Dunnville’s Brad Smith nominated for prestigious Hammett Prize
Dunnville author Brad Smith's Copperhead Road" is one of five novels shortlisted for the 2022 Dashiell Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing.
The nomination represents Smith's second time on the shortlist for the prestigious award. In 2001, Smith also made the list for his novel One-Eyed Jacks," but lost to internationally acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin."
The Hammett Prize has been awarded every year since 1991 by the International Association of Crime Writers. The award takes its name from Dashiell Hammett, author of the iconic novels The Maltese Falcon" and The Thin Man." Previous winners include Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and Atwood.
Copperhead Road," published by Winnipeg-based At Bay Press, focuses on the moonshine runners of Depression-era Appalachia.
It's always intrigued me that these moonshine runners would become fledgling stock car drivers," Smith, who owns a vintage 1937 Ford coupe, told The Spectator in an interview last year. Then I found out that it worked both ways. Bootleggers would come out to the stock car races to recruit moonshine runners."
Copperhead Road" is Smith's 14th published novel. His 2018 The Return of Kid Cooper" won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and his All Hat" was adapted for a 2007 feature film starring Keith Carradine. Smith is currently working on a political satire regarding the Ontario Greenbelt.
The four other short-listed books are Gangland" by Chuck Hogan (Grand Central), Don't Know Tough" by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime), Pay Dirt Road" by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur), and What Happened to the Bennetts" by Lisa Scottoline (G.P. Putnam's Sons).
The winner of 2022 Hammett Prize will be announced this summer.