Kathy Reichs, Linda Spalding up for Canadian crime-writing prize

Kathy Reichs, Linwood Barclay, Linda Spalding and comedian Sean Cullen are among this year's nominees for Canada's crime-writing honours.

Organizers of the Arthur Ellis Awards announced on Tuesday the nominees for the 24th edition of the annual literary prize.

Reichs and Barclay are among the nominees for the best novel award.

Reichs is nominated for Break No Bones, the ninth book in her popular series about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. The series has also spawned the hit TV series Bones.

Barclay, a Toronto Star columnist, is nominated for Lone Wolf, his third tale following everyman hero Zack Walker.

Their competition includes Emma Cole for Every Secret Thing, Barbara Fradkin for Honour Among Men and Peter Robinson for Piece of My Heart.

Spalding, who also edits the literary journal Brick with her husband, fellow writer Michael Ondaatje, is nominated in the non-fiction category for Who Named the Knife? a retelling of a 1980s murder case for which she sat as a juror until the last day of the trial.

She is up against Edward Butts for The Desperate Ones: Forgotten Canadian Outlaws, Guy Lawson and William Oldham for The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia, Mike McIntyre for To the Grave: A Spectacular RCMP Sting, and Brian O'Dea for High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler.

Organizers decided not to award the best crime writing in French category this year after receiving a low number of submissions.

However, the Crime Writers of Canada, who founded and administer the awards, will present an Arthur trophy in an all-new category: best unpublished first crime novel, dubbed "the Unhanged Arthur."

The inaugural nominees are:

• Jennifer Hemstock, Murder in a Cold Climate
• Meika Erinn McClurg, Ego Tenderloin
• Rosemary McCracken, Last Date
• Phyllis Smallman, Margarita Nights
• Kevin Thornton, Condemned

The nominees for best juvenile writing are:

• Marty Chan, The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul
• Sean Cullen, Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates
• L.M. Falcone, The Devil, The Banshee and Me
• Norah McClintock, Tell
• Monique Polak, All In

Best short story nomineesare:

• Vicki Cameron, Lady in Violet Satin, in Storyteller magazine
• Karl El-Koura, The Curious Case of the Book Baron, in Storyteller magazine
• Barbara Fradkin, Voices from the Deep, from Dead in the Water: An Anthology of Canadian Mystery Fiction
• Jennifer Geens, Canadian Diamonds, in Storyteller magazine
• Dennis Richard Murphy, Fuzzy Wuzzy, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

First novel nominees are:

• Glen Bonham, The Elvis Interviews
• Anne Emery, Sign of the Cross
• Stephen Kimber, Reparations
• Grant McCrea, Dead Money
• David Russell, Deadly Lessons

The 24th annual Arthur Ellis Awards, which celebrate excellence in crime writing by authors living in Canada regardless of their nationality or by Canadian writers living outside the country, will be presented at an awards dinner in Toronto on June 7.