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: Jen Jordan Chat Transcript

In my capacity as DetecToday moderator, I chatted with Expletive Deleted editor Jen Jordan. Author Sean Chercover also attended.

"One Serving of Bad Luck" by Sean Chercover

From: Killer Year ed. Lee Child. St. Martin's, 2008.

Ray Dudgeon, the P.I. from Chercover's debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood, is hired by the lawyer for Sarah Shipman, who lost her legs in a car accident shortly after having her tires rotated at an auto repair chain. With the chain offering to settle for $600,000, Sarah's lawyer wants to pad that figure, but he needs a statement from George Garcia, the man who worked on Sarah's car, a man who's conveniently disappeared.

In his introduction to the story, Ken Bruen praises Ray Dudgeon's humanity. I was most impressed with Chercover's handling of the secondary characters. Instead of feeling forced to establish Dudgeon's voice, Chercover allowed the other characters' voices to come through. As Dudgeon felt for them, so did I.