NBS Special Report: 2009 Best Short Story Edgar

As Twittered by Sarah Weinman and posted to The Rap Sheet:

Best Short Story: “Skinhead Central,” by T. Jefferson Parker (from The Blue Religion, edited by Michael Connelly; Little, Brown)

Also nominated: “A Sleep Not Unlike Death,” by Sean Chercover (from Hardcore Hardboiled, edited by Todd Robinson; Kensington Publishing); “Skin and Bones,” by David Edgerley Gate (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, October 2008); “Scratch of a Woman,” by Laura Lippman (from Hardly Knew Her; Morrow); and “La Vie en Rose,” by Dominique Mainard (from Paris Noir; edited by Aurelien Masson; Akashic Books)

NBS Special Report: 2009 Best Short Story Edgar Nominees

As presented by the Mystery Writers of America:

BEST SHORT STORY

"A Sleep Not Unlike Death" - Hardcore Hardboiled by Sean Chercover (Kensington Publishing)
"Skin and Bones" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by David Edgerley Gates (Dell Magazines)
"Scratch of a Woman" - Hardly Knew Her by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
"La Vie en Rose" - Paris Noir by Dominique Mainard (Akashic Books)
"Skinhead Central" - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD (Best First Short Story)

"Buckner's Error" - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli (Akashic Books)

Congratulations and good luck to all.

The full list of Edgar nominees via Sarah Weinman's Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.

NBS Special Report: Awards Roundup

A belated roundup of the short story awards announced at Bouchercon, as seen on Jiro Kimura's The Gumshoe Site:

The Shamus (Private Eye Writers of America)

Best P.I. Short Story: "Hungry Enough," by Cornelia Read (in A HELL OF A WOMAN, edited by Megan Abbott; Busted Flush Press)

The Anthony (as voted by attendees of Bouchercon 2008)

Best Short Story: "Hardly Knew Her," by Laura Lippman (in DEAD MAN'S HAND, edited by Otto Penzler; Harcourt)

The Barry (presented jointly by Deadly Pleaures Mystery Magazine and Mystery News)

Best Short Story: "The Problem of the Summer Snowman," by Edward D. Hoch (Ellery "Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 2007)

The Macavity (presented by Mystery Readers International)

Best Mystery Short Story: "Please Watch Your Step," by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine #21, Feb-May 2007)

"Hardly Knew Her" by Laura Lippman

From: Dead Man's Hand: Crime Fiction at the Poker Table, ed. Otto Penzler. Harcourt, 2007.

This Edgar-nominated story set in 1975 suburban Maryland effectively portrays a father's gambling addiction as he heartlessly sells his children's presents and pets to cover his debts. When he cuts the strings on his daughter's guitar to get at the heirloom necklace hidden inside, she resolves to follow him and do whatever it takes to get the necklace back.

While the father's inability to change dooms him, his daughter's embrace of change leads her from fear to confidence.