Thursday, January 21, 2010
Mystery books
posted at 1:46 PM | Permalink |
The focus of this coming weekend's bookstore visit is pretty much determined now as to what I need to peruse. No problem, since I like mystery stories' tidiness and the sense that you're engaged in a game of hide and go seek where the solution is hiding and you just have to find the right hiding place. Some mysteries are too gory for my apparently wimpy sensitivities, however, even on the printed page, and if events are too harrowing or heart-string-pulling, I cannot deal with it. But that being said, I find them satisfying and almost always more enjoyable than other genres. Here are this year's nominees:

Nominees for Best Novel
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux
The Odds by Kathleen George
The Last Child by John Hart
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Nominees for Best First (Mystery) Novel by an American Author
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

Nominees for Best Paperback Original (Mystery)
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano
The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill
Body Blows by Marc Strange
The Herring-Seller's Apprentice by L.C. Tyler

Nominees for Best Critical/Biographical
Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak
The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret
Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent

The winners will be announced on April 29th at a banquet at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. Now *that* could be a fun evening.

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