Annal:2006 Hammett Prize for Crime-Writing
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Hammett Prize in the year 2006. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
The Prisoner of Guantánamo: A Novel
- 2006 Hammett winner
- 2007 Barry-Novel nominee
- Score: 16.56
Revere Falk—FBI veteran, Arabic speaker—is an interrogator at “Gitmo” when the body of an American soldier is found washed ashore in Cuban territory. No American has ever turned up dead on the wrong side of the fence before.
Falk is put in charge of the investigation and almost immediately senses an unusual level of interest in the proceedings: from his commander, from the Cubans, and from the various factions of the military. And when the Defense Intelligence Agency unexpectedly sends its own team to “reinforce” the investigation, Falk is drawn into a game of evasion and pursuit.
The Crimes of Jordan Wise: A Novel
- 2006 Hammett nominee
- Score: 6.56
Jordan Wise is a mild-mannered accountant with a large San Francisco engineering firm in the late 1970s. His dull, empty life is transformed when he meets and falls in love with Annalise Bonner, an ambitious young woman who craves excitement, a life on the edge. With Annalise as the catalyst, Wise concocts and executes a meticulous plan to steal more than half a million dollars from his firm. Their escape to the Virgin Islands is beset by unexpected pitfalls—and Wise is forced to carry out two more ingenious schemes as a result. All three of his crimes are perfect—or are they?
Four Kinds of Rain: A Novel
- 2006 Hammett nominee
- Score: 6.56
Bob Wells, a recently divorced deadbeat, has spent his life as a psychiatrist only doing good in the world. One of his patients, Emile Bardan is haunted by demons and he believes that someone is trying to steal his most prized possession: the legendary Mask of Utu.
When Bob discovers that Emile is telling the truth and that the mask is worth millions, he decides to steal the mask himself. But doing so may mean making the biggest mistake of all—as he proceeds down a path into a dark abyss from which there is no return.
Ghost Dancer: A Thriller
- 2006 Hammett nominee
- Score: 6.56
Photojournalist Mike Burke’s helicopter crashed and burned in Africa, he came away with his life but lost his heart to the beautiful woman who saved him. But a wicked twist of fate puts an end to Burke’s dreams, leaving him adrift in Dublin with bittersweet memories…and no appetite for danger.
An ocean away, Jack Wilson’s dream is the rest of the world’s nightmare. Driven by his obsession with a Native American visionary, and guided by the secret notebooks of Nikola Tesla, Wilson dreams of the Apocalypse—and plans to make it happen.
As a terrifying worldwide chain reaction is set in motion, one thing stands between Jack Wilson and the time of reckoning he is calling forth: Mike Burke.
