Arthur Ellis Awards
First Novel

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The Arthur Ellis Award for the Best First Crime Novel written in English is awarded by Crime Writers of Canada to an author living in Canada or a Canadian writer living outside of Canada. For more information, visit the official site.

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2015

  • Steve Burrows – Siege of Bitterns

Also shortlisted:

  • Janet Brons – A Quiet Kill
  • M.H. Callway – Windigo Fire
  • Eve McBride – No Worst, There Is None
  • Sam Wiebe – Last of the Independents

2014

  • J. Kent Messum – Bait

Also shortlisted:

  • E.R. Brown – Almost Criminal
  • A.S.A. Harrison – The Silent Wife
  • Axel Howerton – Hot Sinatra
  • S.G. Wong – Die on Your Feet

2013

  • Simone St. James – The Haunting of Maddy Clare

Also shortlisted:

  • Peggy Blair – The Beggar's Opera
  • Deryn Collier – Confined Space
  • Peter Kirby – The Dead of Winter
  • Chris Laing – A Private Man

2012

  • Ian Hamilton – The Water Rat of Wanchai

Also shortlisted:

  • Norm Foster – Watching Jeopardy
  • Fraser Nixon – The Man Who Killed
  • Sean Slater – The Survivor
  • Roger White – Tight Corner

2011

  • Avner Mandleman – The Debba

Also shortlisted:

  • Hilary Davidson – The Damage Done
  • Michael McKinley – The Penalty Killing
  • Nicholas Ruddock – The Parabolist
  • Chevy Stevens – Still Missing

2010

  • Alan Bradley – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Also shortlisted:

2009

Also shortlisted:

  • Nadine Doolittle – Iced Under
  • John C. Goodman – Talking to Wendigo
  • April Lindgren – Headline: Murder
  • Phyllis Smallman – Margarita Nights

2008

  • Liam Durcan – Garcia's Heart

Also shortlisted:

  • Claire Cameron – The Line Painter
  • Sean Chercover – Big City, Bad Blood
  • Susan Parisi – Blood of Dreams
  • Sharon Rowse – The Silk Train Murder
  • Marc Strange – Sucker Punch

2007

Also shortlisted:

  • Glen Bonham – The Elvis Interviews
  • Stephen Kimber – Reparations
  • Grant McCrea – Dead Money
  • David Russell – Deadly Lessons

2006

Also shortlisted:

2005

Also shortlisted:

  • Mel Bradshaw – Death in the Age of Steam
  • Rick Gadziola – Raw Deal
  • Linda L. Richards – Mad Money
  • Mark Sinnett – The Border Guards

2004

  • Jan Rehner – Just Murder

Also shortlisted:

  • Anthony Bidulka – Amuse Bouche
  • Michael Johansen – Confession in Moscow
  • Michael E. Rose – Mazovia Legacy
  • Barbara J. Stewart – The Sleeping Boy

2003

  • James W. Nichol – Midnight Cab

Also shortlisted:

  • Alvin Abram – The Unlikely Victims
  • Thomas Rendell Curran – Undertow
  • Jonathon Platz – Work of Idle Hands
  • Kevin J. Porter – Come Clean

2002

Also shortlisted:

  • T.F. Banks – The Thief-Taker: Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner
  • J. David Carpeter – Devil in Me
  • James Hawkins – Missing: Presumed Dead
  • Cathy Vasas-Brown – Every Wickedness

2001

2000

Also shortlisted:

1999

  • Liz Brady – Sudden Blow

Also shortlisted:

  • Peter Clement – Lethal Practice
  • Karen Dudley – Hoot to Kill
  • Mel Malton – Down in the Dumps
  • Kerri Sakamoto – The Electrical Field

1998

  • Kathy Reichs – Deja Dead

Also shortlisted:

  • Jim Christy – Shanghai Alley
  • Lyn Hamilton – Xibalba Murders
  • Maureen Jennings – Except The Dying
  • Allan Levine – Blood Libel
  • John Worsley Simpson – Undercut

1997

  • C.C. Benison – Death At Buckingham Palace

1996

  • John Spencer Hill – The Last Castrato
  • D.H. Toole – Moonlit Days and Nights

1995

  • Sparkle Hayter – What's A Girl Gotta Do?

1994

  • Gavin Scott – Memory Trace

1993

  • Sean Stewart – Passion Play

1992

  • Paul Grescoe – Flesh Wound

1991

  • Carsten Stroud – Sniper's Moon

1990

  • John Lawrence Reynolds – The Man Who Murdered God

1989

  • John Brady – A Stone of the Heart

1988

1987

  • Medora Sale – Murder on the Run