2010 Barry Award nominations include new Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade category

Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine has just joined with Bouchercon and Mystery Readers International in announcing its 2010 awards nominees. Why all this activity in crime fiction awards this week? The one word answer is "Bouchercon."

The Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, to be held in San Francisco from October 14-17, 2010 , will provide the setting for the announcement of the winners of Bouchercon's own Anthony Awards, of Mystery Reader International's Macavity Awards and of Deadly Pleasures' Barry Awards. Preparation for this highly anticipated event has already begun.

Deadly Pleasures Barry Awards are named in honor of Barry Gardner, a mystery fiction reviewer and contributor to the magazine. Deadly Pleasures subscribers and its website visitors chose the Barry Award winners. This year they will select prize winners for a new category –  Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade.

The list below was published in the Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine on June 10, 2010. Added to the information supplied by Deadly Pleasures are links to other award nominations and indications of any mystery series in which the nominated titles appear. 

Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade:

• The Guards by Ken Bruen (Jack Taylor series #1) (St. Martin's Minotaur) 
• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Mickey Haller series #1) (Little, Brown) 
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy series #1) (Knopf) 
• Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (Wm. Morrow) 
• Still Life by Louise Penny (Armand Gamache series #1) (St. Martin's Minotaur) 
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin)

Best Novel: 

• The Gates by John Connolly (Atria)
• The Hidden Man by David Ellis  (Putnam) 
• Spade & Archer by Joe Gores  (Knopf) 
• The Last Child  by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur) 
• Locked In by Marcia Muller (Sharon McCone #26) (Grand Central) 
• Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan (Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series #9) (St. Martin's Minotaur) 

Best First Novel: 

• Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell (Little, Brown) 
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Flavia de Luce series #1) (Delacorte) 
• A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell (Hannah Vogel #1) (Forge) 
• A Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Stella Hardesty series #1) (St. Martin's Minotaur) 
• Black Water Rising by Attica Locke  (Harper) 
• The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime) 

Best British Novel: 

• Awakening by S. J. Bolton (Bantam Press) 
• The Lovers by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton) 
• Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill (Dalziel and Pascoe #24) (HarperCollins) 
• If the Dead Rise Not  by Philip Kerr (Bernie Gunther Series #6) (Quercus) 
• Still Midnight by Denise Mina (Orion) 
• Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson (Javier Falcon #4) (HarperCollins) 

Best Paperback Original: 

• Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster) 
• Quarry in the Middle by Max Allan Collins (HardCase Crime) 
• Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley  (Touchstone) 
• The Weight of Silence by Heather Gutenkauf (Mira) 
• Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis (Liebermann Papers #3) (Random House Mortalis) 
• The Herring-Seller's Apprentice by L. C. Tyler (Elsie and Ethelred #1) (Felony & Mayhem) 

Best Thriller: 

• No Survivors by Tom Cain (Samuel Carver #2) (Viking) 
• Running from the Devil  by Jamie Freveletti (Wm. Morrow) 
• The Gray Man by Mark Greaney (Court Gentry #1) (Jove) 
• Columbus by Derek Haas (Silver Bear Thriller #2) (Pegasus) 
• House Secrets by Mike Lawson (Joe De Marco #4)(Atlantic Monthly) 
• Walking Dead by Greg Rucka (Atticus Kodiak #7)(Bantam) 

Best Short Story: 

• "My Mother's Keeper" by Barbara Callahan (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) 
•  "Erin's Journal" by David Dean (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) 
• "Real Men Die" by John H. Dirckx (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) 
• "The High House Writer" by Brendan DuBois (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) 
• "A Hollywood Ending" by Melodie Johnson Howe (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) 
• "Hard Blows" (The Prosecution Rests) by Morley Swingle (Back Bay Books)

In addition to learning the winners of the Anthony, Macavity and Barry Awards, Bouchercon attendees will also be informed of the winners of the Shamus Award, presented by the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Crimespree Award, offered by Crimespree magazine. More information on nominees for these awards will doubtlessly be available soon.