Annal:2006 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original

The James Deans: A Moe Prager Mystery

Reed Farrel Coleman

• 2006 Anthony-Paperback winner
• 2006 Barry-Paperback winner
• 2006 Shamus-Paperback winner
• 2006 Edgar-Paperback nominee
• 2006 Macavity-Novel nominee
• Score: 42.56

It’s 1983 and Reaganomics is in full swing. But beneath the facade of junk bonds and easy money, New York remains a gritty metropolis offering Nirvana with one hand and desolation with the other. Moe Prager, ex-NYPD cop turned reluctant P.I. is too busy reeling from a family tragedy to see what’s coming. He’s about to be sucked into a case that might deliver him what he’s always wanted or plunge him into purgatory.

Two years earlier, Moira Heaton, a young intern for an up-and-coming politico, vanished without a trace. Although there is no evidence supporting her boss’s involvement, rumors and whispers have conspired to stall his once-promising career. Now, in a last-ditch effort to clear his name, state senator Steven Brightman, with the clout of a wealthy backer, enlists Moe’s help. With twists and turns galore and Moe’s inimitable voice, The James Deans is an absorbing page-turner that will add to the burgeoning reputation of one of today’s most promising writers.

The Good Girl's Guide to Murder: A Debutante Dropout Mystery

Susan McBride

• 2006 Anthony-Paperback nominee
• Score: 6.56

Website designer and high society rebel Andrea Kendricks would never have gotten involved with ego-in-pumps life-style hostess Marilee Mabry if it weren’t for the underhanded machinations of Andy’s upper crust mama. But thanks to Mother Cissy, Andy’s donning designer duds to attend a launch party at the intolerable domestic diva’s new Dallas TV studio—and she’s on hand to witness the celebration site go up in flames! Then a body turns up in the rubble, the victim, apparently, of some very foul play. Even though iron-willed Cissy isn’t about to let her social calendar be upset by a little inconvenience like murder, her sometime-sleuthing daughter’s got a more pressing engagement—namely, hunting down a killer. But there are more than a few nasty messes tucked away in the Mabry closet—and a craven assassin who has the Big D elite quaking in their cowboy boots may soon be burying Andy in hers!

A Killing Rain: A Louis Kincaid Mystery

P.J. Parrish

• 2006 Anthony-Paperback nominee
• 2006 Shamus-Paperback nominee
• Score: 12.56

Deep in the sweltering Florida Everglades, a hunter stalks the ultimate prey…savoring his quarry’s terror…closing in for the kill…

For Detective Louis Kincaid, what should have been a routine case has taken a grisly turn, leading straight to the lair of a predator whose prized trophies are human relics.

Now, with time running out, Kincaid is on a desperate hunt of his own, tracking a twisted adversary more ruthless than he ever imagined…

Kiss Her Goodbye

Allan Guthrie

• 2006 Anthony-Paperback nominee
• 2006 Edgar-Paperback nominee
• Score: 12.56

When people in Edinburgh want to borrow money, they go to Cooper. When they don’t pay it back, they get a visit from Joe Hope. But now Joe’s got problems of his own. His teenage daughter is found dead, an apparent suicide. Then the police arrest him for murder. But for once in his life, Joe’s innocent—and with help from Scotland’s hardest men (and one of Scotland’s hardest women), he sets out to find the person who framed him and deliver his own brutal brand of justice.

Six Bad Things: A Novel

Charlie Huston

• 2006 Anthony-Paperback nominee
• 2006 Barry-Paperback nominee
• 2006 Edgar-Paperback nominee
• Score: 18.56

Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that the Russian mafia wants back and many, many secrets. So when a Russian backpacker shows up in town asking questions, Hank tries to play it cool. But he knows the jig is up when the backpacker mentions the money…and the family Hank left behind. Suddenly Hank’s in a desperate race to get to his parents in California before anyone can harm them. Along the way he’ll face Federales and Border Patrol, mafiosi and vigilantes, extortionists and drug dealers, and a couple of psychotic surf bums with an ax to grind.

From the golden beaches of the Yucatán to the seedy strip clubs of Vegas, Charlie Huston opens a door to the squalid underworld of crime and corruption–and invites the reader to live it in the extreme.