Administered by the International Association of Crime Writers – North American Branch, the Hammett Prize shortlist was announced a couple of days back.  Here are the nominees:

  • Wayfaring Stranger: A Novel, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
  • Smoke River, by Krista Foss (McClelland & Stewart)
  • Gangsterland: A Novel, by Tod Goldberg (Counterpoint)
  • Mr. Mercedes: A Novel, by Stephen King (Scribner)
  • Goodhouse: A Novel, by Peyton Marshall (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

It’s another interesting shortlist.  Both the novels by female writers – Smoke River and Goodhouse – are debuts, which is nice to see.  Tod Goldberg is famous for his “Burn Notice” series which was turned into a TV series.  James Lee Burke is famous for his Dave Robicheaux series (Wayfaring Stranger is a standalone) and Stephen King is famous, well, for being Stephen King.  Mr Mercedes is the one book on the shortlist that I own but have yet to read.

Who knows whether I’ll get to these books.  The backlog of shortlists is beginning to build…