The shortlists have been announced for the 2019 Arthur Ellis Awards. Presented by the Crime Writers of Canada, the awards recognize the best in Canadian crime writing.

In the Best Crime Novel category, mystery novelist Louise Penny is nominated for the third time with her novel Kingdom of the Blind. She won the category in 2011 for her novel Bury Your Dead. The other finalists are nominated in the category for the first time.

Highlights of the Best First Crime Novel category include former Chief Court Justice Beverley McLachlin’s legal thriller Full Disclosure and Find You in the Dark by Journey Prize–winning writer Naben Ruthnum writing as Nathan Ripley. Sarah Weinman is nominated in the non-fiction category for The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World.

Two of the titles shortlisted in the Best Crime Short Story category are from the anthology Vancouver Noir: Linda L. Richards’s “Terminal City,” about an assassin’s complicated relationship with her mark, and collection editor Sam Wiebe’s story “Wonderful Life.”

The winners will be announced on May 23 at a gala in Toronto. The complete list of finalists follows.

Best Crime Novel

• Cape Diamond, Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
• Though the Heavens Fall, Anne Emery (ECW Press)
• The Winters, Lisa Gabriele (Doubleday Canada)
• Kingdom of the Blind, Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
• The Girl in the Moss, Loreth Anne White (Montlake Romance)

Best First Crime Novel

• Cobra Clutch, A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
• Operation Wormwood, Helen C. Escott (Flanker Press)
• Full Disclosure, Beverley McLachlin (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Why Was Rachel Murdered?, Bill Prentice (Echo Road)
• Find You in the Dark, Nathan Ripley (Simon & Schuster Canada)

Best Crime Novella – The Lou Allin Memorial Award 

• The B-Team: The Case of the Angry First Wife, Melodie Campbell (Orca Book Publishers)
• Blue Water Hues, Vicki Delany (Orca Book Publishers)
• Murder Among the Pines, John Lawrence Reynolds (Orca Book Publishers)

Best Crime Short Story

• “A Ship Called Pandora,” Melodie Campbell (Mystery Weekly Magazine)
• “The Power Man,” Therese Greenwood (Baby It’s Cold Outside, Coffin Hop Press)
• “Game,” Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
• “Terminal City,” Linda L. Richards (Vancouver Noir, Akashic Books)
• “Wonderful Life,” Sam Wiebe (Vancouver Noir, Akashic Books)

Best Crime Book in French

• Un dernier baiser avant de te tuer, Jean-Philippe Bernié (Libre Expression)
• Adolphus – Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme, Hervé Gagnon (Libre Expression)
• Ces femmes aux yeux cernés, André Jacques (Éditions Druide)
• Deux coups de pied de trop, Guillaume Morissette (Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur)
• Rinzen la beauté intérieure, Johanne Seymour (Expression noir)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book

• Escape, Linwood Barclay (Puffin Canada)
• The House of One Thousand Eyes, Michelle Barker (Annick Press)
• Call of the Wraith, Kevin Sands (Aladdin)
• The Ruinous Sweep, Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick Press)
• The Rumrunner’s Boy, E.R. Yatscoff (TG & R Books)

Best Non-fiction Crime Book

• Dying for a Drink: How a Prohibition Preacher Got Away With Murder, Patrick Brode (Biblioasis)
• The King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale, Thomas Giacomaro and Natasha Stoynoff (BenBella Books, Inc)
• The Boy on the Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto, Nate Hendley (Five Rivers Publishing)
• Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer, Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World, Sarah Weinman (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)

Best Unpublished Manuscript (aka The Unhanged Arthur) 

• Hypnotizing Lions, Jim Bottomley
• Omand’s Creek, Don Macdonald
• The Scarlet Cross, Liv McFarlane
• One for the Raven, Heather McLeod 
• The Book of Answers, Darrow Woods