Yesterday was something of a Red Letter Day at CAP Towers, when the news filtered through that
BOOKS TO DIE FOR (Hodder & Stoughton / Emily Bestler / Atria) has been nominated for an Edgar award in the Best Critical / Biographical category. If you haven’t come across said tome before, the blurb elves kick off their description thusly:
BOOKS TO DIE FOR is a unique, must-have anthology for any fan of the mystery genre, featuring personal essays from 120 of the world’s most beloved and renowned crime writers on the mysteries and thrillers that they most admire, edited by two of their own—John Connolly and Declan Burke.
I’m still a little bit stunned by the nomination, to be perfectly honest. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, given the quality of the contributors and the way they write so lovingly about the great books in the crime / mystery genre. Moreover, both Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, and Emily Bestler / Atria in the US, produced gorgeous books.
Even so, you never really expect that you’ll be nominated for an Edgar. I don’t, anyway. I’ve been on a pretty good run of it lately, but this really is Cloud Nine material.
Of course, I’m acutely aware that in co-editing BTDF, I was standing on the shoulders of giants – not just those of the contributors, but those of the authors they were writing about.
I was also – all modesty apart, false or otherwise – standing in the shadow of another giant, John Connolly. It’s a fact that if John hadn’t committed to BTDF in the way he did, bringing not just his work ethic but his depth and breadth of knowledge about the genre, but also the respect and goodwill of his peers, the book simply would not have happened.
It’s also true that Clair Lamb, BTDF’s assistant editor, was the glue that kept the whole project together, particularly when a number of my wheels fell off during the pre-production phase.
I think I’m more pleased for John and Clair this morning than anything else. So if you’ll pardon me, I’m off to bask in their reflected glory …
Oh, and before I go – hearty congratulations to fellow Irish crime scribes Alan Glynn and Jane Casey, who were both nominated for Edgars too, for BLOODLAND and THE RECKONING respectively. Excellent news, and fully deserved.
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I’m delighted to announce that BOOKS TO DIE FOR, edited by John Connolly, Clair Lamb and yours truly, has won the Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction at the annual Malice Domestic convention. 
Googling yourself, like an on-line version of eavesdropping at the keyhole, can be a chastening experience, which is why I tend to keep it to the minimum. By the same token, Googling yourself can throw up some interesting snippets, such as Clair Lamb’s recent piece for Books and Authors, titled ‘Where Green Meets Red: The Golden Age of Irish Crime Writing’. Basically, it’s a list of the hottest contemporary Irish crime writers, and great was the excitement when I realised I’d come in third. Then I noticed the first two writers were Colin Bateman and Ken Bruen, and that the list was alphabetical. Oh well. To wit: 
