AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums About Belize Culture Belizean writer wins award for novel

Crime writer Ian Vasquez was honored on Friday, Oct. 16, for his first novel, In the Heat.

Vasquez, a copy editor for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida was the recipient of the Shamus Award.

The Private Eye Writers of America gives out annual awards to recognize outstanding achievement in the genre. Past winners of the Best First Novel award include Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River) , John Connolly (author of Every Dead Thing) and Walter Mosley (author of Devil in a Blue Dress).

Set in Belize, In the Heat tells the story of former boxer Miles Young, who, in order to get his chance at one last big fight, accepts the job of finding a missing 17-year-old girl.
A review of the novel in the St. Petersburg Times compared Vasquez to Florida crime-writing icon John D. MacDonald.

Vasquez's second novel, Lonesome Point, was published this year. It is a noir tale of two feuding brothers and is set in Belize, Miami and Central Florida.

He has already finished his third novel, Mr. Hooligan, which will be published next year and is also set in Belize.

The award winning novel In the Heat is available in Belize at Tradewinds Advertising, 1455 Coney Drive, Belize City and at Brodies.

<http://www.ianvasquez.net>
<http://www.collegeofcrime.blogspot.com>

A Belizean-American author, Ian Vasquez, recently won a prestigious U.S. award for one of his works. Vasquez who works as a copy editor for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida is the recipient of the Shamus Award. The Private Eye Writers of America gave the annual award to Vasquez to honour his outstanding achievement in that genre. Vasquez won for his work of fiction titled "In the Heat" published in June of 2008 and launched locally at the House of Culture later that month. He says the novel was born from his own experiences growing up in Belize City. It chronicles the life of boxer Miles Young who-after losing a comeback fight-is approached by a rich woman who offers him a substantial amount of money to find her daughter. Miles, however, soon finds himself in the middle of a criminal underworld. News Five spoke to Vasquez via phone this morning about his achievement.

Via Phone: Ian Vasquez, Winner of Shamus Award
"The novel I won the award for, In the Heat, is actually my fourth novel. The other three were unpublished, no one picked them but this one succeeded in getting published and actually got me offered a contract with Express for two more So that's where I am today. Still work in the newspaper and still writing novels."

Jose Sanchez
"The award that you won what is it?"

Via Phone: Ian Vasquez
"The award is the Shamus Award. It's an award given by the Private Eye Writers of America. They gave me the best first Private Eye novel because my novel was a first novel for me. There are different categories. There is one for best novel; one for best Private Eye short story. There is one for best Private Eye first novel, which is what I won. And it's a pretty big award for crime writers. The other awards like the Edgar Awards, the Anthony Awards, Shamus is a pretty big one. It's big because for me, it means a lot to me because it's a peer award. The judges are not newspaper or magazine critics or fans. They have those kinds of awards. But the judges are other writers."

Past winners of the Best First Novel award include Dennis Lehane who wrote Mystic River and Walter Mosley, the author of Devil in a Blue Dress. Vasquez, meanwhile, is not resting on his laurels as his second novel-Lonesome Point-about two feuding brothers was published this year and his third novel called Mister Hooligan is set to be published in 2010. Vasquez migrated to the United States in 1986 and currently lives in Tampa with his wife and two children.

Channel 5