top of page
Hammett Prize.jpg

The Dashiell Hammett Prize

Past Winners, Nominees, and Judges

2000

Winner: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday/McClelland & Stewart)

Nominees:
Hot Springs by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale (Mysterious Press)
The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips (Ballantine)
One-Eyed Jacks by Brad Smith (Doubleday Canada)

Judges:
Bill Brownstein (The Montreal Gazette)
Elizabeth Macklin (poet)
David M. Van Leer (critic)
The Blind Assassin.png

1999

Winner: Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith (Random House)

Nominees:
Heartwood by James Lee Burke (Doubleday)
L.A. Requiem by Rober Crais (Doubleday)
In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson (Avon)
Personal Injuries by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Judges:

Lewis Lapham (Harper's Magazine)
Katha Pollitt (poet, critic, The Nation)
Marie Winn (author)
Havana Bay.png

1998

Winner: Tidewater Blood by William Hoffman (Algonquin)

Nominees:
Praying to a Laughing God by Kevin McColley (Simon & Schuster)
The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa by Robert Noah (St. Martin's)
The Last Days of Il Duce by Domenic Stansberry (Permanant)
Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell (Holt)

Judges:

Barbara Ehrenreich (author)
Nina King (Washington Post Book World)
Ann Porter (Key Porter Books)
Tidewater Blood.png

1997

Winner: Trial of Passion by William Deverell (McClelland & Stewart)

Nominees:
Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke (Hyperion)
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
A Wasteland of Strangers by Bill Pronzini (Walker)
Acts of Murder by L.R. Wright (Doubleday Canada)

Judges:

Margaret Cannon (Toronto Globe & Mail)
Mark Danner (author)
Victor Navasky (The Nation)
Trial of Passion.png

1996

Winner: Rose by Martin Cruz Smith (Random House)

Nominees:
The Poet by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
Buzz Cut by James W. Hall (Delacorte)
Innocent Graves by Peter Robinson (Viking)
Damaged Goods by Stephen Solomita (Scribner)

Judges:

C.H. Cherryh (author)
John Hollander (critic)
Andre Schiffrin (The New Press)
Rose.png

1995

Winner: Under the Beetle's Cellar by Mary Willis Walker (Doubleday)

Nominees:
Smithereens by Susan Taylor Chehak (Doubleday)
The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
Breakheart Hill by Thomas H. Cook (Bantam)
True Crime by Andrew Klavan (Crown)

Judges:

Robert Fulford (Toronto Globe & Mail)
Shannon Ravenel (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
Jane Urquhart (author)
Under the Beetles Cellar.png

1994

Winner: Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke (Hyperion)

Nominees:
Dogs of God by Pinckney Benedict (Doubleday)
Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore (Doubleday)
Third and Indiana by Steve Lopez (Viking)
Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland (Random House)

Judges:

Frederick Barthelme (author)
Alan Cheuse (All Things Considered)
Esther Margolis (Newmarket Press)
Dixie City Jam.png

1993

Winner: The Mexican Tree Duck by James Crumley (Mysterious Press)

Nominees:
The Black Ice by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
By Evil Means by Sandra West Prowell (Walker)
Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor (St. Martin's Press)
An Occasional Hell by Randall Silvis (Permanent Press)

Judges:

Margaret Atwood (author)
Digby Diehl (critic)
David R. Godine (Publisher, Godine)
Mexican Tree Duck.png

1992

Winner: Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman (Putnam)

Special Mention: The Ones You Do by Daniel Woodrell (Holt)

Nominees:
Trick of the Eye by Jane Stanton Hitchcock (Dutton)
White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (Norton
Humans by Donald E. Westlake (Mysterious Press)

Judges:

Joni Evans (Turtle Bay)
Herbert Gold (author)
Raymond Sokolov (The Wall Street Journal)
Turtle Moon.png

1991

Winner: Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard (Delacorte)

Nominees:
Elsinore by Jerome Charyn (Mysterious Press)
Murther & Walking Spirits by Robertson Davis (Viking)
Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer (Random House)
The Women of Whitechapel & Jack the Ripper by Paul West (Random House)

Judges:

Joyce Carol Oates (author)
Elizabeth Pochoda (Entertainment Weekly)
Alan D. Williams (Grove Press)
Maximum Bob.png
bottom of page