BOOKS TO DIE FOR: The Awards

I’m delighted to announce that BOOKS TO DIE FOR (ed. John Connolly and Declan Burke, with Assistant Editor Clair Lamb) has won both the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award for Best Crime Non-Fiction at Bouchercon 2013. I’m particularly pleased for the 120 contributors, all of whom fully engaged with the spirit of the book, the essence of which is a celebration of all the great crime and mystery novels and writers. In its conception and its execution, BTDF was very much a labour of love (all authors are, first and foremost, readers), and it’s very nice indeed to see that spirit reflected in the Macavity and Anthony awards (and also the Agatha award, which BTDF won earlier this year).
  All told, it’s been a very good weekend, and not only for BOOKS TO DIE FOR’s editors and contributors, but also for the good people at Hodder & Stoughton (UK) and Atria (US) who put their collective shoulders to the wheel on behalf of the book. It’s always been my experience that the international crime fiction community is comprised of an incredibly warm, generous and welcoming bunch of people, and Bouchercon 2013 pretty much confirms that fact.

“But When You Said We’d Scoop The Pot, I Thought …”

I don’t often feature teapots on Crime Always Pays, particularly as I’m a coffee man, but I’m rather fond of this particular teapot, which arrived in the post last week from the good people at Malice Domestic. It celebrates the Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction 2012 for BOOKS TO DIE FOR (ed. John Connolly and Declan Burke), with which we’re all very well pleased.
  Meanwhile, BTDF has been shortlisted for two further awards, both of which will be announced at the Albany Bouchercon in October. To wit:

Macavity Award Best Mystery Non-Fiction Nominations:
Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Simon & Schuster - Atria/Emily Bestler)
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin)
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero, edited by Otto Penzler (BenBella/Smart Pop)

Anthony Award: BEST CRITICAL NON-FICTION WORK
Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels - John Connolly and Declan Burke, eds. [Hodder & Stoughton/Emily Bestler]
Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950 - Joseph Goodrich, ed. [Perfect Crime]
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered - D.P. Lyle, M.D. [Medallion]
The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie - Mathew Prichard, ed. [Harper]
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero - Otto Penzler, ed. [Smart Pop]

  That’s very fine company we’re keeping there, but hopefully we’ll be having a cup or two of Darjeeling to celebrate come Boucheron …