Annal:2005 Barry Award for Best Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Barry Award in the year 2005. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
The Enemy: A Jack Reacher Novel
- 2005 Barry-Novel winner
- Score: 10.55
Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier’s son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army’s brightest stars. But in every cop’s life there is a turning point. One case. One messy, tangled case that can shatter a career. Turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case.
New Year’s Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. The world is changing. And in a North Carolina “hot-sheets” motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it.…
Darkly Dreaming Dexter: A Novel
- 2005 Barry-Novel nominee
- 2005 Macavity-Novel nominee
- Score: 12.55
Meet Dexter, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing…a monster who cringes at the site of blood…a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likable: he only kills bad people.
Dexter Morgan isn’t exactly the kind of man you’d bring home to Mom. Though he’s playful and has a wonderfully ironic sense of humor, Dexter’s one character flaw (his proclivity for murder) can be off-putting. But at heart Dexter is the perfect gentleman, supportive of his sister, Deb, a Miami cop, and interested only in doing away with people who really deserve his…
- 2005 Barry-Novel nominee
- 2005 Edgar–Novel nominee
- Score: 12.55
Mike Sullivan is determined to raise his six-year-old daughter Sarah to become a tough, independent woman. His own mother left when he was twelve, promising to return and rescue him from his father, an abusive and violently unpredictable thief who, Mike believes, is responsible for her disappearance. But Mike’s wife, Jess, has an overprotective need to shelter Sarah. Rebelling against her paranoia, Mike waits until Jess leaves the house and then, against her wishes, takes Sarah sledding.
Only Sarah doesn’t want to go up the hill with her father. Sarah wants to…
Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Mystery
- 2005 Barry-Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Easy Rawlins returns to solve a mystery set amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen.
Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965—when anger is high and fear still smolders everywhere—the police turn up at Easy Rawlins’s doorstep. He expects the worst, as usual. But they’ve come to ask for his help.
A man was wrenched from his car by a mob at the riots’ peak and escaped into a nearby apartment building. Soon afterward, a redheaded woman known as Little Scarlet was found dead in that building—and the fleeing man is the…
Hard Revolution: A Novel
- 2005 Barry-Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Derek Strange is a rookie cop, the job he’s dreamed of since he was a boy. His brother, Dennis, has not been as fortunate; home from the service with a disability pension and zero prospects, he is a man with good intentions but bad habits. Derek has always looked out for Dennis, but no amount of brotherly love can save him from the dangerous world of Alvin Jones, a local bottom-feeder, hustler, and stone killer who draws him into his web of violence.
While the rookie cop navigates the rocky terrain of a city in turmoil, a family in crisis, and his love for a…
