Andy Straka
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Andy Straka
Andy Straka (born September 29, 1958) is a Shamus Award-winning American crime novelist. Born and raised in upstate New York and a graduate of Williams College, he worked in publishing and medical sales for nearly fifteen years before turning to writing in the late 1990s. His debut private-eye novel, ''A Witness Above'', garnered Shamus, Anthony, and Agatha Award nominations for ''Best First Novel'' in 2002. ''A Killing Sky'' received an Anthony Award nomination in 2003, and Straka's third book, ''Cold Quarry'', won a 2004 Shamus Award. His series of six Frank Pavlicek novels features a former New York City police detective who also spends much of his time flying various hawks to help inspire him to solve criminal cases. The fourth novel in the Pavlicek series, ''Kitty Hitter'', was called a "great read" by Library Journal. ''Kitty Hitter'' was re-released with a new title, ''The Night Falconer'', as an e-book and paperback. A fifth book featuring Pavlicek is the novella ''Flightfa ...
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Shamus Award
The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ... of the year. The Prize is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. Starting in 2003, the Shamus Awards are sometimes (2003, 2007–2009, 2011–2016) announced during the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, at the convention's PWA Awards Banquet. Categories Winners Best P. I. Hardcover Novel Best First P. I. Novel Best P. I. Paperback Original THE EYE – Lifetime Achievement Award (Not awarded in 1989, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2012, 2014, 2019 and 2020) Best P. I. Series Character – The Hammer Best Indie P.I. Novel ...
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Crime Novel
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ''Arabia ...
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Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War in 1755. It is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts after Harvard College. Although the bequest from the estate of Ephraim Williams intended to establish a "free school", the exact meaning of which is ambiguous, the college quickly outgrew its initial ambitions. It positioned itself as a "Western counterpart" to Yale and Harvard. It became officially coeducational in the 1960s. Williams's main campus is located in Williamstown, in the Berkshires in rural northwestern Massachusetts, and contains more than 100 academic, athletic, and residential buildings. There are 360 voting faculty members, with a stu ...
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Agatha Award
The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as 'hard-boiled.'" At an annual convention in Washington, D.C., the Agatha Awards are handed out by Malice Domestic Ltd, in six categories: Best Novel; Best First Mystery; Best Historical Novel; Best Short Story; Best Non-Fiction; Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery. Additionally, in some years the Poirot Award is presented to honor individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the mystery genre, but it is not an annual award. Early meetings of the Malice Domestic Committee occurred in fall 1987, with the first convention held on April 21–23, 1989, in Silver Spring, MD. Malice Domestic Ltd was incorporated in 1992. It is governed by a vo ...
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Anthony Award
The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the most prestigious awards in the world of mystery writers, the Anthony Awards have helped boost the careers of many recipients. Categories Awards are voted for by members attending the annual event and are given in the following categories: * Novel * First Novel * Paperback Original * Short Story * Critical / Non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ... Work * Special Service award The ceremony may also include a number of "wild card" awards. Winners 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s References Exter ...
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Library Journal
''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice. It also reviews library-related materials and equipment. Each year since 2008, the Journal has assessed public libraries and awarded stars in their Star Libraries program. Its "Library Journal Book Review" does pre-publication reviews of several hundred popular and academic books each month. ''Library Journal'' has the highest circulation of any librarianship journal, according to Ulrich's—approximately 100,000. ''Library Journal's'' original publisher was Frederick Leypoldt, whose company became R. R. Bowker. Reed International (later merged into Reed Elsevier) purchased Bowker in 1985; they published ''Library Journal'' until 2010, when it was sold to Media Source Inc., owner of the Junior Library Guild and ''The Horn Book Ma ...
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Mystery Scene
''Mystery Scene'' is an American magazine, first published in 1985, that covers the crime and mystery genre with a mix of articles, profiles, criticism, and extensive reviews of books, films, TV, short stories, audiobooks, and reference works. Editorial focus & contents ''Mystery Scene'' is pitched to mystery readers and fans, as opposed to writers or other industry professionals. Each issue contains commentary, several articles, author profiles, appreciations of particular subgenres or writers, letters to the editor, and 150+ reviews of new novels, audiobooks, reference works, kid’s mysteries, short stories, TV shows, films, paperback originals, and websites. News items, cartoons, jokes, quotes, and anecdotes round out its front-of-the book “Hints & Allegations” pages. Features :Profiles range from best-selling authors, including Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Charlaine Harris, Laurie R. King, Dennis Lehane, Sara Paretsky, and Ian Rankin, to the up-and-coming such as ...
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Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling". With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews. The magazine was founded by bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ... Frederick Leypoldt in the late 1860s, and had various titles until Leypoldt settled on the name ''The Publishers' Weekly'' (with an apostrophe) in 1872. The publication was a compilation of information about newly published books, collected from publishers and from other sources by Leypoldt, for an audience of booksellers. By 1876, ''The Publishers' Weekly ...
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Living People
Related categories * :Year of birth missing (living people) / :Year of birth unknown * :Date of birth missing (living people) / :Date of birth unknown * :Place of birth missing (living people) / :Place of birth unknown * :Year of death missing / :Year of death unknown * :Date of death missing / :Date of death unknown * :Place of death missing / :Place of death unknown * :Missing middle or first names See also * :Dead people * :Template:L, which generates this category or death years, and birth year and sort keys. : {{DEFAULTSORT:Living people 21st-century people People by status ...
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Williams College Alumni
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War in 1755. Alumni of the college are listed below. Academia ;A–F * Brooke Ackerly 1988, American political scientist and Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University * Peter Adamson 1994, professor of late ancient and Arabic philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich * Lawrence A. Alexander 1965, Warren Distinguished Professor of constitutional law at University of San Diego * Robert Z. Aliber 1952, professor emeritus of international economics and finance at the University of Chicago * Robert S. Anderson 1974, American geomorphologist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and distinguished professor at University of Colorado Bou ...
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Novelists From New York (state)
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work. Description Novelists come from a variety of backgrounds and social classes, and frequently this shapes the content of their works. Audience reception, Public reception of a novelist's work, the literary criticism commenting on it, and the novelists' incorporation of their own experiences into works and characters can lead to the author's personal life and identity being associated with a novel's fictional content. For this reason, the environment ...
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Shamus Award Winners
Shamus may refer to: * ''Shamus'' (video game), a 1982 computer game from Synapse Software * ''Shamus'' (film), a 1973 film starring Burt Reynolds * Shamus Culhane (1908–1996), American animator, film director and producer * Shamus Khan (born 1978), American sociologist * Shamus O'Brien (1907–1981), Scottish-American soccer player * Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment * Shamus Wong, a character from the children's book Tracey McBean * Colloquial term for a private detective See also * Shamu, SeaWorld's first killer whale (died 1971) * Shamu (SeaWorld show), SeaWorld's contemporary killer whale shows * Seamus (other) * Sheamus Stephen Farrelly (born 28 January 1978) is an Irish professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sheamus. Prior to joining WWE, he wrestled on the European indep ... (born 1978), Irish professional wrestler * ''Shammes'' or Gabbai, a term for the ...
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