OK, one more note about Minnesota’s Barry Award nominees: So, what happens if Michael Stanley is named the winner for "A Carrion Death"? Who gets to keep the plaque? See, Michael Stanley is the pen name of the writing team Stanley Trollip and Michael Sears, two retired Minnesota academics who reside part of the year in South Africa, where their Detective Kubu mystery series is set.

"We hope that decision is our biggest problem!" says Trollip. "Since I am going to Bouchercon, where the winners are announced, if we win I will at least be in possession when I return to South Africa. After that, I guess I'll have to relinquish it to Michael at least for a short time."

It shouldn’t be any trouble passing an award back and forth, since the two quite easily managed to share the writing process without too many hot-potato moments.

"Having a writing partner means there is always someone with vested interest to read what you have written. There is always someone with whom you can brainstorm, which is particularly useful when writer’s block overwhelms you. Of course, having a partner also means that you have greater responsibility -- you can slack only for so long before the other cracks the whip," says Trollip. "We have spent countless hours enjoying glasses of wine, inane jokes, interesting ideas, and creative writing. Neither of us think we could write novels like ours alone."

Together, they created detective David “Kubu” Bengu, who unravels a series of brutal murders in ecologically spectacular, politically impossible, and socially complex Botswana. Most mystery writers conjure a pretty prickly detective persona, but Sears and Trollip made the chubby, nice-guy Kubu perhaps too lovable: Fans objected strenuously when he failed to catch the killer at the end of the first book.

"A number of our readers were very upset, even angry, that Kubu didn’t bring him to justice. The reality is that Botswana is a large country with thousands of miles of borders with neighboring countries. It has a population less than the Twin Cities, which makes these borders very porous. So it is not surprising that a man with the right background would manage to get away."

And come on, readers, there’s always the next book -- "The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu" is out now.