ITW Thriller Awards Nominees

Nominees for the 2008 Thriller Awards, which are sponsored by International Thriller Writers and whose winners will be announced at the ThrillerFest Gala Banquet on July 12 in New York City, are:

Best Novel

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
The Watchman by Robert Crais (S&S)
The Ghost by Robert Harris (S&S)
The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (Viking)
Trouble by Jesse Kellerman (Putnam)

Best First Novel

Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton)
Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover (Morrow)
From the Depths by Gerry Doyle (McBook Press)
Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi (Holt)
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Morrow)

Best Paperback Original

The Last Nightingale by Anthony Flacco (Ballantine)
A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)
The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon (Pocket)
Shattered by Jay Bonansinga (Pinnacle)

I read two out of five of the Best Novels and didn't love either one.

The line seems to be blurring (again) between Thriller and Horror, with Joe Hill nominated here for Heart-Shaped Box, a horror novel. If you recall, ITW founder David Morrell won the Bram Stoker Award for best horror novel for his thriller, Creepers.

I love PJ Parrish and I was really thrilled for them last year when they won the Thriller Award for best paperback for An Unquiet Grave, which is definitely a mystery. So again, more blurring between mystery, which is what they write, and thriller. This nomination seems more appropriate to me, I have no trouble with A Thousand Bones being considered a thriller, but will this relatively new organization pick the same winner as last year in this category?

Things are definitely looking interesting for the Thriller Awards this year.