Linwood Barclay, Louise Penny touted for best Canadian crime novel

Linwood Barclay and Louise Penny are among the writers nominated for Canada's crime-writing awards this year.

Crime Writers of Canada, the organizers of the Arthur Ellis Awards, on Thursday announced the nominees for the 26th edition of the annual literary prize.

The awards are named after Arthur Ellis, the nom de travail of Canada's former official hangman.

Barclay and Penny are among the nominees in the best novel category.

Former Toronto Star humour columnist Barclay is up for Too Close to Home (Bantam), his second stand-alone thriller. His previous work, No Time for Goodbye, was the bestselling novel in Britain in 2008.

Penny, a former CBC broadcaster, is in the running for The Murder Stone (McArthur & Company), the fourth mystery in her Armand Gamache series. The first novel in the series, Still Life, won the Arthur Ellis award three years ago for best first novel.

Other nominees in the best novel category are Maureen Jennings for The K Handshape (Dundurn), James W. Nichol for Transgression (McArthur & Company) and Michael E. Rose for The Tsunami File (McArthur & Company).

Nominees in the best first novel category are:

• Nadine Doolittle, Iced Under (Bayeux Arts/Gondolier).
• John C. Goodman, Talking to Wendigo (Turnstone).
• April Lindgren, Headline: Murder (Second Story Press).
• Howard Shrier, Buffalo Jump (Vintage Canada).
• Phyllis Smallman, Margarita Nights (McArthur & Company).

Nominees in the best juvenile novel category are:

• Vicki Grant, Res Judicata (Orca).
• Susan Juby, Getting the Girl (HarperCollins).
• Elizabeth MacLeod, Royal Murder (Annick Press).
• Norah McClintock, Dead Silence (Scholastic Canada).
• Sharon E. McKay, War Brothers (Penguin Canada).

Nominees for best crime writing in French are:

• Jacques Côté, Le Chemin des brumes (Alire).
• Maxime Houde, Le Poids des illusions (Alire).
• Andre Jacques, La Tendresse du serpent (Québec Amerique).
• Sylvain Meunier, L'Homme qui détestait le golf (La courte échelle).
• Antoine Yaccarini, Meurtre au Soleil (VLB éditeur).

Nominees in the best short-story category are:

• Pasha Malla, "Filmsong" in Toronto Noir (Akashic Books).
• James Powell, "Clay Pillows" in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (June 2008).
• Peter Robinson, "Walking the Dog" in Toronto Noir (Akashic Books).
• Amelia Symington, "An Ill Wind" in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (Sept./Oct. 2008).
• Kris Wood, "Thinking Inside the Box" in Going Out with a Bang (RendezVous Crime).

Nominees in the best non-fiction category are:

• Daphne Bramham, The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect (Vintage Canada/RHC).
• Sharon Butala, The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory and Murder (Phyllis Bruce Books/HarperCollins).
• Alex Caine, Befriend and Betray: Infiltrating the Hells Angels, Bandidos and Other Criminal Brotherhoods (Vintage Canada/RHC).
• Michael Calce & Craig Silverman, Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Penguin Canada).
• Kerry Pither, Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror (Penguin Canada).

Nominees in the best unpublished novel category are:

• Pam Barnsley, This Cage of Bones.
• Gloria Ferris, Cheat the Hangman.
• Stephen Maher, Salvage.
• Douglas A. Moles, Louder.
• Kevin Thornton, Condemned.

Winners in all categories will be announced at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on June 4.