eBranch Blog

July 20, 2007

2007 Thriller Awards Announced

The 2007 Thriller Awards were announced by the International Thriller Writers last weekend. The winners are:

Best Novel
Joseph Finder. Killer Instinct
Jason Steadman is a thirty-year-old sales executive for a major electronics company. He's a witty, charismatic guy who's well liked at the office, but he lacks the "killer instinct" necessary to move up the corporate ladder. To the chagrin of his ambitious wife, it looks as if his career has hit a ceiling. Jason's been sidelined." "But all that will change one evening when Jason meets Kurt Semko, a former Special Forces officer just back from Iraq. Looking for a decent pitcher for the company softball team, Jason gets Kurt, who was once drafted by the majors, a job in corporate security. Soon, good things start to happen for Jason - and bad things start to happen to Jason's rivals." "Jason's career suddenly takes off. Only too late does Jason discover that his friend Kurt has been secretly paving his path to the top by the most "efficient" - and ruthless - means available. When Jason tries to put a stop to it, he finds that his new best friend has become the most dangerous enemy imaginable. And now it's far more than just his career that lies in the balance.

Best First Novel
Nick Stone. Mr. Clarinet
Hired by a powerful white Haitian family to find their young son, who has been missing for two years, Max Mingus struggles to set aside painful memories and tackles a web of local corruption that threatens his tenacious hold on sanity.

Best Paperback Original
P.J. Parrish. An Unquiet Grave
When the body of a stranger is found in the grave of a woman in the forgotten cemetery of an abandoned, notorious sanitarium in Michigan, Louis Kincaid investigates. On his darkest journey yet, Kincaid is led to the long, dark tunnels below the asylum, where he unearths crimes of unimaginable depravity. Original.

Best Screenplay
Eric Roth. The Good Shepherd
Edward is the only witness to his father's suicide and is a member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion. These are the qualities that help him become recruited for a career in the newly founded Office of Strategic Services (CIA). While working there, his ideals gradually turn to suspicion influenced by the Cold War paranoia present within the office. Eventually, he becomes an influential veteran operative, while his distrust of everyone around him increases. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

James Patterson was the recipient of the ThrillerMaster 2007 Award.