Annal:2007 Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Shamus Award in the year 2007. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
The Wrong Kind of Blood: An Ed Loy Mystery
- 2007 Shamus-1st Novel winner
- 2007 New Blood Dagger shortlist
- Score: 16.57
The city Loy once knew is an unrecognizable place, filled with gangsters, seducers, hucksters, and crazies, each with a scheme and an angle. But he can’t refuse the sexy former schoolmate who asks him to find her missing husband—or the old pal-turned-small time criminal who shows up on Loy’s doorstep with a hard-luck story and a recently fired gun. Suddenly, a tragic homecoming could prove fatal for the grieving…
18 Seconds: A Novel
- 2007 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.57
Thirty years after a deadly traffic accident landed Earl Sykes in prison, he is back on the streets of Wildwood, New Jersey—and back for revenge. He is also feeding his perverse appetite for abducting young female victims—the same crimes he committed years ago for which he was never caught.
Police lieutenant Kelly O’Shaughnessy is bewildered by the disappearance of several young women from the boardwalk—crimes horrifyingly reminiscent of unsolved cases from the seventies. Reluctant to ask for help but desperate to stem the bloodshed, Kelly enlists investigative consultant Sherry Moore. Blind and beautiful, Sherry has the extraordinary ability to “see” the deceased’s last eighteen seconds of memory by touching the corpse. As they join forces to discover the killer’s identity, the women unwittingly become the hunted—each step drawing them closer to the deadly clutches of a homicidal monster.
Holmes on the Range: A Mystery
- 2007 Anthony-1st Novel nominee
- 2007 Edgar-1st Novel nominee
- 2007 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 18.57
1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar-VR cattle spread, they’re not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper’s Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes. When another ranch hand turns up in an outhouse with a bullet in his brain, Old Red sees the perfect opportunity to put his Holmes-inspired detective talents to work and solve the case. Big Red, like it or not (and mostly he does not), is along for the wild ride in this clever, compelling, and completely one-of-a-kind mystery.
Lost Angel: A Nik Kane Alaska Mystery
- 2007 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.57
Moses Wright founded the Christian commune of Rejoice. The rough-and-tumble interior of Alaska may seem a strange place for such a community, but for twenty years it has served as a beacon in the wilderness. Two decades later Moses granddaughter, Faith, is the star of the younger generation. Pretty and intelligent, she’s the first teenager in the town to choose to experience the outside world. When Faith disappears, the elders of Rejoice look beyond their village for help.
Ex-cop Nik Kane lost his faith long ago-dissolved in a bottle. A few drinks, a dark night, and a shooting led to seven years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Nothing can give him back his career or his family, but the search for Faith may restore his soul.
By turns lyrical and hard-edged, Lost Angel is a remarkable first novel from a powerful new voice in mystery fiction.
A Safe Place for Dying: A Mystery
- 2007 Shamus-1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.57
An extortion letter arrives at Crystal Waters, one of Chicago’s wealthiest gated communities. It makes no specific threats, gives no instructions, demands only that $50,000 be gotten ready—chump change for an enclave where the cheapest house is worth three million. It’s easy to see it as harmless—a note from a nut.
Then a mansion explodes.
They hire Dek Elstrom to investigate. Dek used to live with his multimillionaire wife at Crystal Waters. Now reduced to living in a crumbling stone turret, bankrupt of everything but attitude, he’s not even his own ideal choice for the job. He’s too broke, however, to question the motives of a gift-horse client. He needs the money—and the chance to reconnect with his ex-wife.
Another bomb goes off, and Dek realizes the culprit must be someone who is angry, needs money, and used to live at Crystal Waters. Then he realizes something else. He himself is the prime suspect.
