Вручение 12 марта 2020 г.
Страна: США
Место проведения: Сан-Диего, штат Калифорния
Дата проведения: 12 марта 2020 г.
Лучший юмористический детектив
Лауреат
Catriona McPherson
0.0
Scottish-born California transplant Lexy Campbell sails into trouble when her houseboat party ends on a deadly note.
Now settled in her little houseboat, moored in the slough at the back of the Last Ditch Motel, Lexy Campbell wants nothing more than to build her counseling business, avoid her mother's phone calls and--who knows?--meet a nice guy. But when she throws a Halloween party for her motley crew of motel pals, the only single man is too old for her, too wrapped up in the case of beer chilling in the slough, and--oh, yes--too dead.
The sensible choice is to leave it up to the cops to identify the body and catch the killer. So faster than you can say "Tam O'Shanter," Lexy and her friends jump into the case themselves, delving deep into their town's past for the roots of a mystifying crime.
Praise for Scot & Soda
"Peppered with clever red herrings, the mystery gleefully revels in the absurd, but it's Lexy's friendships with the Last Ditch's unusual residents that give this series its big heart. Those who enjoy the Stephanie Plum mysteries will find plenty to like."--Publishers Weekly
Praise for Scot Free, Book 1 of the Last Ditch Mystery Series:
A 2019 Lefty Award Nominee
"[McPherson's] character-driven romp is sparked by the larger-than-life, quirky residents of the Last Ditch Motel, putting this laugh-out-loud whodunit on a par with the early Janet Evanovich."--Library Journal (starred review)
"McPherson, a master of creepy psychological mysteries, shows an utterly different side of herself in this zany series kickoff."--Kirkus Reviews
"McPherson gives the fish-out-of-water theme a hilarious and original spin with Lexy Campbell, a Scottish therapist who falls for and marries a sexy California dentist who turns out to be more horndog than hero. Throw in a sweet old lady accused of blowing up her pyrotechnic husband and a hilariously bumbling supporting cast, and you have the perfect comic caper. Lexy is my new favorite unwitting detective and her cultural observations and mistakes are laugh-out-loud funny. Scot Free is a little sexy and a lot funny, with a heart and a bang."--Jess Lourey, Anthony and Lefty-nominated author
"The only times I stopped turning the pages were when I was laughing so hard it took both hands just to hold the book. McPherson is an ace plotter, a vivid, original stylist, and great company. A great beginning to a new series."--Timothy Hallinan, author of the Junior Bender series
"Everyone who knows me knows that I don't throw the word 'hoot' around lightly. So if I were to say that Catriona McPherson's new novel was a hoot, believe me, I would mean it. Filled with an entertaining cast of eccentric characters, Scot Free is a funny and original mystery. Quite frankly, it's a hoot. There, I said it."--Johnny Shaw, author of Big Maria and Imperial Valley
"Lexy's snide observations about the California lifestyle can't cover up her affection for her friends, who are as warm-hearted as they are weird. Readers will look forward to Lexy's further adventures."--Publishers Weekly
"McPherson, who has earned acclaim for her dark thrillers and Dandy Gilver period cozies, blends jaunty pacing, a comically rendered Southern California setting, and quirky characters in this series starter. A sure bet for fans of Janet Evanovich and Sarah Strohmeyer."--Booklist
Эллен Байрон
0.0
USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Ellen Byron cranks it up to eleven in the fifth fast and funny Cajun Country mystery.
Louisiana B&B owner Maggie Crozat kicks up her heels at a country music festival--but she'll have one foot in the grave if she can't bring the killer of a diva's hanger-on to heel.
Grab your tickets for Cajun Country Live!, the pickers' and crooners' answer to the legendary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Maggie Crozat, proprietor of the Crozat Plantation B&B, plans to be in the cheering section when her friend Gaynell Bourgeois takes the stage with her band, Gaynell and the Gator Girls.
The festival's headliner, native daughter Tammy Barker, rocketed to stardom on a TV singing competition. She has the voice of an angel...and the personality of a devilish diva. But Maggie learns that this tiny terror carries a grudge against Gaynell. She's already sabotaged the Gator Girls' JazzFest audition. When a member of Tammy's entourage is murdered at the festival, Tammy makes sure Gaynell is number one on the suspect list.
Gaynell has plenty of company on that list--including every one of Tammy's musicians. Posing as a groupie, Maggie infiltrates Tammy's band and will have to hit all the right notes to clear her friend's name.
Лесли Карст
0.0
Restaurateur Sally Solari’s cousin Evelyn may be blind, but she can see all too clearly that her chef mother’s death wasn’t an accidental overdose―she was murdered.
Santa Cruz restaurateur Sally Solari’s life is already boiling over as she deals with irate cooks and other staffing issues at the busy Gauguin restaurant. The rainy December weather isn’t cooling things down, either. So she’s steamed when her dad persuades her to take in Evelyn, her estranged blind cousin whose mother has just died of a drug overdose.
But Evelyn proves to be lots of fun and she’s a terrific cook. Back at the house she’d shared with her mom, Evelyn’s heightened sense of touch tells her that various objects―a bottle of cranberry juice, her grandfather’s jazz records―are out of place. She and her mom always kept things in the same place so Evelyn could find them. So she suspects that her mother’s death was neither accident nor suicide, no matter what the police believe.
The cousins’ sleuthing takes Sally and Evelyn into the world of macho commercial kitchens, and the cutthroat competitiveness that can flame up between chefs. In Leslie Karst’s scrumptious fourth Sally Solari mystery, Sally will have to chop a long list of suspects down to size or end up getting burned.
Синтия Кун
0.0
The organizers have rustled up plenty of surprises for the literary conference at Tattered Star Ranch. But the murder of an influential scholar wasn’t on the program—someone has clearly taken the theme of Malice in the Mountains to heart. This shocking crime is only the beginning: other dangers and deceptions are soon revealed.
English professor Lila Maclean has a full agenda: she must convince a press to publish her book (possibly), ace her panel presentations (hopefully), and deal with her nemesis (regrettably). However, when Detective Lex Archer requests Lila’s academic expertise, she agrees to consult on the case. While her contributions earn high marks from her partner, it could be too late; the killer is already taking aim at the next subject. As Lila races to keep her colleagues alive, publish or perish takes on new meaning.
Вендалл Томас
0.0
Eggnog notwithstanding, travel agent Cyd Redondo is not looking forward to the holidays. The borough of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn - along with most of her family - holds her responsible for her landing Uncle Ray in a minimum security prison.
So, when Cyd's ex-husband, Barry Manzoni, announces his parents have disappeared from an Australian cruise, she rushes Down Under to enlist the help of travel liaison and friend Harriet Archer, who offers a free cabin on the Tasmanian Dream and insider assistance with the search.
Cyd's flights are delayed, so she hitches a helicopter ride to the ship - which lacks a heli-pad. She and her Balenciaga bag barely survive the harrowing drop, landing on a gorgeous man in a Speedo. When she finally makes it to her cabin, she finds Harriet dead, lying in a pool of blood.
The ship's doctor/coroner - now wearing a tux instead of his Speedo - declares the death an accident. While Darling Cruises hurries to cover up the "unfortunate event" and sanitize the crime scene. Cyd scrambles to preserve evidence, terrified the murder is connected to the Manzonis' disappearance, and to prevent the heist of the world's last Tasmanian tiger.
Her search for Barry's parents and Harriet's killer unearths more comic and deadly surprises on ship and on land - where a Tasmanian asylum awaits - as Cyd, red purse in hand, finds enemies, allies, crimes, and romance in the most inconvenient places.
Лучший исторический детектив / Мемориал Александра Брюса
Лауреат
Суджата Масси
4.4
India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Satara mountains southeast of Bombay, where the kingdom of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic accident. The kingdom is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur’s two maharanis, the dowager queen and the maharaja’s widow.
The royal ladies are in dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer’s council is required—but the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, India’s only female lawyer. Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince’s future, but knows she is breaking a rule by traveling alone as a woman into the remote countryside. And she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?
Сюзанна Калкинс
0.0
The first mystery in Susanna Calkins' captivating new series takes readers into the dark, dangerous, and glittering underworld of a 1920's Chicago speakeasy.
Gina Ricci takes on a job as a cigarette girl to earn money for her ailing father--and to prove to herself that she can hold her own at Chicago's most notorious speakeasy, the Third Door. She's enchanted by the harsh, glamorous world she discovers: the sleek socialites sipping bootlegged cocktails, the rowdy ex-servicemen playing poker in a curtained back room, the flirtatious jazz pianist and the brooding photographer--all overseen by the club's imposing owner, Signora Castallazzo. But the staff buzzes with whispers about Gina's predecessor, who died under mysterious circumstances, and the photographer, Marty, warns her to be careful.
When Marty is brutally murdered, with Gina as the only witness, she's determined to track down his killer. What secrets did Marty capture on his camera--and who would do anything to destroy it? As Gina searches for answers, she's pulled deeper into the shadowy truths hiding behind the Third Door.
Л.А. Чендлер
0.0
As the Great Depression loosens its grip on New York City, Mayor La Guardia and his team meet their greatest foe in the fight against organized crime ...
Lane Sanders and her fiery boss, Mayor Fiorello "Fio" La Guardia have managed to contain the explosive underground conspiracies of New York's most sinister schemers. But after a seemingly harmless pinball racket claims the life of a trusted ally, a new ringleader signals the rebirth of an all-too-familiar crime network at home and across the pond ...
Spurred on by the possibility of a violent syndicate spreading like wildfire through Europe, Lane sets sail for London--the city where her parents began the undercover work that led to their tragic undoing. And this time, she won't chase down childhood nightmares without Finn Brodie, who vows to dispel his own difficult secrets abroad ...
While Finn confronts a devious sibling's plot that echoes Orson Welles's Voodoo Macbeth, Lane discovers that a dazzling pearl dagger may wield the ultimate clue to guide their hunt for justice on two sides of the ocean. With terrors from the past and present converging, Lane can't save herself unless she starts believing that, like her weapon of choice, she also has the power to be both beautiful and dangerous.
Dianne Freeman
0.0
How far will some go to safeguard a secret? In the latest novel in Dianne Freeman’s witty and delightful historical mystery series, the adventurous Countess Harleigh finds out . . .
Though American by birth, Frances Wynn, the now-widowed Countess of Harleigh, has adapted admirably to the quirks and traditions of the British aristocracy. On August twelfth each year, otherwise known as the Glorious Twelfth, most members of the upper class retire to their country estates for grouse-shooting season. Frances has little interest in hunting—for birds or a second husband—and is expecting to spend a quiet few months in London with her almost-engaged sister, Lily, until the throng returns.
Instead, she’s immersed in a shocking mystery when a friend, Mary Archer, is found murdered. Frances had hoped Mary might make a suitable bride for her cousin, Charles, but their courtship recently fizzled out. Unfortunately, this puts Charles in the spotlight—along with dozens of others. It seems Mary had countless notes hidden in her home, detailing the private indiscretions of society’s elite. Frances can hardly believe that the genteel and genial Mary was a blackmailer, yet why else would she horde such juicy tidbits?
Aided by her gallant friend and neighbor, George Hazelton, Frances begins assisting the police in this highly sensitive case, learning more about her peers than she ever wished to know. Too many suspects may be worse than none at all—but even more worrying is that the number of victims is increasing too. And unless Frances takes care, she’ll soon find herself among them . . .
Дженнифер Кинчело
0.0
Los Angeles, 1908. Anna Blanc is a former so-so socialite, a flailing police matron, and a killer detective.
Ex-heiress, Anna Blanc, is precariously employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, reforming delinquent children and minding lady jailbirds. What she really wants is to hunt criminals and be alone with Detective Joe Singer--both no-nos that could get her fired. On a lover's tryst in Griffith Park, Anna and Joe discover the body of a young gambler. Anna can't resist. She's on the case.
With a murder to solve and her police matron duties piling up, Anna begins getting strange floral arrangements from an unknown admirer. Following the petals leads her to another crime--one close to home. Suddenly pitted against Joe, Anna must examine her loyalties and solve the crimes, even if it means losing the man she loves.
