Bloody Words, Canada’s largest convention of mystery fiction, has revealed the shortlist for its first annual Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award, a prize recognizing mystery novels that soften the gore, violence, and sex typical of the genre in favour of a more lighthearted tone.

The wide-ranging shortlist includes a volume from an internationally published series, a story about a put-upon Floridian bartender, an Arthur Ellis“winning paranormal debut, a novel featuring a rogue 911 operator, and the first book in a sewing-themed series.

The nominated books are:

• Alan Bradley, A Red Herring without Mustard (Doubleday Canada)
• Phyllis Smallman, Champagne for Buzzards (McArthur & Company)
• Gloria Ferris, Cheat the Hangman (Imajin Books)
• Mary Jane Maffini, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder (Berkley Prime Crime)
• Janet Bolin, Dire Threads (Berkley Prime Crime)

The jury will present writers with the $1,000 prize at the Bloody Words XII banquet in Toronto on June 2.