Crime Writers of Canada 2025 Shortlists for Awards of Excellence and Derrick Murdoch Award Winner

It is the end of April and time for the Crime Writers of Canada announcement of the shortlists for Awards of Excellence and the Derrick Murdoch Award. The CWC news release is below.

Of the books nominated I have read Susan Juby’s book in Best Traditional and Dean Jobb’s book in Best Non-Fiction.

I am very familiar with the brilliant books of William Deverell, the winner of the Derrick Murdoch Award. He is the best writer of legal fiction in Canada. I may have a further post about him.

The Winners will be announced on May 30

Congratulations to all the nominees.

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THE 2025 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE SHORTLISTS

The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel

Sponsored by the Boreal Benefactor with a $1000 prize

Colin Barrett, Wild Houses, McClelland & Stewart

Jaima Fixsen, The Specimen, Poisoned Pen Press

Conor Kerr, Prairie Edge, Strange Light, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada

John MacLachlan Gray, Mr. Good-Evening, Douglas & McIntyre

Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf, Minotaur Books

Best Crime First Novel

Sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize

Suzan Denoncourt, The Burden of Truth, Suzan Denoncourt

Peter Holloway, The Roaring Game Murders, Bonspiel Books

Jim McDonald, Altered Boy, Amalit Books

Marianne K. Miller, We Were the Bullfighters, Dundurn Press

Ashley Tate, Twenty-Seven Minutes, Doubleday Canada

Best Crime Novel Set in Canada

Sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize

Brenda Chapman, Fatal Harvest, Ivy Bay Press

Barry W. Levy, The War Machine, Double Dagger Books

Shane Peacock, As We Forgive Others, Cormorant Books

Greg Rhyno, Who By Fire, Cormorant Books

Kerry Wilkinson, The Call, Bookouture

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery

Sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize

Cathy Ace, The Corpse with the Pearly Smile, Four Tails Publishing Ltd.

Raye Anderson, The Dead Shall Inherit, Signature Editions

Susan Juby, A Meditation on Murder, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Thomas King, Black Ice, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Jonathan Whitelaw, Concert Hall Killer, HarperNorth/HarperCollins Canada

Best Crime Novella

Sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $200 prize

Marcelle Dubé, Chuck Berry is Missing, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper, Kensington

Pamela Jones, The Windmill Mystery, Austin Macauley Publishers

A.J. McCarthy, A Rock, Black Rose Writing

Twist Phelan, Aim, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best Crime Short Story

Catherine Astolfo, Farmer Knudson, from Auntie Beers: A Book of Connected Short Stories, Carrick Publishing

Therese Greenwood, Hatcheck Bingo, from The 13th Letter, Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem, Carrick Publishing

Billie Livingston, Houdini Act, Saturday Evening Post

Linda Sanche, The Electrician, from Crime Waves, Dangerous Games, A Canada West Anthology

Melissa Yi, The Longest Night of the Year, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best French Language Crime Book

J.L. Blanchard, La femme papillon, Fides

R. Lavallée, Le crime du garçon exquis, Fides

Jean Lemieux, L’Affaire des montants, Québec Amérique

Guillaume Morrissette, Une mémoire de lion, Saint-Jean

Johanne Seymour, Fracture, Libre Expression

Best Juvenile / YA Crime Book

Sponsored by Superior Shores Press with a $250 prize

Sigmund Brouwer, Shock Wave, Orca Book Publishers

Meagan Mahoney, The Time Keeper, DCB Young Readers

Twist Phelan, Snowed, Bronzeville Books, LLC

David A. Poulsen, The Dark Won't Wait, Red Deer Press

Melissa Yi, The Red Rock Killer, Windtree Press

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book

Sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize

Denise Chong, Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, Random House Canada

Nate Hendley, Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, Dundurn Press

John L. Hill, The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, AOS Publishing

Dean Jobb, A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Tanya Talaga, The Knowing, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author

Sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize

Robert Bowerman, The Man in The Black Hat

Luke Devlin, Govern Yourself Accordingly

Delee Fromm, Dark Waters

Lorrie Potvin, A Trail's Tears

William Watt, Predators in the Shadows

DERRICK MURDOCH AWARD RECIPIENT

The Derrick Murdoch Award is a special achievement award presented at the discretion of the Board Chair of Crime Writers of Canada. It recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to developing crime writing in Canada.

Crime Writers of Canada is also pleased to announce William H. Deverell, a distinguished Canadian novelist, activist, and criminal lawyer, as the recipient of the 2025 Derrick Murdoch Award.

Deverell’s bibliography includes nineteen novels, many drawing from his extensive legal experience. Notable works include Trial of Passion, which earned the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing in 1997 and Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian Crime Novel in 1998. Trial of Passion introduced readers to Arthur Beauchamp, QC, a character who became central to a series that includes titles such as April Fool (2003 Arthur Ellis award winner) and Kill All the Judges. He is the author of A Life on Trial – The Case of Robert Frisbee, based on a notorious murder trial in which he was defense counsel.

Street Legal, which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1994, was the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in the history of Canadian television. The show was based on an original pilot, Shellgame, which Deverell authored.

Beyond his writing, he continues to be a pivotal figure in Canadian literature, inspiring readers and mentoring emerging Canadian writers within the crime and mystery genres.

Deverell is the founder and honorary director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. He served as chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada in 1994 and 1999 and is a life member of the Writers Guild of Canada, a Member Emeritous of Crime Writers of Canada and a member of PEN International.

Pirate King by Laurie R. King

(18. - 1261.) Pirate King by Laurie R. King - The cover is brilliant, the story within less so.

In 1924 Fflyette Films aspires to rival the flourishing moving picture companies of America. The English company has done well with action adventure, abysmally with dramas and epics. It needs a hit movie. How little has changed in the last 100 years. 

Fflyette Films is prone to alliteration in its publicity - Fflyettes of Fancy. 

Aristocratic backers of Fflyette Films are uneasy that the company is involved in illicit ventures while making movies. Inspector Lestrade reaches out to Sherlock Holmes for assistance. Holmes, awaiting a visit from Mycroft, designates Mary Russell to be the police mole within the company.

Fflyette Films is embarking on a journey to Portugal and then Morocco to film a sea action film. The Pirate King is to be a movie about a movie adapting the operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. As it is the silent film era no songs need be sung. To avoid being too complex the operatta is lightly drawn upon.

Fflyette Films prides itself upon realism. Not for Fflyette to use constructed sets. They shoot on location.

Russell is to be the assistant to the producer, Geoffrey Hale. Not a patient person, she is forced to deal with infinite details. The position is open as the previous assistant, Miss Lonnie Johns, has disappeared.

For The Pirate King the Major-General has 13 daughters, all blonde. To have them all of a lawful age to marry the pirates there are 4 sets of triplets. The movie is a diva’s delight.

Randolph St. John Warminister-Fflyette (I hate that name. I keep typing Flyette.) is the founder and sole director of the company. At 5’ he maximizes his presence by attitude.

Casting the pirates in Lisbon is a challenge. Where do you find a dozen piratical looking men? The acting fraternity of Portugal lacks the swarthy fierceness desired? Eventually non-actors are found who meet the director’s expectations.

The man chosen to be the Pirate King, Senhor M. R. X. La Rocha, is not only swarthy, he has a large gold earring and an actual scar slicing across half his face.

The poet / translator, Senhor Fernando Pessoa, turns out to be more interesting for the multiple personalities that make up his mind than his actual actions.

For over 100 pages there is barely a question or break-in to aid the investigation. Russell recognizes there is precious little progress. Indeed, the investigation was feeling contrived. How would a haphazard, ill-organized film company engage in criminal activities such as drugs and guns?

A sailing ship, Harlequin, converted to a fishing boat is re-converted to a brigantine and becomes the pirate ship. They set sail for Morocco.

The investigation really begins about 180 pages into the book.

Holmes makes a startling return to the book. I wish Holmes had been in the book from the start. The interaction between Holmes and Russell is crucial to the series. Russell’s earnestness needs Holmes’ brilliant eccentricities. 

The Pirate King startles everyone with a spectacular outfit:

His hat was scarlet. From it danced an emerald ostrich plume the length of my arm. His jacket was brocade, orange and red, over a gold waistcoat, burgundy trousers, and knee-high boots a Musketeer would have killed for, also scarlet. His small earring had doubled in size overnight, and half a dozen fingers bore rings - gold rings, with faceted gems. The henna in his beard gleamed red in the sunlight.

Completing the pirate image is a parrot, Rosie, fluent in several languages with a speciality of “blood-curdling screams”.

The action picks up when the motley crew of pirates, actors and detectives arrive in Morocco.

The conclusion is amazing and the best part of the book.

It has been 16 years since I read a Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes book. I had felt the series had declined and had not read after The Language of Bees. I am not sure I will read more of their adventures.

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King, Laurie R. – (2000) - Night Work; (2000) - O Jerusalem; (2001) – Folly; (2002) - Justice Hall; (2004) - The Game; (2006) - The Art of Detection; (2009) - The Language of Bees