CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA 2024 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE SHORTLIST & GRAND MASTER AWARD RECIPIENT

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the Shortlists for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. 

Winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.

Maureen Jennings is this year’s recipient of the 2024 Grand Master Award. Established in 2014, the Grand Master (GM) Award recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.

THE 2024 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE SHORTLISTS

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo, with a $1000 prize

Robyn Harding, The Drowning Woman, Grand Central Publishing 
Shari Lapena, Everyone Here is Lying, Doubleday Canada

Scott Thornley, Middlemen, House of Anansi Press
Sam Wiebe, Sunset and Jericho, Harbour Publishing
Loreth Anne White, The Maid's Diary, Montlake

Best Crime First Novel, sponsored by Melodie Campbell, with a $1000 prize

Jann Arden, The Bittlemores, Random House Canada 
Lisa Brideau, Adrift, Sourcebooks
Charlotte Morganti, The End Game, Halfdan Press 
Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers, Harper Perennial 
Steve Urszenyi, Perfect Shot, Minotaur

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada, sponsored by Charlotte Engel and Crime Writers of Canada, with a $500 prize

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Almost Widow, Harper Avenue/HarperCollins 
Renee Lehnen, Elmington, Storeyline Press
Cyndi MacMillan, Cruel Light, Crooked Lane
Joan Thomas, Wild Hope, Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
Melissa Yi, Shapes of Wrath, Windtree Press

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery sponsored by Jane Doe, with a $500 prize

Gail Bowen, The Legacy, ECW Press
Vicki Delany, Steeped in Malice, Kensington Books
Vicki Delany, The Game is a Footnote, Crooked Lane Books 
Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest, Viking
Iona Whishaw, To Track a Traitor, TouchWood Editions

Best Crime Short Story

M.H. Callway, Wisteria Cottage, Wildside Press (for Malice Domestic) 
Marcelle Dubé, Reversion, Mystery Magazine
Mary Keenan, The Canadians (Killin' Time in San Diego), Down & Out Books 
Donalee Moulton, Troubled Water, Black Cat Weekly (Wildside Press) 
Zandra Renwick, American Night, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Jean-Philippe Bernié, La punition, Glénat Québec
Chrystine Brouillet, Le mois des morts, Éditions Druide
Catherine Lafrance, Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, Éditions Druide 
André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
Jean-Jacques Pelletier, Rien, Alire

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book, sponsored by Shaftesbury Films with a $500 prize (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Kelley Armstrong, Someone is Always Watching, Tundra Books 
Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books 
Rachelle Delaney, The Big Sting, Tundra Books
Clara Kumagai, Catfish Rolling, Penguin Teen Canada
Kevin Sands, Champions of the Fox, Puffin Canada

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book sponsored by David Reid Simpson
Law Firm (Hamilton), with a $300 prize

Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin, The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and
Became a Nazi Hunter, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press

David Rabinovitch, Jukebox Empire, Rowman & Littlefield
Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen, Cheated, ECW Press
Carolyn Whitzman, Clara at the Door with a Revolver, UBC Press, On Point Press

Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author

Tom Blackwell, The Patient
Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
Sheilla Jones and James Burns, Murder on Richmond Road: An Enquiry Bureau Mystery 
Nora Sellers, The Forest Beyond
William Wodhams, Thirty Feet Under