The Strand Critics Award Takes a Bow

I know, it’s yet another award nomination list, but this time the Strand Magazine has assembled an impressive list of judges including David Montgomery, Hallie Ephron, Patrick Anderson, Dick Lochte, Larry Gandle, Oline Cogdill and myself, along with the magazine’s publisher Andrew Gulli. Here are the nominees:

Best Novel

Down River by John Hart (St Martin’s Minotaur)

The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)

The Strangler by William Landay (Delacorte Press)

The Watchman by Robert Crais (Simon and Schuster)

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Best First Novel

The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

In the Woods by Tana French (Viking)

The Mark by Jason Pinter (Mira Books)

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (William Morrow)

When One Man Dies by Dave White (Crown Publishing)

The winners in both categories will be announced in New York on July 9.