2012 Edgar Nominations

As someone who has been absent from Crime Fiction for over a year it is not surprising that most of the books nominated are unknown to me. Still Edgar nominations are an exciting time. There always a number of books that I try/want/need to seek out.

Of all the nominees I am happiest to see Ace Atkins nominated for Best Novel. I've read Mr. Atkins from the beginning. I have three/four books in front of me, but I would love to catch up with Mr. Atkins work. It sounds like a nice way to spend the early part of Spring.

Awards will be handed out in late April. I'll try not to embarrass myself with this year's predictions.   

BEST NOVEL
THE RANGER - Ace Atkins -Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons
GONE - Mo Hayder -Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press
THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X - Keigo Higashino -Minotaur Books
1222 - Anne Holt -Simon and Schuster - Scribner
FIELD GRAY - Philip Kerr -Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Marion Wood Books

BEST FIRST NOVEL - AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
RED ON RED - Edward Conlon - Random House Publishing Group – Spiegel and Grau
LAST TO FOLD - David Duffy - Thomas Dunne Books
ALL CRY CHAOS - Leonard Rosen - The Permanent Press
BENT ROAD - Lori Roy - Penguin Group USA - Dutton
PURGATORY CHASM - Steve Ulfelder - Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
THE COMPANY MAN - Robert Jackson Bennett - Hachette Book Group – Orbit Books
THE FACES OF ANGELES - Lucretia Grindle - Felony and Mayhem Press
THE DOG SOX - Russell Hill -Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Mystery Books
DEATH OF THE MANTIS - Michael Stanley - HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Paperbacks
VIENNA TWILIGHT - Frank Tallis - Random House Trade Paperbacks

BEST FACT CRIME
THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the
Tabloid Wars - Paul Collins -Crown Publishing
THE SAVAGE CITY: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge - T.J. English -HarperCollins – William Morrow
DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President - Candice Millard - Random House - Doubleday
GIRL, WANTED: The Chase for Sarah Pender - Steve Miller - Penguin Group USA - Berkley
THE MAN IN THE ROCKEFELLER SUIT: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter - Mark Seal - Penguin Group USA - Viking

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
THE TATTOOED GIRL: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time - Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer and John-Henri Holmberg - St. Martin’s Griffin
AGATHA CHRISTIE: Murder in the Making - John Curran - HarperCollins
ON CONAN DOYLE: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling - Michael Dirda - Princeton University Press
DETECTING WOMEN: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film - Philippa Gates - SUNY Press
SCRIPTING HITCHCOCK: Psycho, The Birds and Marnie - Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick -University of Illinois Press

BEST SHORT STORY
"MARLEY'S REVOLUTION" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine - John C.Boland - Dell Magazines
"TOMORROW'S DEAD" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - David Dean - Dell Magazines
"THE ADAKIAN EAGLE” – Down These Strange Streets - Bradley Denton -Penguin Group USA – Ace Books
"LORD JOHN AND THE PLAGUED OF THE ZOMBIES" – Down These Strange Streets
- Diana Gabaldon - Penguin Group USA – Ace Books
"THE CASE OF DEATH AND HONEY" – A Study in Sherlock - Neil Gaiman -Random House Publishing Group – Bantam Books
“THE MAN WHO TOOK OF HIS HAT OFF TO THE THE DRIVER OF THE TRAIN” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Peter Turnbull -Dell Magazines

BEST JUVENILE
HORTON HALFPOTT - Tom Angleberger -Abrams – Amulet Books
IT HAPPENED ON A TRAIN - Mac Barnett -Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
VANISHED - Sheela Chari -Disney Book Group – Disney Hyperion
ICEFALL - Matthew J. Kirby - Scholastic Press
THE WIZARD OF DARK STREET - Shawn Thomas Odyssey - Egmont USA

BEST YOUNG ADULT
SHELTER - Harlan Coben -Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons
THE NAME OF THE STAR - Maureen Johnson - Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons
THE SILENCE OF MURDER - Dandi Daley Mackall - Random House Children’s Books – Knopf BFYR
THE GIRL IS MURDER - Kathryn Miller Haines -Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Creek Press
KILL YOU LAST - Todd Strasser - Egmont USA

BEST PLAY
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club - Jeffrey Hatcher - Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix, AZ
The Game’s Afoot - Ken Ludwig - Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“INNOCENCE” – Blue Bloods, Teleplay - Siobhanbyrne O’Connor - CBS Productions
“THE LIFE INSIDE” – Justified, Teleplay - Benjamin Cavell - FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
“Part 1” – Whitechapel, Teleplay - Ben Court and Caroline Ip -BBC America
“Pilot” – Homeland, Teleplay - Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff - Showtime
“Mask” – Law and Order: SVU, Teleplay - Speed Weed -Wolf Films/Universal Media Studios

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"A Good Man of Business" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
- David Ingram -Dell Magazines

GRAND MASTER
Martha Grimes

RAVEN AWARDS
M is for Mystery Bookstore, San Mateo, CA
Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group

THE SIMON AND SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Now You See Me - S.J. Bolton -Minotaur Books
Come and Find Me - Hallie Ephron - HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow
Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick - Minotaur Books
Learning to Swim - Sara J. Henry -Crown Publishing Group
Murder Most Persuasive - Tracy Kiely - Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books

Books Recieved - December 2011

It is the good fortune of The Hungry Detective to now and again receive books from authors, publishers or their associated marketing agencies.

These books were received in the month of December 2011

GETTING LUCKY - DC Brod - Tyrus Books
EL GAVILAN - Craig McDonald - Tyrus Books
HURT MACHINE - Reed Farrell Coleman - Tyrus Books
VOYEUR - Daniel Judson - Minotaur Books
THE VILLA OF DEATH - Joanna Challis - Minotaur Books
RIZZO'S WAR - Lou Manfredo - Minotaur Books
A GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE - Anna Dean - Minotaur Books
THE JUDGEMENT OF CAESAR - Steven Saylor - Minotaur Books
GIDEON'S CORPSE - Preston and Child - Grand Central Publishing

Winter Burrview - 2011/12

The Winter Preview is here. With the winter holiday I had a few hours to seat and consider what is an expansive list of upcoming Crime Fiction releases. There are a good number of books to get excited about this quarter.

The Hungry Detective encourages you to buy these books when they appear at local bookstore. (Seriously Amazon..... just awful.). Happy Holidays to everyone. Be safe, and read!

SLASH AND BURN - Colin Cotterill - Out Now

One of these days I'll write a post about all the authors I have always wanted to read. Mr. Cotterill would be near the top of that list.

THE LEOPARD - Jo Nesbo - Out Now

While we all wait for the eventual release of Book 4 of Blomkvist and Salander, publishing is pushing Mr. Nesbo with unrestrained abandon. Plus the name. Harry Hole. I. Mean. Come. On.

DARK REVELATIONS - Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski - December 29

I read the first book in this series. I skipped the second due to my court mandated restraining order to not read any thrillers.

AGENT 6 - Tom Rob Smith - January 5

CHILD 44 made a gigantic splash a few years back. I never caught up with the second, THE SECRET SPEECH. I love the Soviet era setting, but found little else compelling about CHILD 44. Release is January 5th, but I saw this on the shelf yesterday.

THE COLD, COLD GROUND Adrian McKinty - January 5

A UK only release, or I guess I should say this book is not being released in the US due to shortsighted US publishers. Sigh.  Looking forward to receiving this book via as yet to be determined UK book purveyor.

RAYLAN - Elmore Leonard - January 17

I have friends that swear by the FX show Justified, including my mother. I am possibly the only Crime Fiction enthusiast who has never felt all that compelled to at the very least read the highlights of Mr. Leonard's expansive canon.

WHAT IT WAS - George Pelecanos - January 23

Is there any better chronicler of a city than what Mr. Pelecanos has done with Washington DC? The Hungry Detective assures you that the answers is no. I should point out that right now (12/17) the Kindle is .99!

TAKEN - Robert Crais - January 24

I've enjoyed the Pike books greatly but Elvis is always good for some morally conflicted laughs. TAKEN looks be to a hybrid. Half Cole/Pike. Half Pike/Cole.

TRIAL OF THE SPELLMANS - Lisa Lutz - Feb 28

I was under the impression that we had seen the last of those wacky Spellman's. I guess I was wrong.

AN AMERICAN SPY - Olen Steinhauer - March 13

How long do I have to wait for this book. Hrumpf. Too long. The first two books in the Milo Weaver series are easily in the top five or ten things I have read in the last three years.

Other Notables:

THE CONFESSION - Charles Todd; THE RETRIBUTION - Val McDermid; BREAKDOWN - Sara Paretsky; THE JAGUAR - T. Jefferson Parker; The Rope - Nevada Barr; ALL I DID WAS SHOOT MY MAN - Walter Mosely; THE FEAR INDEX - Robert Harris; WILD THING - Josh Bazell; THE COMEDY IS FINISHED - Donald E. Westlake; CHASING MIDNIGHT - Randy Wayne White; RIZZO'S DAUGHTER - Lou Manfredo; THE GIRL NEXT DOOK - Brad Parks; STAY CLOSE - Harlan Coben; FORCE OF NATURE - C.J. Box

Best of Lists.... Cookbook Edition

One of the things that has kept me interested in the printed word during my winter with crime fiction was cookbooks. At this point I do not have the proper words to describe the attraction as I cook very little from cookbooks or related food magazines. Pretty pictures and wish fulfillment are about all I have at the moment to explain my curiosity.

I know some people find Top Ten lists odious and beside the point, but I like to call those people crazy. Top Ten lists are harmless fun. Here are seven recent ones for the best cookbooks of 2011.

The New York Times list is insistent that their readership expand their global view of cooking. I love those weighty tomes about Middle Eastern cooking and the like. Perhaps it is a bit naive  to only praise these books for their pictorial beauty, but living where I do invariably means using Google to search for 'substitute for X exotic spice.' My picks from this list are Tender by Nigel Slater and Hugh Acheson's A New Turn in the South. 

The Bon Appetit list was complied by the owners of Rabelais bookstore in Portland. It is a pretty populist list, Mission Street Food, Milk Bar, and Joe Beef are the more well known titles to appear. If I had to pick a title to add to my shelf it would be Bocca Cookbook by Jacob Kenedy. I'm a sucker for cool looking dust jackets and things that are in London.

The Amazon list is a spare but culturally accepted ten titles. The only list so far to include the hugely acclaimed Gabrielle Hamilton memoir. I guess that title will pop on Best Bio lists. The Modernist Cuisine book makes an appearance, as does the third incarnation of Alton Brown's amusing Good Eats series. I'd go with M. Pepin's Essential Pepin if I could. Maybe I will.

The Huffington Post borrows BA's annoying slide show display, which is troubling. Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain peeks its head out again as does Andrew Carmellini's vaguely right wing sounding American Flavor. I'll be coming into a little money in the next week. And with those tens of dollars I'll be picking up Heston Blumenthal at Home.

Epicurious adds the Blumenthal book to their list, along with The Homesick Texan and Truly Mexican. I've read some of Michael Ruhlman's non-fiction on cooking but none of his more directly related food missives. The book I'd grab here is Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.

The NPR list begins with me questioning that this might be the longest post of THD 5 year existence. Anyway, I ran across Molly Stevens book, All About Roasting, a month or so ago. It immediately spoke to my Midwestern sensibilities for its obvious practicality. I'm going to eat meat, so lets figure out how to cook it without destroying it.

Serious Eats restricts their list to the time test number of 10. Mario Batali appears with his Simple Family Meals. I read Heat earlier this year and I found Mr. Batali to be kind of a douche. However as near as I can tell he writes a hell of a cookbook. The Ruhlman and Camellini books show up again, but I might have to go with the Batali from this crowd.

-- Additions 12/5  --

The San Francisco Chronicle's main list focuses on books released in the last couple months. A secondary list goes over books released earlier in the year. In the main list is the Pepin book, along with the Ruhlman. The Eleven Madison Park and The Food 52Cookbook has also been a popular choice among a couple lists. The SF Chronicle list of course picks a handful of SF centric titles, but the one that intrigues me the most is The Whole Beast Butchery by Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats.

Books Recieved - November 2011

It is the good fortune of The Hungry Detective to now and again receive books from authors, publishers or their associated marketing agencies.

These books were received in the month of November 2011

COLD SHOT TO THE HEART - Wallace Stroby - Minotaur Books
THE HOLY THIEF - William Ryan - Minotaur Books
DEAD MAN'S GRIP - Peter James - Minotaur Books

TAKEN - Dust Jacket

The return of Elvis Cole. I have really been enjoying the Joe Pike books, but Joe is meant to be an enigma. The more I know, strangely, the less interested I become. On a practical level, if it keeps Mr. Crais motivated to turn out great fiction year in and year out I will happily keep my mouth shut. Books drops early January.

Books Received - October 2011

It is the good fortune of The Hungry Detective to now and again receive books from authors, publishers or their associated marketing agencies.

These books were received in the month of October 2011

CHELSEA MANSIONS  - Barry Maitland - Minotaur Books
THE DEVIL'S RIBBON - D.E. Meredith - Minotaur Books
BREAKING POINT - Dana Haynes - Minotaur Books