Gumshoe Awards Shortlist Announced

Mystery Ink announced today the shortlist for the fourth annual Gumshoe Awards. We have expanded the categories this year to include separate awards for Best Mystery and Best Thriller, plus an additional category to honor the Best European Crime Novel.

The Gumshoe Awards are given by Mystery Ink each year to recognize the best achievements in the world of crime fiction. The shortlisted books were chosen from those published for the first time in the United States in 2004. The winners will be announced on March 9, 2005.

Best Mystery:
Laura Lippman - By a Spider's Thread (William Morrow) (Review)
T. Jefferson Parker - California Girl (William Morrow) (Review)
Jim Fusilli - Hard, Hard City (Putnam) (Review)
Denise Hamilton - Last Lullaby (Scribner) (Review)
S.J. Rozan - Absent Friends (Delacorte)

Best Thriller:
Barry Eisler - Rain Storm (Putnam) (Review)
Dean Koontz - Life Expectancy (Bantam) (Review)
Alan Furst - Dark Voyage (Random House)
Daniel Silva - A Death in Vienna (Putnam) (Review)
Robert Ferrigno - The Wake-Up (Pantheon) (Review)

Best European Crime Novel:
Henning Mankell - The Return of the Dancing Master (New Press) (Review)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind (Penguin)
Donna Leon - Doctored Evidence (Atlantic Monthly Press) (Review)
Boris Akunin - Murder on the Leviathan (Random House)
Ian Rankin - A Question of Blood (Little Brown) (Review)

Best First Novel:
J.A. Konrath - Whiskey Sour (Hyperion) (Review)
Raelynn Hillhouse - Rift Zone (Forge) (Review)
Dylan Schaffer - Misdemeanor Man (Bloomsbury) (Review)
Harley Jane Kozak - Dating Dead Men (Doubleday) (Review)
Charles Huston - Caught Stealing (Ballantine)

Still to be announced is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the same time as the other winners. There will also be an award for Best Crime Fiction Website.

Last year’s winners were:

Best Novel: Steve Hamilton - Blood Is the Sky (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Best First Novel: P.J. Tracy - Monkeewrench (Putnam)
Best Crime Fiction Website: Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Lifetime Achievement: Ruth Rendell

Congratulations to all of the writers!