4/24/1996 The second Nevermore Awards

April 24, 1996.  In the 1990s the New York City bookstore Partners and Crime started holding a special night of festivities the evening before the Edgar Banquet.  Specifically they gave out the Nevermore Awards, which no one wanted to win.  The only one I know about in detail was the second annual flare-up, because Harlan Coben reported on it for The Armchair Detective. 

Here's an example.  The Graphic Violence Award was presented to the book whose "cover must somehow absolutely guarantee that the book's intended readership will either overlook it completely or be decisively repelled."  The prize in the hardcover division went to Lawrence Block and Ernie Bulow for After Hours: Conversations With Lawrence Block.  Mr Block said: "I wish Ernie Bulow was here with me.  In fact, I wish he was here instead of me."

Steve Thayer's The Weatherman won the Kama Sutra Award for managing to tangle the most trends into one plot.

The Collective Unconcious Award was given to three books with the same unlikely plot.  Except they gave out two such awards for two such trios.  Jeffrey Deaver, Mary Willis Walker, and Philip Caputo each featured a kidnapped bus.  Susanna Moore, Elise Title, and Laura Reese, all featured women who sought revenge for someone's murder by allowing the sadistic killer to seduce them and tie them up.

Don't let it be said that no good came out of these awards.  Remember the Graphic VIolence Award?  Harlan Coben's Deal Breaker  won the paperback category and he says it convinced the publisher to give up on the "bleeding sports equipment" theme.

Worse things have happened.