Earlier today, the Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the winners of its 2023 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. (Yeah, I understand there’s a lot of repetition in that sentence.) There were 10 categories of contestants.
Best Crime Novel: Going to Beautiful , by Anthony Bidulka (Stonehouse)
Also nominated: Take Your Breath Away , by Linwood Barclay (HarperCollins Canada); An Unthinkable Thing , by Nicole Lundrigan (Viking Canada); Please Join Us , by Catherine McKenzie (Simon & Schuster Canada); and Daughters of the Occupation , by Shelly Sanders (HarperCollins Canada)
Best Crime First Novel: Citizens of Light , by Sam Shelstad (TouchWood Editions)
Also nominated: The Pale Horse , by T. Lawrence Davis (Friesen Press); Killer Time , by Bill Edwards (Friesen Press); The Damned Lovely , by Adam Frost (Down & Out); and The Man from Mittlewerk , by M.Z. Urlocker (Inkshares)
The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada: A Snake in the Raspberry Patch , by Joanne Jackson (Stonehouse)
Also nominated: Five Moves of Doom , by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press); Blood Atonement , by S.M. Freedman (Dundurn Press); Cold Snap , by Maureen Jennings (Cormorant); and The Foulest Things , by Amy Tector (Keylight)
The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery: Deep House , by Thomas King (HarperCollins Canada)
Also nominated: Knight in the Museum , by Alice Bienia (Cairn Press); Fenian Street , by Anne Emery (ECW Press); Death Plans a Perfect Trip , by Mary Jane Maffini (Beyond the Page); and Framed in Fire , by Iona Whishaw (Touchwood Edition)
Best Crime Novella: “The Man Who Went Down Under,” by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson ( Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine , July 2022)
Also nominated: “Amdur’s Ghost,” by M.H. Callway (from In the Spirit of 13 ; Carrick); Dangerous to Know: A Grifter’s Song , Vol. 28, by Hilary Davidson (Down & Out); Dead End Track , by Julie Hiner (Julie Hiner); and The Emir’s Falcon , by Matt Hughes (Shadowpaw Press Premiere)
Best Crime Short Story: “The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead,” by Craig H. Bowlsby ( Mystery Magazine , April 2022)
Also nominated: “Must Love Dogs—or You’re Gone, by M.H. Callway (from Gone , edited by Stephen J. Golds; Red Dog Press); “To Catch a Kumiho,” by Blair Keetch (from In the Spirit of 13 ; Carrick); “The Natural Order of Things, by Sylvia Maultash Warsh ( Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine , May/June 2022); and “Swan Song,” by Donalee Moulton (from Cold Canadian Crime , edited by Talia Morgan; Crime Writers of Canada)
Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Non-fiction): Monsieur Hämmerli , by Richard Ste-Marie (Éditions Alire)
Also nominated: Le Mouroir des anges , by Geneviève Blouin (Éditions Alire); Chaîne de glace , by Isabelle Lafortune (Éditions XYZ); Le dernier manège , by Guillaume Morrissette (Guy Saint-Jean); and Modus operandi , by Suzan Payne (Éditions Perce-Neige)
Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Non-fiction): Heartbreak Homes , by Jo Treggiari (Nimbus)
Also nominated: Lark Steals the Show , by Natasha Deen (Orca); Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse , by Marthe Jocelyn (Tundra); Wrong Side of the Court , by H.N. Khan (Penguin Teen); and Butt Sandwich & Tree , by Wesley King (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation , by Rosemary Sullivan (HarperCollins Canada)
Also nominated: How to Solve a Cold Case: And Everything Else You Wanted to Know About Catching Killers , by Michael Arntfield (HarperCollins Canada); The Castleton Massacre: Survivors’ Stories of the Killins Femicide , by Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson (Dundurn Press); Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas , by Harley Rustad (Knopf Canada); and Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment and the Courts to Set Him Free , by Sarah Weinman (Knopf Canada)
The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript: Snowed , by Mary Keenan
Also nominated: No Safe House , by Jan Garnett; Two Knots , by Joanne Kormylo; The Broken Detective , by Joel Nedecky; and The Peaks , by Michael Pennock
In addition, Jack Batten, “an acclaimed freelancer and award-winning author of dozens of fiction and non-fiction books for adults and young people,” received this year’s Derrick Murdoch Award. A press release explains that the Murdoch “is issued every two years to recognize a member of Crime Writers of Canada who has made significant contributions to the crime/mystery/thriller genre.”
Previous winners of these literary commendations (formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards) can be found here .
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