date: 2006
Shamus Award Nominee Best First PI Novel
A blind psychic with a remarkable gift--she can see the last 18 seconds of a murder victim's life--helps a newly minted female police lieutenant hunt down a brutal serial killer in this gripping debut thriller.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Messenger
Author: Silva, Daniel
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399153357 Date: 2006
LJ
Thriller Award Finalist Best Novel
Barry Award WInner Best Thriller
Israeli agent and art restorer Gabriel Allon faces terrorism once again in this follow-up to Prince of Fire, filled with remarkable characters and breathtaking double and triple turns of plot.
Updated 7.11.06 - The Harrowing
Author: Sokoloff, Alexandra
Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312325486 Date: 2006
Anthony Award Nominee Best First Novel
Baird College's Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it' only gathering itself for the coming weekend.As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine---and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It' only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what's become of them. But for now it's just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants and no one will miss. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 9.24.07
- All Mortal Flesh
Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312312644 Date: 2006
LJ PW Kirkus
Anthony Nominee Best Novel
Nero Award Finalist
Macavity Award Nominee Best Novel
One horrible murder. Two people destined for love or tragedy. Emotions explode in Spencer-Fleming's most accomplished mystery yet.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.16.06 - Liberation Movements
Author: Steinhauer, Olen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312332041 Date: 2006
LJ
PW
Edgar Nominee Best Novel
The personal becomes political in the latest in Steinhauer's award-nominated, acclaimed Eastern European crime series.
Updated 5.15.06 - Mr Clarinet
Author: Stone, Nick
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060897291 Date: 2007 (US)
Macavity Award Winner Best First Novel
Thriller Awards Winner Best First Thriller
Barry Awards Nominee Best British Novel
One of Britains favorite writers finally comes to America, in this novel that is gritty and unremittingly dark, replete with supervillains . . . [that] pays homage to pulp fiction and film noir.--("The Guardian")
Updated 9.24.07
- Deadman's Poker
Author: Swain, Jim
Publisher: Fawcett $ 6.99 ISBN: 0345475496 Date: 2006
Barry Awards Nominee Best Paperback Original
The first in a two-novel, back-to-back series follows scam-buster Tony Valentine as he heads to Sin City to match wits with killer cardsharks working the ultimate con. Includes insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Uncomfortable Dead
Author: Taibo, Paco Ignacio
Publisher: $ ISBN: 1933354070 Date: 2006
Shamus Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
In alternating chapters, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos and the consistently excellent Paco Ignacio Taibo II create an uproarious murder mystery with two intersecting story lines.
The two stories collide absurdly and dramatically in the urban sprawl of Mexico City. The ugly history of the city's political violence rears its head, and both detectives find themselves in an unpredictable dance of death with forces at once criminal, historical, and political. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 9.24.07
- Beautiful Lies
Author: Unger, Lisa
Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0307336689 Date: 2006
PWBooklist
Thriller Awards Finalist Best First Novel
In this sexy, fast-paced literary thriller, Unger takes readers on a breathtaking ride in which a young New York writer's good deed has terrible consequences and leaves her running for her life.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.6.06 - Four Kinds of Rain
Author: Ward, Robert
Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 031235780x Date: 2006
PW
Hammett Prize Nominee
From the author of Red Baker comes the story of a disgruntled psychiatrist who proceeds down a dark path from which there is no return. "A darkly comic masterpiece."--Michael Connelly.
Updated 2.19.07 - Messenger of Truth: Maisie Dobbs
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805078983 Date: 2006
PW
Agatha Nominee Best Novel
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award Nominee
Maisie Dobbs investigates the mysterious death of a controversial artist--and World War I veteran--in the fourth entry in the bestselling series set in 1931 London.
Updated 2.12.07 - Kill Me
Author: White, Stephen
Publisher: Dutton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0525949305 Date: 2006 LJ
Barry Award Nominee Best Thriller
In this "thinking person's thriller" (Jeffery Deaver), bestselling author Stephen White throws out everything readers think they know about twists, turns, and surprises as he introduces the Death Angels.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 12.27.05 - Crooked
Author: Wiprud, Brian M.
Publisher: Dell $ 6.99 ISBN: 0440243122 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
Shamus Award Nominee Best Paperback Original
The award-winning author of Stuffed returns with a gritty and wildly hilarious mystery featuring a black sheep insurance investigator who discovers it's better to be crooked than dead.
Updated 9.24.07
- Red Sky Lament
Author: Wright, Ed
Publisher: Orion $ 29.95 ISBN: 0752869299 Date: 2006
Barry Award Nominee Best British Novel
Updated 9.24.07
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