Strand Critics Awards

Nominees for the 2009 Strand Critics Awards announced and Elmore Leonard honored

The Strand Magazine has announced its nominees for the 2009 Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction, the Critics Awards were judged by a select group of book critics and journalists, including Ron Charles (The Washington Post), Julia Keller (Chicago Tribune), Tom Nolan (Wall Street Journal) Paul Harris (The Guardian), and Hallie Ephron (The Boston Globe).

Best Novel

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)
Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Books)

Best First Novel

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell (Little, Brown and Company)

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Penguin Press)

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin Books) Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Harper)

The Strand bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award to Elmore Leonard for his huge body of mystery and crime novels which have been translated into dozens of languages and are regulars on the New York Times best-seller lists.

The awards will be presented in the categories of Best Novel and Best First Novel at an invitation-only cocktail party, hosted by The Strand on July 7 in New York City.