The Crime Writers of Canada has announced the shortlists for their annual Awards of Excellence. The winners will be announced on May 25.

Best Crime Novel 

• Linwood Barclay, Take Your Breath Away (William Morrow/HarperCollins)
• Anthony Bidulka, Going to Beautiful (Stonehouse Publishing)
• Nicole Lundrigan, An Unthinkable Thing (Viking Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Catherine McKenzie, Please Join Us (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Shelly Sanders, Daughters of the Occupation (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins)

Best First Crime Novel

• T. Lawrence Davis, The Pale Horse (Friesen Press)
• Bill Edwards, Killer Time (Friesen Press)
• Adam Frost, The Damned Lovely (Down and Out Books)
• Sam Shelstad, Citizens of Light (TouchWood Editions)
• M.Z. Urlocker, The Man from Mittelwerk (Inkshares)

Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada

• A. J. Devlin, Five Moves of Doom (NeWest Press)
• S. M. Freedman, Blood Atonement (Dundurn Press)
• Joanne Jackson, A Snake in the Raspberry Patch (Stonehouse Publishing)
• Maureen Jennings, Cold Snap (Cormorant Books)
• Amy Tector, The Foulest Things (Keylight Books)

Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery

• Alice Bienia, Knight in the Museum (Cairn Press)
• Anne Emery, Fenian Street (ECW Press)
• Thomas King, Deep House (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins Canada)
• Mary Jane Maffini, Death Plans a Perfect Trip (Beyond the Page)
• Iona Whishaw, Framed in Fire (Touchwood Editions)

Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book

• Michael Arntfield, How to Solve a Cold Case: And Everything Else You Wanted to Know About Catching Killers (HarperCollins Canada)
• Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson, The Castleton Massacre (Dundurn Press)
• Harley Rustad, Lost in the Valley of Death (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation (HarperCollins Canada)
• Sarah Weinman, Scoundrel (Knopf Canada/PRHC)

Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

• Geneviève Blouin, Le Mouroir des anges (Éditions Alire)
• Isabelle Lafortune, Chaîne de glace (Éditions XYZ)
• Guillaume Morrissette, Le dernier manège (Saint-Jean éditeur)
• Suzan Payne, Modus operandi (Éditions Perce-Neige)
• Richard Ste-Marie, Monsieur Hämmerli (Éditions Alire)

Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

• Natasha Deen, Lark Steals the Show (Orca Book Publisher)
• Marthe Jocelyn, Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada)
• H.N. Khan, Wrong Side of the Court (Penguin Teen/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Wesley King, Butt Sandwich & Tree  (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Jo Treggiari, Heartbreak Homes (Nimbus Publishing)

The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript

• Jan Garnett, No Safe House
• Mary Keenan, Snowed
• Joanne Kormylo, Two Knots
• Joel Nedecky, The Broken Detective
• Michael Pennock, The Peaks

Best Crime Short Story

• M.H. Callway, Amdur’s Ghost, In the Spirit of 13 (Carrick Publishing)
• Hilary Davidson, Dangerous to Know, A Grifter’s Song Vol. 8 (Down & Out Books)
• Julie Hiner, Dead End Track
• Matt Hughes, The Emir’s Falcon (Shadowpaw Press Premiere)
• Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson, The Man Who Went Down Under (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazines)

Best Crime Short Story

• Craig H. Bowlsby, The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead (Mystery Magazine)
• M.H. Callway, Must Love Dogs – or You’re Gone (Red Dog Press)
• Blair Keetch, To Catch a Kumiho, In the Spirit of 13 (Carrick Publishing)
• Sylvia Maultash Warsh, The Natural Order of Things (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
• donalee Moulton, Swan Song, Cold Canadian Crime (Crime Writers of Canada)