Now here's an award I didn't even know existed, although it's apparently been around since 2006. I wondered at first how these awards differed from the Edgar Awards, for various mystery categories; but upon perusing the list of nominees, it became obvious that Edgars tend to be a lot cozier or closer to the concept of pure mystery than these books. These books seem to often include a mystery as part of what they're about, but are more edge-of-your-seat reading, books that go for the rush rather than entirely for the intellect. There's a fair bit of really good reading here!

Best Hard Cover Novel
Vanished by Joseph Finder
Long Lost by Harlan Coben
Fear the Worst: A Thriller by Linwood Barclay
The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner
The Renegades: A Charlie Hood Novel by T. Jefferson Parker

Best Paperback Original
Shadow Season: A Novel by Tom Piccirilli
Urge To Kill by John Lutz
Vengeance Road by Rick Mofina
The Coldest Mile by Tom Piccirilli
No Mercy by John Gilstrap

Best First Novel
Fragment: A Novel by Warren Fahy
Dead Men's Dust by Matt Hilton
Collision of Evil: A Novel by John J. Le Beau
Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt
Running from the Devil: A Novel by Jamie Freveletti (reviewed here)

Best Short Story
"The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away" by Marcus Sakey
"A Stab in the Heart" by Twist Phelan
"Back Up" by Rick Mofina
"Iced" by Harry Hunsicker
"Boldt's Broken Angel" by Ridley Pearson

I confess that every time I post a list like this, I'm tempted to click on all those Amazon links and buy every single book. Sometimes I do -- I've got all the Philip K. Dick nominees and all the Nebula nominees for this year, and I've got most of the Edgar nominees checked out of the library. It's nice to have these handy guides to what the professionals in the field believe is the best they, as a group, have produced!

Winners of the Thriller Awards will be announced on July 10, 2010, in New York at Thrillerfest. Maybe I'll even be there!