Former Montreal crime reporter Howard Shrier continues to excel with mystery novels documenting a Toronto detective’s adventures in U.S. cities. His first novel featuring investigator Jonah Geller, Buffalo Jump, earned kudos as Best First Novel in the 2008 Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian mystery writing.
This week his latest, High Chicago, won the 2010 Ellis Award for best novel, period.
“It’s a mystery that peels away the urban layers of big business civility to expose the raw flesh of reality underneath,” according to the Hamilton Spectator.
This year’s first novel award went to Alan Bradley for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a surprise international bestseller the B.C. author has already followed up with a brisk-selling sequel, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, featuring girl detective Flavia de Luce.
At the same ceremony, the Crime Writers of Canada also honoured veteran mystery writer Peter Robinson, author of 19 Inspector Banks novels, with the Derrick Murdoch Award, presented for outstanding contributions to crime writing.
