About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Friday, May 26, 2017

2017 Winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian Crime Fiction

Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award winners. They were announced at the annual banquet of the Crime Writers of Canada in Toronto last night.

 Best Novel

 Donna Morrissey, The Fortunate Brother, Viking Canada

Best First Novel sponsored by Kobo

Elle Wild, Strange Things Done, Dundurn Press

Best Novella: The Lou Allin Memorial Award

Rick Blechta, Rundown, Orca Book Publishers

Best Short Story

Susan Daly, A Death at the Parsonage, The Whole She-Bang 3, Toronto Sisters in Crime

Best Book in French

Marie-Eve Bourassa, Red Light: Adieu, Mignonne, Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature, vlb éditions Chrystine Brouillet, Vrai ou faux, Éditions Druide

Best Juvenile/YA Book

Gordon Korman, Masterminds: Criminal Destiny, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

Best Nonfiction Book

Jeremy Grimaldi, A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story, Dundurn Press

Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel sponsored by Dundurn Press

S.J. Jennings, The Golkonda Project

 Continuing my personal tradition I am reading and reviewing the shortlist for Best Novel. By coincidence, I read The Fortunate Brother first and my review was my last post.

 It is a bit of a surprise that Morrissey was the winner as The Fortunate Brother is her first mystery novel. It was an excellent book and I am looking forward to reading the other four books on the shortlist.

 An unusual aspect to The Fortunate Brother is that it is the third book in a trilogy involving the Now family. It reads well as a stand-alone. I did not realize it was part of a trilogy until I was doing some research on the author after I finished reading the book.

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 27, 2017 at 6:06 AM

    Congratulations, indeed, Bill. From your review, The Fortunate Brother was a worthy winner. I look forward to the rest of your reviews of the short-listed novels.

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  2. Bill SelnesMay 27, 2017 at 10:08 AM

    Margot: Thanks for the comment. I have mixed feelings about reading the winner first. It is inevitable I will go through the remaining four thinking whether any are as good as The Fortunate Brother. On the other hand if I was reading it last there might be unreasonable expectations.

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  3. Susan DMay 31, 2017 at 7:47 AM

    Thanks, Bill, for the congrats (I won the short story award).

    When The Fortunate Brother was published I was surprised to see it called a mystery (I had already read What They Wanted) and picked it up expecting the mystery aspect to be fairly secondary. Instead I was pleased to discover it was both an excellent Morrissey novel AND a well crafted mystery.

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    Replies
    1. Bill SelnesMay 31, 2017 at 11:18 PM

      Susan: Thanks for the comment and congratulations again on winning the short story award. I hope you will drop by again.

      The Fortunate Brother is a fine way for me to start reading Ms. Morrissey.

      I consider it a major challenge to have a work of fiction that works both as a non-mystery and a mystery.

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