County resident’s books shortlisted for Canadian literary awards

Prince Edward County resident and national best-selling mystery novelist Vicki Delany has two books shortlisted for prominent Canadian literary awards.

Her novel ‘There’s a Murder Afoot’ has been nominated for a Bony Blithe Award  for best Canadian light mystery, and ‘Coral Reef Views’ is nominated for a Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence  (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award) for best novella.

She won the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing and has been nominated for several other literary awards. The Bony Blithe and Crime Writers award winners are to be announced at the end of May.

Vicki Delany

“I was thrilled to be nominated for two writing prizes this spring,” said Delany, noting she’s particularly proud of Coral Reef Views as it was written specifically for adult literacy. The Bony Blithe shortlist award is for best light mystery by a Canadian and is part of her Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery series. “It’s light mystery with a generous dash of humour – and I am pleased the book has been recognized as such.”

Delany has written more than 40 books, three stand-alone, more than 30 in series and seven for reluctant readers covering clever cozies, gothic thrillers and gritty police procedurals to historical fiction and the novellas for adult literacy. Visit vickidelay.com for details

Delany retired from her job as a systems analyst in 2007 and later moved to the County to live and write.

While noting the pandemic has been difficult for many artists and other people doing creative jobs, Delany says her writing life is pretty much back to normal.

“In the beginning, I found it very hard to concentrate on what I was working on. The news was coming so quickly and things changing so rapidly, it was difficult to let the subconscious go, as it must if you’re going to be able to come up with a story. However, as things have dragged on, it seems my writing life is pretty much back to normal. After all, this is essentially the way I live all the time.”

She also writes her Lighthouse Library series under the pseudonym of Eva Gates and her latest book ‘Deadly Ever After’ is to be released May 11.

“I began my writing career writing police procedural novels and psychological suspense. The books I am writing now are generally called ‘cozy’ meaning much lighter. The Lighthouse Library books were my first venture into cozies, and a new name seemed like a good idea to distinguish it from my darker, edgier books. I then decided it makes things much easier if I use my own name, and that’s what I now do. Eva was my grandmother’s name and that’s why I choose it. Gates, just seemed to go with it nicely.”

All her collections are are available at booksellers large and small, and at the Prince Edward County Public Library.

Delany is also co-founder and organizer of the popular ‘Women Killing It’ crime writing festivals with County author Janet Kellough.

Readers are invited to join Delany as she hosts author Linwood Barclay in a Prince Edward County Public Library online conversation Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m. about the launch of his new book ‘Find You First’ about a one-woman crime wave who meets a New York Times best-selling author. Click here to register   or call (613) 476-5962.