Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: The 2008 Barry Award Nominations

Picks of the Week

Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen
BAD THINGS HAPPEN is a nifty debut, cleverly told and unfurled from the very first line: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements" on through meeting "the man who calls himself David Loogan." There are reasons for concealment, just as there are reasons the editor of a mystery magazine bearing little resemblance to EQMM or AHMM might bring him into the fold, thus catalyzing a series of murderous events. The twists come quickly and the dialogue is sharp and if it falls apart slightly at the end, no matter - I want to read much more from Dolan from now on.
Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel
MacKenzie's debut novel reminded me a lot of Paul Auster's NEW YORK TRILOGY, whether it was intended or not, in terms of his choice of words, the thrust of the narrative and the existential nature of the main character (whose first name, incidentally, is Paul) caught up in a snowballing sequence of strange and violent events in and around New York City. MacKenzie straddles the line between thriller and internal examination of a man's failings, and his ability to do so establishes him as a young writer of serious talent and future.
Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep
In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well.
Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
Understandably, echoes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE are hard to ignore in this dystopic examination of a society where fertility is so high a priority that older, single, marginal women are shut away in secret locales to live out the rest of their lives in seemingly perfect harmony - at least, until the "donations" begin. But Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be disturbed, but prepare further to think about the ramifications.
Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde
This is possibly the most perfect novel for today's economically challenged times. Why? Because it has plenty of glitz and glamor and blind items, as befitting a narrative by the deputy editor of Page Six, but Froelich isn't arch or snarky or acid-tongued in the slightest. Her trio of protagonists land in all manner of embarrassing situations but they aren't played for mean-spirited laughs. The New York here is something of a fantasy-land, but not so far off the mark that it's completely unbelievable. Most of all it's clear Froelich remains sincere and optimistic about her chosen city, and has retained her sense of fun. So no need to check your brain at the door, but sometimes it just needs to chill out and relax.

May 30, 2008

The 2008 Barry Award Nominations

Deadly Pleasures announces the nominees for the 2008 Barry Awards:

BEST NOVEL (Published in the U.S. in 2007)

SOUL PATCH, Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)

THE UNQUIET, John Connolly (Atria)

DOWN RIVER, John Hart (St Martin’s Minotaur)

DIRTY MARTINI, J.A. Konrath (Hyperion)

WHAT THE DEAD KNOW, Laura Lippman (Morrow)

RED CAT, Peter Spiegelman (Knopf)

BEST FIRST NOVEL
(Published in the U.S. in 2007)
MISSING WITNESS, Gordon Campbell (Morrow)

BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD, Sean Chercover (Morrow)

IN THE WOODS, Tana French (Viking)

THE SPELLMAN FILES, Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM, Matt Beynon Rees (Soho Press)

THE BLADE ITSELF, Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
BEST BRITISH CRIME NOVEL (published in the U.K. in 2007, not necessarily written by a British writer nor set in the U.K. )
A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, R.J. Ellory (Orion)

PIG ISLAND, Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)

ONE UNDER, Graham Hurley (Orion)

THE DEATH LIST, Paul Johnston (Mira)

THE 50/50 KILLER, Steve Mosby (Orion)

DAMNATION FALLS, Edward Wright (Orion)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
QUEENPIN, Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
BLACK WIDOW AGENCY, Felicia Donovan (Midnight Ink)

CHOKE POINT, Jay MacLarty (Pocket)

THE MARK, Jason Pinter (Mira)

WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND, Fred Vargas (Penguin)

WHO IS CONRAD HIRST?, Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

BEST THRILLER

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, Linwood Barclay (Bantam)

THE CLEANER, Brett Battles (Delacorte)

THE WATCHMAN, Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)

VOLK’S GAME, Brent Ghelfi (Henry Holt)

SILENCE, Thomas Perry (Harcourt)

MIDNIGHT RAMBLER, Jim Swain (Ballantine)

The winners will be announced at Bouchercon in Baltimore. Congratulations to all the nominees! (Full disclosure: I was on the judging panel.)

Posted at 07:00 PM in World of Mystery | Permalink

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Comments

Hi Sarah,

Just a couple of additional notes - last year Mystery News joined Deadly Pleasures as the co-sponsors of the Barry Awards, which were named for Barry Gardner (more info on Barry at http://blackravenpress.com/BarryGardner.htm).

And the nominees for the Best Short Story Barry Award are:

"Dead As a Dog" by Doug Allyn (EQMM July 2007)
"The Book Case" by Dale C. Andrews and Kurt Sercu (EQMM May 2007)
"The Missing Elevator Puzzle" by Jon L. Breen (EQMM February 2007)
"Bump" by Jeffery Deaver (Dead Man's Hand)
"The Problem of the Summer Snowman" by Edward D. Hoch (EQMM November 2007)
"The Old Wife's Tale" by Gillian Roberts (EQMM March-April 2007)
"Murder: A User's Guibe" by Neil Schofield (AHMM July-August 2007)

Posted by: Chris Aldrich | June 05, 2008 at 06:47 PM

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