Best Non-Fiction – Terry Gould, Murder Without Borders

Best Juvenile – Barbara Haworth-Attard, Haunted

Best Crime Writing in French – Jean Lemieux, Le mort du chemin des Arsene

Best Short Story – Dennis Richard Murphy, "Prisoner in Paradise"

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel – Gloria Ferris, The Corpse Flower

Congratulations to the winners! 

For a description of all short-listed books and short stories, visit http://www.crimewriterscanada.com

Best Crime Novel
Aloha, Candy Hearts by Anthony Bidulka
Arctic Blue Death by R.J. Harlick
Finger's Twist by Lee Lamothe
Death Spiral by James W. Nichol
High Chicago by Howard Shrier

Best First Novel
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan
The Weight of Stones by C.B. Forrest
A Magpie's Smile by Eugene Meese
Darkness at the Stroke of Noon by Dennis Richard Murphy

Best Crime Writing in French
Je compte les morts by Genevieve Lefebvre
Le mort du chemin des Arsène by Jean Lemieux
La faim de la terre by Jean-Jacques Pelletier
Peaux de chagrin by Diane Vincent

Best Non-Fiction
The Fat Mexican: The Bloody rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club by Alex Caine
Runaway Devil by Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose
The Slasher Killings by Patrick Brode
Post Mortem by Jon Wells
Murder without Borders by Terry Gould

Best Juvenile
Not Suitable for Family Viewing by Vicki Grant.
Haunted by Barbara Haworth-Attard.
Homicide Related by Norah McClintock.
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel  (the Unhanged Arthur)
This Cage of Bones by Pam Barnsley
Confined Space by Deryn Collier
The Corpse Flower by Gloria Ferris
A Bait of Pleasure by Blair Hemstock
Putting Them Down by Peter Kirby

Best Short Story
"Backup" by Rick Mofina
"Prisoner in Paradise" by Dennis Richard Murphy
"Nothing is Easy" by James Petrin
"Time Will Tell" by Twist Phelan
"Clowntown Pajamas" by James Powell

Winners will be announced May 27.

Crime Writers of Canada website.

The entire list of articles: 

The Turf and the Gridiron in Detective Fiction by Gary Garner
Adventure Crime-A Wild Niche in Sports Crime by Jessica Simon
Four Legged Champions by M.E. Kemp
Crossword: Win, Place, and Show by Yerna Snit
The Mystery of Sports by Mark Segal
Where the Cameras Can't Follow by Deborah Atkinson
The Dark Side of Sports by Michael Balkind
Training To Write by Rachel Brady
How I Became a Ski Bum at Midlife by Wendy Clinch
How I Became a Biker by Julie Compton
Running the California Coast by Alan Cook
Why Golf? by John Corrigan
Sports and the Mystery of My Improbable Biceps by Diana Deverell
Dreams and Sports by Mary Cnnningham
Dead in the Water by Carola Dunn
The Wide World of Equine Sports by Kit Ehrman
Who Killed the American Baseball Dream? by Robert Elias
A Diehard Cub Fan by Robert Goldsborough
Show Me the Money: A Murderous Sports Connection by Robert Greer
Minnesota Games by Elizabeth Gunn
The Surfing Detective mystery series by Chip Hughes
How Bad Golf Changed My Life by Roberta Isleib
Murder in the Bullpen by N.J. Lindquist
Whowonit? by Peter Lovesey
From Sportswriting to Crimewriting by Brad Parks
Why Write About Sports? by Twist Phelan
Surfing and Detective Work by Neil Plakcy
Any Chance of a Game? by Edward Marston
Chariots and Curses and Crashes, Oh My by Mary Reed
When Sports History Is a Sports Mystery by Linda L. Richards
Bitsy, Baseball, and Life by Vonda Skelton
A Murderous Fastball and a Killer Curve by Eric Stone
A Puckhead Born Susan Swift
When Sports Are Piikia by Mark Troy
Cold Winter Nights Can Be Murder by Anne White
Sports Mysteries and Me by Mark Zubro
Driven by Simon Wood

For Christmas this year, I decided to post three stories of mine.

Two of them were published in 1999 and 2000 in Canadian anthologies: the other has never been published.

Hope you enjoy them.

"The Case of the Sneezing Account: a Manziuk and Ryan Mystery"  - after a timely sneeze saves a young woman's life, Manziuk and Ryan have to find out who is trying to kill her before the assailant strikes again.

"The Day Time Stood Still" - a middle-aged real estate agent  finds something unexpected in a house she has just listed.

"Revenge So Sweet" – after a mother of three discovers her husband has been cheating, she sets out to exact revenge. 

You also might want toread a non-mystery blog I wrote recently called "The Babe of Christmas."

First, thanks for the encouragement. Knowing someone is waiting to read my books really encourages me to keep writing them. 

Secondly, the answer is yes. There will be a third book. And hopefully a fourth…

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the next book isn't written yet.

But the other good news is that it is in the process of being written.

Book 3 has a title – "Opaque Rays."

And it has a setting, characters, and an overall plot. (Yes, I even know whodunit!)

The setting

First, let me explain that each of the Manziuk and Ryan books began with an idea for a setting that crept into my mind and germinated there. The seed for Shaded Light began to grow after a visit to a Japanese garden in Vancouver years before I began writing the book. The seed for Glitter of Diamonds was sown  while I was watching a Blue Jays game at the then Skydome in Toronto (now Rogers Centre). The seed for Opaque Rays was sown somewhere in my many visits with my mother in a nursing home in Markham. 

What happens after the seed is sown is that I usually change the setting quite a bit. The Japanese garden ended up being a much smaller garden set on an estate in Toronto. The Skydome became the mythical Diamond Dome. And the nursing home has become a downtown Toronto condo built to contain a group of seniors on each floor, all living in community.

Most of the members of my particular group have known one another for years, and all were involved in some aspect of the arts. In their retirement, they wanted to control their own destinies, so two of them built the building and designed it to create a self-contained living space on each floor, complete with a live-in staff of four and other daily or weekly staff.

When will Opaque Rays be available? I can't say for sure, but I'm hoping it will be completed by next spring, fall at the latest, always assuming nothing unexpected happens.

But I'm also working on three other books – a fantasy for my granddaughter and a memoir, so no guarantees.

I do plan to post a few short stories here, though – one involving Paul and Jacquie, so do come back.

I’m delighted to announce that the winner was named today, and it’s Hot Apple Cider! I’m sure it had something to do with getting to know 30 authors, and also the variety in this hope-filled book.

Congratulations to everyone who was nominated. And thanks to the CLAO for supporting Canadian authors.