Louise Penny wins Anthony Award

Over the past few days mystery authors and fans from around the world were gathered for Bouchercon - several days of panels, parties, and more. You only have to have a quick glance on Facebook to see the many pics that the likes of Linwood Barclay, Steve Hamilton, Janet Rudolph and many others have been uploading. It looks like it has been a great, fun-filled few days. And like at every Bouchercon, near the end of the mystery convention the annual Anthony Awards were announced - voted on by attendees.

This year, the Best Novel Award was taken out by Canadian author Louise Penny, for A TRICK OF THE LIGHT. Here's a blurb about the book:

"Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead." 

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT had already scooped many other accolades in the past year or so, including being named a New York Times Notable Book, and one of Publishers Weekly's Best Mystery/Thriller Books for 2011. You can sample some reviewers' thoughts about Penny's novel here:

• Patrick Anderson in The Washington Post
• Margaret Cannon in The Globe and Mail
• Kirkus Reviews
• Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise

The other winners of the 2012 Anthony Awards were:

• BEST FIRST NOVEL Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
• BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy 
• BEST SHORT STORY "Disarming" by Dana Cameron, EQMM June'11
• BEST CRITICAL NONFICTION WORK The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris, editor

Hat tip to Janet Rudolph of Mystery Fanfare, who attended Bouchercon, for notifying us about the winners.