Three in a row for Louise Penny at Anthony Awards?

It will be interesting to see whether Louise Penny takes home her third Anthony Award in a row (she won for THE BRUTUAL TELLING in 2010 and BURY YOUR DEAD in 2011), with the Canadian crime queen once again nominated for this year's Anthony Award for Best Novel (hat tip to Ngaio Marsh Award judge and Mystery Readers International founder Janet Rudolph for the nominations news).

The Anthony Awards, which have been in existence since 1986, are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America, and are presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in September-November each year. The Awards are voted on by members attending the convention - which has seemed to develop some interesting 'current favourite' trends in recent years. In fact, when looking back, the past nine 'Best Novel' awards have been shared by only four writers - with Penny, Michael Connelly, and William Kent Krueger each winning twice, and Laura Lippman three times, since 2003.

With Penny and Connelly both on the shortlist for Best Novel this year, I am curious to see if that trend could continue (Connelly's THE DROP is a very good book).

Here is the full list of nominees for the 2012 Anthony Awards, which will be voted on then presented at Bouchercon XLIII in Cleveland, Ohio, in October:

BEST NOVEL

• The End of Everything - Megan Abbott
•  Hurt Machine - Reed Farrel Coleman
• The Drop - Michael Connelly
• A Trick of the Light - Louise Penny
• One Was a Soldier - Julia Spencer-Fleming

BEST FIRST NOVEL

• Learning to Swim - Sara J. Henry
• Nazareth Child - Darrell James
• All Cry Chaos - Leonard Rosen
• Who Do, Voodoo? - Rochelle Staab
• The Informationist - Taylor Stevens
• Purgatory Chasm - Steve Ulfelder
• Before I Go to Sleep - S.J. Watson

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

• The Company Man - Robert Jackson Bennett
• Choke Hold - Christa Faust
• Buffalo West Wing - Julie Hyzy
• Death of the Mantis - Michael Stanley
• Fun & Games - Duane Swierczynski
• Vienna Twilight - Frank Tallis

BEST SHORT STORY

• "Disarming" - Dana Cameron, EQMM June 2011
• "The Case of Death and Honey" - Neil Gaiman, A Study In Sherlock
• "Palace by the Lake" - Daryl Wood Gerber, Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology
• "Truth and Consequences" - Barb Goffman, Mystery Times Ten
• "The Itinerary" - Roberta Isleib, MWA Presents The Rich and The Dead
• "Happine$$" - Twist Phelan, MWA Presents The Rich and The Dead

BEST CRITICAL NONFICTION WORK

• Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure - Leslie Budewitz
• Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks - John Curran
• On Conan Doyle: or, The Whole Art of Storytelling - Michael Dirda
• Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film - Philippa Gates
• The Sookie Stackhouse Companion - Charlaine Harris, ed

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Have you read any of the listed titles? If so, which ones have impressed you?