2012 BARRY AWARD NOMINATIONS 

The Barry Awards will be presented October 4, 2012 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio.

Best Novel
THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES (in U.K., MERCY), Jussi Adler-Olsen
THE ACCIDENT, Linwood Barclay
HURT MACHINE, Reed Farrel Coleman
IRON HOUSE, John Hart
HELL IS EMPTY, Craig Johnson
THE TROUBLED MAN, Henning Mankell

Best First Novel
LEARNING TO SWIM, Sara J. Henry
THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, Keigo Higashino
THE BOY IN THE SUITCASE, Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis
TURN OF MIND, Alice LaPlante
THE INFORMATIONIST, Taylor Stevens
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, S.J. Watson

Best British (Published in the U.K. in 2011)
NOW YOU SEE ME, S.J. Bolton
HELL'S BELLS (in U.K., THE INFERNALS), John Connolly
BAD SIGNS, R. J. Ellory
THE HOUSE AT SEA’S END, Elly Griffiths
OUTRAGE, Arnaldur Indridason
DEAD MAN’S GRIP, Peter James

Best Paperback Original
THE SILENCED, Brett Battles
THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER, Oliver Pötzsch
A DOUBLE DEATH ON THE BLACK ISLE, A. D. Scott
DEATH OF THE MANTIS, Stanley, Michael
FUN AND GAMES, Duane Swierczynski
TWO FOR SORROW, Nicola Upson

Best Thriller
CARVER, Tom Cain
COUP D’ETAT, Ben Coes
SPYCATCHER (SPARTAN), Matthew Dunn
BALLISTIC, Mark Greaney
HOUSE DIVIDED, Mike Lawson
THE INFORMANT, Thomas Perry

Best Short Story (compiled by Marv Lachman)
Doug Allyn, "Thicker Than Blood" (AHMM September)
Jeffrey Cohen, "The Gun Also Rises" (AHMM January-February)
Mike Cooper, "Whiz Bang" (EQMM September-October)
Trina Corey, "Facts Exhibiting Wantonness" ( EQMM November)
James Powell, "Last Laugh in Floogle Park" (EQMM July)
Eric Rutter, "Purge" (AHMM December)

Copyright by Dylan Coleman

Tickets on sale at Martha Merrell’s Books, 231 W. Main Street, Waukesha –  (262) 547-1060.

Reed will also appear in the Visions & Expressions Noon Lecture Series - Character: Never What,  Always Who - at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, 1500 N. University Drive, Room C101, Main Commons, at noon - open and free to the public.

You’ve infused Prager with a gritty, but poetic warmth. What advice would you offer to aspiring writers on creating memorable and lucid characters? How do you get inside their heads?

Great questions. I take the method actor’s approach to characters. I despise characters that are created simply to fill a role. I want characters that bleed, that are created from the inside out, not the outside in. What we feel is what makes us human. Why would that be any less true for characters? Yes, I want to know what’s in a character’s refrigerator and wallet. But more importantly I want to know what’s in their hearts.

What do you find is the most common mistake your students make?

My class is open to undergrads, grad students, and continuing ed students. Interesting mix. Even so, their most common mistake is believing that writing is easy. They soon find out it ain’t. - from "Between the Lines Interview with Reed Farrel Coleman" by Brett King

With the recent releases of my thirteenth (Gun Church, Audible.com) and fourteenth (Hurt Machine, Tyrus Books), it dawned on me that my very first novel, Life Goes Sleeping, was published over twenty years ago. Many are the day I wonder where all that time has got to. So much has happened between the call I got from Permanent Press’s Marty Sheperd informing me they intended to publish LGS and now, that it is really hard to fathom. On the one hand, it seems to have taken forever to get from there to here—wherever that is, exactly. On the other, it’s all been such a blur. Two things, though, have been constant through it all: my family and my routine. - from "Twenty Years and Counting," by Reed Farrel Coleman, at Kaye Barley's Meanderings and Muses

Nobody knows a man better than his ex-wife. So Moe Prager’s ex-wife, Carmella, is wise to this veteran private eye, accepting the fact that no matter how many times he marries, his first love will always be Brooklyn. “When you die, they should just bury you right here, under the boardwalk,” she tells him in HURT MACHINE (Tyrus, $24.95; paper, $15.95), Reed Farrel Coleman’s latest book in a series heavily saturated with local color. Since Prager has recently been told he has stomach cancer, that day may come sooner than Carmella thinks. But this stubborn old shamus is determined to do two things before his ashes are consigned to the sands of Coney Island: Attend his daughter’s wedding, and find the person who murdered Carmella’s older sister, Alta. - from "Last Exits in Brooklyn," by Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

If you think you might be interested in doing something similar, contact Bradd Bambo. 

Scene of the Crime: The Summer of 1971

Scene of the Crime: Nathan's Famous

 Scene of the Crime: Sheepshead Bay

My usual advice is as follows:

1. Sit down and write. No one gets published by wanting, only by writing.
2. Fall in love with writing, not with what you’ve written.
3. Never hit and run on a pitcher’s count. (sorry, that’s a baseball joke).

But just lately, I’ve come to the realization that people who want to get traditionally published think an acceptance letter and an advance is the end of the road. Nope. Getting published is the beginning of the road, not the end. And that’s what I tell people who want to make a career of it. Take the long view. It took me a long time to learn that lesson. -from "A Career," by Reed Farrel Coleman

One of the things that writers put at risk when they commit to this career is their unbridled joy in reading. It is one of the great paradoxes of my life that by writing, it has become nearly impossible for me to be transported by the written word the way I once was. - from "Behind the Curtain"