A Torrent of Mystery Awards: Lippman and French Rule Ok?

A torrent of Mystery Literary Awards have swept down the Tragic's Book Award River over the last few days. Feeling a little like a man at the bottom of said 30 foot deep river, with only a 29 foot snorkel to breath through, he will nonetheless try to catch a breath and 'filter' the news for his countless faithful followers.

The 2008 Boucheron World mystery "Charmed to Death", Conference was held in Baltimore over the weekend, October 9-12. Four major Mystery/Crime awards, The Barry, the Macavity , the Anthony and the Shamus Award winners were announced in a veritable feast for crime/mystery genre buffs. That's bang for the conference goer' buck if ever there was.

Local woman, Laura Lippman (left), must now be a candidate for the Keys to the City after winning the Best Novel prize in three of the four majors on offer. Her novel, What the Dead Know, won it's category in the Macavity, the Anthonys, and the Barrys.

Lippman, best known as author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series (No Good Deeds, etc), was born in the city and is a former journalist with the Baltimore Sun. Not too sure if she was on the Crime Beat as a journo', but she is proving to be right-up there with the very best thriller writers such as Peter Abrahams having won every major literary mystery/crime award going. Crime-Head critics appear to agree that What the Dead Know, is her best yet - one for the Christmas list perchance?


The other big winner over the weekend was Tana French (left) for her first novel, In the Woods. French, who grew up in Ireland, Italy, the United States, and Malawi, was also took out out the Macavity, the Anthony, and the Barry. Certainly an author to watch-out for, assuming the judges from the planet, Mystery Book Award World, are correct.

Having read countless award winning novels, the Tragic sometimes feels that he is dwelling in a a parallel universe from those learned ones who sit on judging panels- but hope generally precedes disappointment, or occasional elation, as faith is again and again placed in those who specialise in specific genres.


Former Hills Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey scriptwriter, Robert Crais (right) , has now turned out some 15 novels including Hostage, which was turned into a screen play vehicle for Bruce Willis back in 2005. Crais, best known for his long running Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, will have to top-up his trophy insurance with The Watchman, which focuses on ex-cop, ex-marine, ex-mercenary Joe Pike, winning the Best Thriller Macavity Award.

Winners in the hard-boiled Shamus Awards included Reed Farrel Cole's, Soul Patch, a follow-up to the bestselling best-selling, The James Dean. Sean Chercover's, Big City, Bad Blood, featuring disillusioned newspaper reporter-turned-private detective Ray Dudgeo, won the Best First P.I. Novel. A disillusioned newspaper reporter? What an absurd proposition.


Fiscal Shenanigans: Alleged Crime Worth Solving in Lean Times for Authors?
Crime may not pay, but writing about it usually does from increased sales after picking-up an award. Whether that will be the case in these 'lean' times, with many planning to celebrate the looming festive season with a plate of humble pie instead of turkey, remains to be seen.

Maybe the suspicious circumstances surrounding the meltdown of the world's financial markets could provide valuable plot material for those writers bitter about diminished royalties? We can only hope that one of the talented stable of crime writers will turn their intellect to the recent fiscal shenanigans ' and reveal who is truly behind the schlocky affair..... Personally the Tragic suspects Spectre.

All in all over 20 prizes were handed out across the four awards. Full details BookAwardsonline.com.

note:
For those those, such as The Tragic, who have difficulty in sorting-out crime genres between Hard-boiled, Soft-boiled, PI and Cozy etc, the Tragic had a stab, mostly for his own understanding, of describing various crime genres in an earlier post. Judging by the deafening feed-back, the article is:

a) either definitive to the extent that all are scared off by it's authority;

b) so far off the mark it is deemed a crime of 'genre categorisation' in it's own right or;

c) nobody is interested, preferring, quite rightly, to enjoy their crime/mystery book of choice rather than analyse the details pertaining to its genre tribe.

Pour unpretentious moi, once a researcher always a researcher.