It’s a tremendous honor to learn that my story “Parallel Play” from the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning has been named a finalist for this year’s Anthony Award for Best Short Story, alongside stories by Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Johnny Shaw, and Holly West. Hooray for all!
Thanks to all the readers and to my fellow writers for helping to vote my story to this distinguished slate of finalists; to Storm Warning‘s editors Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley and to everyone in the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime; and to our publisher, Wildside Press!
“Parallel Play” won this year’s Agatha Award at Malice Domestic in late April and is also a finalist for the Thriller Award, the winner of which will be named at ThrillerFest in mid-July. The Anthony Awards will be presented at a brunch on Sunday, October 15, the final day of this year’s Bouchercon.
The full list of Anthony Award finalists is below. Congratulations to all—and see you in Toronto!
ANTHONY AWARD NOMINATIONS for 2017
Best Novel
- You Will Know Me – Megan Abbott [Little, Brown]
- Where It Hurts – Reed Farrel Coleman [G.P. Putnam’s Sons]
- Red Right Hand – Chris Holm [Mulholland]
- Wilde Lake – Laura Lippman [William Morrow]
- A Great Reckoning – Louise Penny [Minotaur]
Best First Novel
- Dodgers – Bill Beverly [Crown]
- IQ – Joe Ide [Mulholland]
- Decanting a Murder – Nadine Nettmann [Midnight Ink]
- Design for Dying – Renee Patrick [Forge]
- The Drifter – Nicholas Petrie [G.P. Putnam’s Sons]
Best Paperback Original
- Shot in Detroit – Patricia Abbott [Polis]
- Leadfoot – Eric Beetner [280 Steps]
- Salem’s Cipher – Jess Lourey [Midnight Ink]
- Rain Dogs – Adrian McKinty [Seventh Street]
- How to Kill Friends and Implicate People – Jay Stringer [Thomas & Mercer]
- Heart of Stone – James W. Ziskin [Seventh Street]
Best Short Story
- “Oxford Girl” – Megan Abbott, Mississippi Noir [Akashic]
- “Autumn at the Automat” – Lawrence Block, In Sunlight or in Shadow [Pegasus]
- “Gary’s Got A Boner” – Johnny Shaw, Waiting to Be Forgotten [Gutter]
- “Parallel Play” – Art Taylor, Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning [Wildside]
- “Queen of the Dogs” – Holly West, 44 Caliber Funk: Tales of Crime, Soul and Payback [Moonstone]
Best Critical Nonfiction Work
- Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life – Peter Ackroyd [Nan A. Talese]
- Letters from a Serial Killer – Kristi Belcamino & Stephanie Kahalekulu [CreateSpace]
- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin [Liveright]
- Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker – David J. Skal [Liveright]
- The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer – Kate Summerscale [Bloomsbury/Penguin]
Best Children’s/YA Novel
- Snowed – Maria Alexander [Raw Dog Screaming]
- The Girl I Used to Be – April Henry [Henry Holt]
- Tag, You’re Dead – J.C. Lane [Poisoned Pen]
- My Sister Rosa – Justine Larbalestier [Soho Teen]
- The Fixes – Owen Matthews [HarperTeen]
Best Anthology
- Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns – Eric Beetner, ed. [Down & Out]
- In Sunlight or in Shadow – Lawrence Block, ed. [Pegasus]
- Cannibals: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens – Jen Conley [Down & Out]
- Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 – Greg Herren, ed. [Down & Out]
- Waiting To Be Forgotten: Stories of Crime and Heartbreak, Inspired by the Replacements – Jay Stringer, ed. [Gutter]
Best Novella (8,000-40,000 words)
- Cleaning Up Finn – Sarah M. Chen [CreateSpace]
- No Happy Endings – Angel Luis Colón [Down & Out]
- Crosswise – S.W. Lauden [Down & Out]
- Beware the Shill – John Shepphird [Down & Out]
- The Last Blue Glass – B.K. Stevens, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2016 [Dell]