The Hammett Award nominees

The International Association of Crime Writers has announced the nominees for the Hammett Award, given to “a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author”:

John Brady, Islandbridge (McArthur & Company)

Joseph Kanon, Alibi: A Novel (Henry Holt)

Martin Limon, The Door to Bitterness (Soho Crime)

Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (Knopf)

Don Winslow, The Power of the Dog (Knopf)

The award will be given out at the Bloody Words conference in Toronto on June 10.

The first thing that jumps out about this list is that three of the books — Brady’s, McCarthy’s and Winslow’s — weren’t even submitted for Edgar consideration (Brady because ISLANDBRIDGE wasn’t published in the US, and McCarthy and Winslow because Knopf is allergic to genre fiction denoting.) I’m kind of rooting for Limon if only because his series is so, so good (and so, so overlooked) and also because, um, he kind of breaks up the older white male slant of the nomination list…