Who/What Should make the Ned Kelly Short Lists?

I need to stress at the outset that I have nothing to do with the official selection for the Ned Kelly awards.

But I thought it would be interesting in true Australian tradition of betting on anything - even flies crawling up the wall - to see what readers think, to take some straw polls.

Now I've already given you the lists in my Carnival of Criminal Minds posting recently. The lists are very very long and I imagine each will be cut to 4 or 5 contenders.

Down at the bottom of my blog page (every page) I have added some new elements which allow you to cast votes for the books of your choice.

• Best First Fiction- which should make the short list?
• Best Fiction - which should make the short list?
• Best Non-Fiction - which should make the short list?

I have set these straw polls to close on 11 August, but if the short lists are announced before then, then off course I will close these off.

Don't worry if you haven't read them all - I doubt that anybody will. Just vote for the ones you've read, or intend to read.

So there you go, scroll right down to the bottom of the page and throw your ostraka into the buckets. There are probably those who will throw stones at me for setting this up, but I thought (to mix my metaphors again) it would be interesting to see which way the winds are blowing.