For those of you who haven't heard yet, following are the nominees for the Anthony awards, to be given at Bouchercon in Chicago in early September. It's an impressive list.

Anthonys
Best Novel

Bruen, Ken -- The Killing of the Tinkers (St. Martins/Minotaur)
Katzenbach, John -- The Madman's Tale (Random House/Ballantine)
Krueger, William Kent -- Blood Hollow (Simon & Schuster/Atria)
Lippman, Laura -- By a Spider's Thread (HarperCollins)
Parker, T. Jefferson -- California Girl (HarperCollins)
Spencer-Fleming, Julia -- Out of the Deep I Cry (St. Martins/Minotaur)

Best First Novel

Balzo, Sandra -- Uncommon Grounds (Five Star)
Clemens, Judy -- Until the Cows Come Home (Poisoned Pen Press)
Hoffman, Juliane P -- Retribution (Putnam)
Konrath, JA (Joe) -- Whiskey Sour (Hyperion)
Kozak, Harley Jane -- Dating Dead Men (Random House/Doubleday)

Best Non Fiction

Frankie Bailey & Steven Chermak -- Famous American Crimes & Trials
(Greenwood Publishing)
Collins, Max Allan (et al) -- Men's Adventure Magazines (Taschen)
Conlon, Edward -- Blue Blood (Penguin Putnam/Riverhead)
Klinger, Leslie S (ed) -- The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (Norton)
Rubinstein, Julian -- The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber (TimeWarner/Little,
Brown)

Best Paperback Original

Burcell, Robin -- Cold Case (HarperCollins/Avon)
Isleib, Roberta -- Putt to Death (Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime)
McBride, Susan -- Blue Blood (HarperCollins/Avon)
Rose, M.J. -- The Halo Effect (Harlequin/Mira)
Starr, Jason -- Twisted City (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Best Short Story

Bowen, Rhys -- "Voodoo," Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2004
Faherty, Terence -- "The Widow of Slane," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine,
March/April 2004
Hertel, Ted Jr -- "It's Crackers to Slip a Rozzer the Dropsey in Snide,"
Small Crimes
Bracken, ed (Betancourt/Wildside)
Nersesian, Arthur -- "Hunter Trapper," Brooklyn Noir (Akashic Books)
Viets, Elaine -- "Wedding Knife," Chesapeake Crimes (Quiet Storm)

Best Cover Art

Brooklyn Noir -- Sohrab Habibion
Tim McLoughlin (Akashic)
Fade to Blonde -- cover by Gregory Manchess
Max Phillips (Hard Case Crime)
Whiskey Sour -- Sal Barracca/Bradford Foltz Design
JA Konrath (Hyperion)
Good Morning Darkness -- Robert Santora
Ruth Francisco
(TimeWarner/Mysterious)
Monkology -- Michael Kellner
Gary Phillips (Dennis McMillan)

The new contest, for a free copy of CLOSERS by Michael Connelly, has gotten many entries already. It will run until the first week in June, so if you haven't entered, just go to http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com and do so. We love to give away books.

On the personal front...we arrive in LA last Tuesday, just in time for some 100 degree F weather. Some furniture we bought came in Friday, as did a delivery of food and the telephone installer. Our belongings are arriving from Boston tomorrow. The truck had trouble with the mountains and took all day to get from Las Vegas to LA. But by tomorrow night, we should have everything around us again. Don't know if that's good or bad. I sort of like the minimalist approach. We're sleeping at the new house tonight. I think our oldest daughter wants her house back. The other two, with their dogs, are at our new apartment already and will help us empty boxes. I may be off line for a while. We don't get DSL at the house until 1 June and I'm not sure that AOL will be very reliable. I promise to read all comments as soon as I can.

Till next time.