The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Anthony Awards …. Who Is Anthony?

On with my quest for determining what exactly these mystery book awards mean…

As I stated in my previous entry, "Anthony" is the first name of Anthony Boucher. (Actually, it’s his second name… William Anthony Parker White, but whose counting?) Since he is "the name" of the Bouchercon mystery convention, it is only fair that he is "the name" of the Anthony Awards. I have found out that he was instrumental in the founding of the Mystery Writers of America, which of course, is a wonderful thing for the mystery readers amongst all of us.

The Anthony awards are given for several different categories: best first novel, novel, short story, paperback (has to be the original form in which the book was introduced…. not a hardcover to paperback book), fan publication and something called "criticism/biography." Since each year’s Bouchercon is pretty much an entity in its own right, that year’s committee is in charge of designing the Anthony Awards for that particular year.

On September 30, the 2006 Anthony Awards Winners were given out at the Bouchercon which took place in Madison, Wisconsin. The winners are as follows:

Best Mystery Novel:  Mercy Falls…..  William Kent Krueger (An interesting note … Best Mystery Novel for 2005 was awarded to another one of William Kent Krueger’s books: Blood Hollow)

Best First Mystery:  Tilt-a-Whirl….. Chris Grabenstein

Best Paperback Original:  The James Deans….. Reed Farrel Coleman

Best Short Story:  Misdirection….. Barbara Seranella from Greatest Hits, edited by Robert J. Randisi

Best Critical/Nonfiction:  Heirs of Anthony Boucher….. Marv Lachman

Best Fan Publication:  Crimespree Magazine….. edited by Jon and Ruth Jordan

Special Service to the Field:  Janet Rudolph….. for Mystery Readers International

The Anthony Awards are awards that are actually voted on by the people attending the convention. So, if you want an author’s work to be at least considered for the award, you better make sure that you (or other readers who appreciate your favorite author) are present at the convention.

Before the Awards ……. Bouchercon???

A lot of you know about Bouchercon. I found out about it several years ago, while I was a member of several online mystery reading groups. I don’t know why it had taken me so many years to discover it… It’s been around since 1970. I have never attended a convention, but a few of the people in one of my online reading groups got together at a Bouchercon, and apparently they had a great time. During the convention, several awards are given. (Which is why I am prefacing my blogs about awards with this one.)

Bouchercon gets its name from Anthony Boucher, who was an author, editor, and, even a reviewer. I have to admit that I had never heard of him…. shame on me (apparently.) Each year, it is held in a different city. The host city’s volunteers line up the guests and decide on the different schedules for that year. The convention is for authors, readers/fans, publishers, book sellers, authors’ agents, (ETC)….. anyone who has a passion/career/interest/ ETC  for mystery/detective/crime novels. 

Glancing at the list of cities that have previously hosted the Bouchercons, it appears that almost all of the conventions have been held in the United States, with two taking place in Canada and another two in England. This year’s Bouchercon convention is going to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, September 27-30. Sounds like fun to me!

Agatha VS Edgar VS Anthony VS Hammett VS Nero VS the cat, Macavity!

If you’re anything like me, you probably like to see that a favorite author has merited a special award…….. especially an award for writing the very type of book that you enjoy reading. And, if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t know why that particular award was received. Was it given by other mystery book authors?  Was it given by mystery book readers? (Or, was it given by the author’s family and friends?)

Most of us are probably familiar with the more popular awards. I am going to do some research on the different mystery awards that are given each year and then I plan to write some blogs about what exactly the different awards mean to us…… the mystery readers. I have already started doing the research and I must say that I have been surprised to find that there are more awards than I knew about.  And, that’s a good thing….

Sometimes, when we aren’t quite sure if we want to "try" an author, just the fact that he/she has won "an Agatha," or "an Edgar" might help us in making the decision. I know that when my children were growing up, the fact that an author won a Newbery, Carnegie,  Caldecott (in this case, an illustrator), ETC, was a good starting point for our book choices.

So, on with the research, and on with the awards!

Charlotte MacLeod VS Alisa Craig…One person, Two names, Very good books…

I think that I have mentioned that I am a huge fan of Charlotte MacLeod‘s Peter (and Helen) Shandy mystery series and her Sarah Kelling (and Max Bittersohn) mystery series.  I have read (and enjoyed!) almost all of the books in both of these series, but I must admit that I am putting off reading the remaining few that I haven’t read. I have always hated finishing a good cozy mystery series, so I am simply saving the rest of the novels. I know this sounds rather silly….. Why don’t I simply read the remaining novels and "enjoy the moment" now?

Well, I think that the reason I like to "save books" that I own (for future reading enjoyment) probably comes from the times when I read books for my mystery reading groups that I didn’t particularly enjoy. That is one of the main reasons I no longer belong to a mystery reading group. I found that a lot of time I had to work at finishing a novel. And then, I was always a little hesitant about stating how much I disliked the novel that someone else had nominated for us to read. (Let’s face it…. we should love our novels, not feel like we HAVE to finish them!)

But, I am losing the point that I was going to make about Charlotte MacLeod vs. Alisa Craig….

I have only read one of the Inspector Madoc Rhys books that Craig/MacLeod wrote….. Murder Goes Mumming. I remember enjoying it a lot, but at the time, I was reading so many other authors (for my mystery reading groups) that I sort of put the Craig books on the back burner to the MacLeod books. Well, I finally decided that I want to resume my Craig pursuit, so I have started reading the first in the series…. A Pint of Murder. I am such an advocate of reading book series in the correct chronological order that I am ashamed to admit that I read the second book (Murder Goes Mumming) of the series first!

I will have to write a blog once I get farther in the book, and see if Craig’s books stand up to MacLeod’s!  Yes, I know that the author is (was) the same person, but her two MacLeod series set the standard pretty high. My verdict later……………………

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