Annal:2004 Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Shamus Award in the year 2004. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Black Maps: A Novel
- 2004 Shamus-1st Novel winner
- Score: 10.54
The stronghold of white-collar crime in the rarefied world of high finance—this is the setting for Peter Spiegelman’s edgy, suspenseful, sharply-honed debut novel.
At the center: John March, who walked away from his family’s venerable merchant bank for the life of a rural deputy sheriff—a life that would explode in personal tragedy and professional disaster. Three years later, he’s back in Manhattan, working as a PI and running from his grief and the expectations of his wealthy family.
March takes the case of Rick Pierro, a self-made man who has…
- 2004 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.54
Reporter Eddie Bourque chases stories for the Lowell Empire, a second-class rag in a Massachusetts city of first-generation immigrants and bare-knuckled politicians. The talented and ambitious Eddie has one eye on finding a better job. However, when the dead junkie found floating in a mill canal is identified as his beat partner, he gives the story his full attention. That is, until he finds himself stonewalled by powerbrokers in Lowell law enforcement—and at his own newspaper.
Bent on finding his partner’s killer, Eddie disobeys orders and follows a…
Lovers Crossing: A Mystery
- 2004 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.54
After a confrontation with a group of smugglers on the border leaves him nearly dead, Agent Brinker turns in his INS badge and starts up a safer line of work as a private investigator. And now that he’s aced a few open-and-shut missing child cases, Brinker thinks he has finally escaped the nightmare of Lovers Crossing. But when Brinker is approached by the wealthy Tucson businessman Mo Crain to investigate the brutal murder of his wife, trouble is close behind. Desperately short on leads, Brinker can’t find anyone in Tucson with a motive to kill Mrs. Crain. And…
