Author Brad Parks, a former Star Ledger investigative reporter, has won the Shamus
Award for Best Hardcover Novel, the highest annual honor given by the Private Eye
Writers of America and one of the most prestigious awards in crime fiction.
Parks won for his 2013 book The Good Cop, beating out a star-studded shortlist that
included works by Sue Grafton and Bill Pronzini, both Mystery Writers of America
Grand Masters and three-time Shamus winners.
The award, which is judged by a panel of authors, was presented to Parks on Friday
by Sara Paretsky, another MWA Grand Master, at a banquet in Long Beach, Calif.
“Shamus” is a slang term for a private investigator.
“I’m mostly just stunned,” Parks said. “Given who I was up against, I never expected
they were going to call my name. This is way beyond anything I could have dreamed
for myself when I started writing fiction.”
Parks has previously won the Shamus Award in the category of Best First Novel for
his 2009 debut, Faces of the Gone. By following that up with this year’s award,
Parks achieved a historic first: no former Best First winner had ever gone on to win
Best Hardcover Novel.
Past winners in Best Hardcover Novel include perennial New York Times bestselling
authors Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block and Robert Crais.
The Good Cop, the fourth novel featuring Parks’ wisecracking investigative reporter
Carter Ross, also won the Lefty Award for best humorous mystery earlier this year.
No book has ever captured both honors.
All of the books in Parks's Carter Ross series are set in Newark and the surrounding
suburbs, including Maplewood, South Orange, West Orange and other communities. The
series will continue with a sixth entry, The Fraud, in July, and Parks will be back
in the area touring to support it.
This is the fifth national writing award for Parks, who has now won two Shamuses,
two Leftys and the Nero Award, named in honor of legendary fictional detective Nero
Wolfe. Parks remains the only author to have won all three of those prizes.
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