Howard Engel is the winner of the inaugural Crime Writers of Canada Master Award, which is “intended to recognize writers who have a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.”

Engel, known for authoring the Benny Cooperman detective series, is a past winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for his 1984 novel Murder Sees the Light (Penguin Canada).

Crime Writers of Canada also announced the 2014 Arthur Ellis Awards shortlists, which will be presented at a gala in Toronto on June 5.

The nominees are:

Best Novel

• John Brooke, Walls of a Mind (Signature Editions)
• Seán Haldane, The Devil’s Making (Stone Flower Press)
• Lee Lamothe, Presto Variations (Dundurn Press)
• Howard Shrier, Miss Montreal (Vintage Canada)
• Simone St. James, An Inquiry into Love and Death (NAL/Penguin)

Best First Novel

• E.R. Brown, Almost Criminal (Dundurn)
• A.S.A. Harrison, The Silent Wife (Penguin Canada)
• Axel Howerton, Hot Sinatra (Evolved Publishing)
• J. Kent Messum, Bait (Penguin Canada)
• S.G. Wong, Die on Your Feet (Carina Press)

Best Novella

• Melodie Campbell, The Goddaughter’s Revenge (Orca Book Publishers)
• Brenda Chapman, My Sister’s Keeper (Grassroots Press)
• James Heneghan, A Woman Scorned (Orca)

Best Juvenile/YA

• Karen Autio, Sabotage (Sono Nis Press)
• Gail Gallant, Apparition (Doubleday Canada)
• Elizabeth MacLeod, Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Helps Solve History’s Mysteries (Annick Press)
• Ted Staunton, Who I’m Not (Orca)

Unhanged Arthur (for unpublished manuscript)

• L.J. Gordon, Death at the Iron House Lodge
• Rachel Greenaway, Cold Girl
• Charlotte Morganti, The Snow Job
• Kristina Stanley, Descent
• Kevin Thornton, Coiled

Best Book in French

• Chrystine Brouillet, Saccages (La courte échelle)
• Jacques Côté, Et à l’heure de votre mort (Editions Alire)
• Maureen Martineau, L’enfant promis (La courte échelle)
• Jacques Savoie, Le fils emprunté (Libre Expression)