When the Arthur Ellis Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing were announced,  we are proud to say that we had an impressive 5 authors as finalists! Sponsored by the Crime Writers of Canada, the awards honour the best in Canadian crime, mystery, detective, and thriller literature.

Shortlisted for Best First Novel

A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows WINNER
Domenic Jejeune is a reluctant police hero but an enthusiastic birdwatcher. After he's promoted to a post in the heart of Britain's birding country, his first case involves the murder of an environmentalist. Torn between loyalties to his job and his hobby, Jejeune faces mistrust from his colleagues and self-doubt as he works to solve the case.

Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe

What do a necrophile, a missing boy, and an unsavoury P.I. have in common? Private detective Michael Drayton is about to find out…. 

No Worst There is None by Eve McBride

A privileged, urban family's eleven-year-old daughter is murdered by a predator, throwing the survivors into an intimate exploration of grief, and the different ways individuals survive it.

Shortlisted for Best Novel

Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman

It’s a week before Christmas when wealthy businessman Tom Underwood disappears into thin air — with more than enough people wanting him dead. 

None So Blind by Barbara Fradkin

Twenty years after Green helped convict a young professor for the murder of an attractive co-ed, the man continues to protest his innocence, and shortly after being paroled, he is found dead. Suicide? Revenge? Or had Green, with blind overconfidence, failed to see the greater evil lurking in the girl’s life?

One of the awards sponsored by the CWC is the Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel. The winner then has the opportunity to be published by Dundurn Press. We're always on the look out for the next big crime writer.