The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) presented its Shamus Award for Best Hardcover P.I. Novel to Lori Armstrong’s No Mercy during a Sept. 16 banquet at Bouchercon 2011. No Mercy is the first title in Armstrong’s new Mercy Gunderson series, featuring a former Army sniper.
Shamus Awards are given annually to fictional works featuring private investigators. A full list of all nominees for the 2011 Shamus Awards can be found on the website Criminalelement.com. Mystery Fanfare published the winners list on Sept. 17, which included the titles listed below.
- Best Hardcover P.I. Novel: No Mercy by Lori Armstrong (Touchstone: Mercy Gunderson series, book 1)
- Best First P.I. Novel: In Search of Mercy by Michael Ayoob (Minotaur)
- Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel: Asia Hand, by Christopher G. Moore (Grove/Atlantic: Vincent Calvino series, book 4)
- Best P.I. Short Story: “The Lamb Was Sure to Go,” by Gar Anthony Haywood (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2010)
- The Hammer Award (Best P.I. Series Character): Sara Paretsky for V.I. Warshawski. V.I. Warshawski is a Chicago-based private investigator who is the focus of 14 novels by Sara Paretsky. Paretsky has also been honored this year with the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and with Bouchercon 2011’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
- The EYE (Lifetime Achievement Award): Ed Gorman. Gorman has written numerous standalone detective novels as well as the Jack Dwyer, Tobin, Leo Guild, Robert Payne and Sam McCain series.
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