Dagger Day, Part I: the People’s Choice Award

To get things started, let’s take a look at a new award that’s been created

by the Book Club Association, parent owner of MysteryThriller.co.uk and one of

the sponsors of the Dagger Awards.  Called the [People’s

Choice Award][2] (not to be confused with those other Awards,

although it would be rather funny if say, Ms. Lohan and Ms. Hilton were on the

BCA’s shortlist) it’s set up to determine the UK’s Favorite Mystery of the

year. The nominees are fairly big-ticket authors: Michael Connelly, Harlan

Coben, Karin Slaughter, Reginald Hill, Val McDermid and James Patterson.

Mid-list need not apply, because I guess the rationale is that it can’t

possibly be a Favorite Book of the Year if it didn’t get within sniffing

distance of the bestseller lists.

Truth is, it does go to show that fan awards vary by fan base–the Anthonys

are a lot more self-selecting in that fairly knowledgeable genre fans make the

choice, while for this one, the fan pool is both bigger and much broader, and

not likely to read nearly as widely within the genre.

So while it would have been nice to see some more out-of-left-field names on

this shortlist, it wasn’t a likely prospect, and if this award is to keep on,

the same will likely go from here on in.