The Hammett Prize is awarded annually by the

International Association of Crime Writers International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

, North American Branch (IACW/NA) to a Canadian or US citizen or permanent resident for a book in English in the field of crime writing. It is named after crime-writer

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

and was established in 1991.

Past winners

* 1991 - '' Maximum Bob'' by

Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thri ...

( Delcorte) * 1992 - ''Turtle Moon'' by

Alice Hoffman Alice Hoffman (born March 16, 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer, best known for her 1995 novel ''Practical Magic'', which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name. Many of her works fall into the genre of ...

( Putnam) * 1993 - ''The Mexican Tree Duck'' by James Crumley (Mysterious Press) * 1994 - ''Dixie City Jam'' by

James Lee Burke James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won Edgar Awards for ''Black Cherry Blues'' (1990) and ''Cimarron Rose'' (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master ...

(Hyperion) * 1994 - ''

Under the Beetle's Cellar ''Under the Beetle's Cellar'', is a 1995 suspense novel by American author Mary Willis Walker, the second in her "Molly Cates" series. Title The title is a line from "Under the Light, yet under", a poem by Emily Dickinson which features toward ...

'' by

Mary Willis Walker Mary Willis Walker (born May 24, 1942, Fox Point, Wisconsin) is an American crime fiction author. Life Walker graduated from Duke University in English and took up high school teaching. She married in 1967 to Lee Walker who became president of ...

( Doubleday) * 1996 - ''

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

'' by

Martin Cruz Smith Martin Cruz Smith (born November 3, 1942) is an American mystery novelist. He is best known for his nine-novel series (to date) on Russian investigator Arkady Renko, who was first introduced in 1981 with '' Gorky Park''. Early life and educat ...

(

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

) * 1997 - ''Trial of Passion'' by

William Deverell William Herbert Deverell (born March 4, 1937) is a Canadian novelist, activist, and criminal lawyer. He is one of Canada's best-known novelists, whose first book, ''Needles'', which drew on his experiences as a criminal lawyer, won the McCle ...

(

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. History It was founded ...

) * 1998 - ''Tidewater Blood'' by William Hoffman (

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

) * 1999 - ''

Havana Bay Havana Harbor is the port of Havana, the capital of Cuba, and it is the main port in Cuba (not including Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a territory on lease by the United States). Other port cities in Cuba include Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Manzanillo ...

'' by

(Random House) * 2000 - ''

The Blind Assassin ''The Blind Assassin'' is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto. It is narrated from the present ...

'' by

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

(Doubleday/McClelland & Stewart) * 2001 - ''

Kingdom of Shadows ''Kingdom of Shadows'' (2000) is a novel by Alan Furst. It won the 2001 Hammett Prize. Plot summary The story is set in Europe between April 1938 and July 1939, a time of ever-increasing fear and apprehension throughout the continent. ''Nichola ...

'' by

Alan Furst Alan Furst (; born 1941) is a Jewish-American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. M ...

(Random House) * 2002 - ''Honor's Kingdom'' by Owen Parry (

Morrow Morrow is a word meaning "the next day" in literary English. It also means "morning" in archaic English Morrow may also refer to: Places in the United States and Canada United States * Morrow, Arkansas *Morrow, Georgia * Morrow, Louisiana *Morr ...

) * 2003 - ''The Seduction of Water'' by

Carol Goodman Carol Goodman, also known under the pseudonym Juliet Dark, is an American professor and author of gothic fiction. She has also written under the pseudonym Lee Carroll with her husband Lee Slonimsky. Goodman currently serves as a creative writing ...

( Ballantine) * 2004 - ''Prince of Thieves: A Novel'' by

Chuck Hogan Charles Patrick Hogan is an American novelist, screenwriter, and television producer. He is best known as the author of ''Prince of Thieves'', and as the co-author of ''The Strain'' trilogy with Guillermo del Toro. Alongside del Toro, Hogan creat ...

( Scribner) * 2005 - ''Alibi: A Novel'' by

Joseph Kanon Joseph Kanon (born 1946) is an American author, best known for thriller and spy novels set in the period immediately after World War II. Early life In 1946, Kanon was born in Pennsylvania, U.S. Education Kanon studied at Harvard University, ...

( Henry Holt) * 2006 - ''The Prisoner of Guantánamo'' by

Dan Fesperman Dan Fesperman (born September 15, 1955, in Charlotte, North Carolina) is a former reporter for ''The Baltimore Sun'' and the author of several thrillers. The plots were inspired by the author's own international assignments in Germany, Bosnia, ...

(

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

) * 2007 - ''The Outlander'' by

Gil Adamson Gillian "Gil" Adamson (born January 1, 1961) is a Canadian writer. She won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2008 for her 2007 novel ''The Outlander''. Adamson's first published work was ''Primitive'', a volume of poetry, in 1991. She foll ...

(

House of Anansi House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anansi ...

) * 2008 - ''The Turnaround'' by

George Pelecanos George P. Pelecanos (born February 18, 1957) is an American author. Many of his 20 books are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writ ...

(

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

) * 2009 - ''The Manual of Detection'' by

Jedediah Berry Jedediah Berry (born 1977) is an American writer. He is the author of a novel, ''The Manual of Detection'' (2009). Background and education Berry was born in Randolph, Vermont, and spent his childhood in Catskill, New York. He attended Bard Coll ...

(The Penguin Press) * 2010 - ''The Nearest Exit'' by

Olen Steinhauer Olen Steinhauer (born June 21, 1970 in Baltimore) is an American writer of spy fiction novels, including '' The Tourist'', part of the Milo Weaver series, and the Yalta Boulevard Sequence. Steinhauer also created the TV series '' Berlin Station ...

(St. Martin's/Minoutar) * 2011 - ''The Killer is Dying'' by

James Sallis James Sallis (born December 21, 1944) is an American crime writer who wrote a series of novels featuring the detective character Lew Griffin set in New Orleans, and the 2005 novel '' Drive'', which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same nam ...

( Walker and Company) * 2012 - ''Oregon Hill'' by Howard Owen (Permanent) * 2013 - ''Angel Baby: A Novel'' by

Richard Lange Richard Lange (born 1961) is an American writer. After receiving a degree in film from the University of Southern California, he traveled to Europe and taught English for Berlitz in Barcelona, Spain. Returning to Los Angeles, he was hired as a co ...

(Mulholland) * 2014 - ''

Mr. Mercedes ''Mr. Mercedes'' is a novel by American writer Stephen King. He calls it his first hard-boiled detective book. It was published on June 3, 2014. It is the first volume in a trilogy, followed in 2015 by ''Finders Keepers (King novel), Finders Keep ...

'' by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

(Scribner) * 2015 - ''The Do-Right'' by Lisa Sandlin (Cinco Puntos Press) * 2016 - ''The White Devil'' by Domenic Stansberry (Molotov Editions) * 2017 - ''August Snow'' by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Crime) * 2018 - ''November Road'' by

Lou Berney Lou Berney (born 1964) is an American crime fiction author who has published four books since 2010. For his works, Berney has won multiple awards including an Anthony, Barry and Edgar for '' The Long and Faraway Gone''. With ''November Road'', Be ...

(

) * 2019 - ''Bluff'' by Jane Stanton Hitchcock (

Poison Pen A poison pen letter is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously. In the term "poison pen" (or poisoned pen), the word poison is u ...

) * 2020 - ''When These Mountains Burn'' by David Joy ( Putnam) * 2021 - ''

Razorblade Tears ''Razorblade Tears: A Novel'' is a crime novel by S.A. Cosby, published in July 2021 by Flatiron Books. This novel debuted at number 10 on the New York Times bestseller list. Jerry Bruckheimer's company has "optioned the story for Paramount. ...

'' by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)

References

{{reflist

External links

Award guidelines
Mystery and detective fiction awards Awards established in 1991 1991 establishments in the United States