Annal:2001 Hammett Prize for Crime-Writing
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Hammett Prize in the year 2001. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- 2001 Hammett winner
- Score: 10.51
Paris, 1938.
As Europe edges toward war, Nicholas Morath, an urbane former cavalry officer, spends his days working at the small advertising agency he owns and his nights in the bohemian circles of his Argentine mistress. But Morath has been recuited by his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, a diplomat in the Hungarian legation, for operations against Hitler’s Germany. It is Morath who does Polanyi’s clandestine work, moving between the beach cafes of Juan-les-Pins and the forests of Ruthenia, from Czech fortresses in the Sudetenland to the private gardens of the…
Mystic River: A Novel
- 2002 Anthony-Novel winner
- 2002 Barry-Novel winner
- 2002 Macavity-Novel nominee
- 2001 Hammett nominee
- Score: 32.52
When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car drove up their street. One boy got in the car, two did not, and something terrible happened—something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay-demons that urge him to do horrific things.
When Jimmy’s daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him…
- 2002 Edgar–Novel winner
- 2001 LATimes–Mystery winner
- 2002 Barry-Novel nominee
- 2002 Macavity-Novel nominee
- 2001 Hammett nominee
- Score: 38.52
With the horrible remnants of a childhood tragedy forever visible across his otherwise handsome face, Joe Trona is scarred in more ways than one. Rescued from an orphanage by Will Trona, a charismatic Orange County politician who sensed his dark potential, Joe is swept into the maelstrom of power and intimidation that surrounds his adoptive father’s illustrious career. Serving as Will’s right-hand man, Joe is trained to protect and defend his father’s territory—but he can’t save the powerful man from his enemies. Will Trona is murdered, and Joe will stop at…
- 2002 Barry-Novel nominee
- 2001 Dagger shortlist
- 2001 Hammett nominee
- Score: 18.52
Derek Strange is an ex-cop who now runs his own private detective agency. The mother of a young police officer killed by another cop hires him to clear up the lingering doubts surrounding her son’s death. Although Terry Quinn, the other cop, has been cleared in the official investigation, his guilt torments him. After Strange interviews him, Quinn joins the investigation, even though in part he is investigating himself and whether his own prejudices led him to pull the trigger.
Strange and Quinn seek their answers in the darkest sectors of Washington, D.C.,…
Hollowpoint: A Novel
- 2001 Hammett nominee
- Score: 6.51
Brooklyn prosecutor Andrew Giobberti can still remember himself as a father, as a husband, and as the chief of the Homicide Bureau, working out of a hard city’s hardest precincts. That was before a car accident took his daughter but left him untouched—except where it matters. That was before his wife walked out. That was before he became mired in blame and regret that for a year has emptied his life of all meaning and purpose. Everyone wrote him off as too far gone for saving.
Then a case crosses Gio’s desk—the murder of a young girl—that may change…
