Michael Calce, a.k.a. Mafiaboy, is shown in Montreal in October 2008. He has won an Arthur Ellis Award for his book detailing how easily he hacked into major computer systems. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Former Toronto Star columnist Linwood Barclay has won the Arthur Ellis award for best novel from the Crime Writers of Canada.

Barclay's book, Too Close to Home, has been a bestseller in the U.K. and will be issued in paperback in Canada this fall.

The thriller is about the killing of a family in a quiet suburban neighbourhood and the secrets that emerge in a seemingly peaceful town.

Hacker Michael Calce and journalist Craig Silverman won the best non-fiction award for Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken.

Calce is the Montreal high school student known as Mafiaboy, who launched a series of denial-of-service attacks on the internet in 2000.

The book is the story of his infiltration of sites such as Yahoo, eBay and CNN and what happened to him afterward.

The Arthur for best juvenile fiction went to Sharon E. McKay for War Brothers, her meticulously researched novel about child soldiers in Africa.

The story follows a boy forced to join a rebel army and his struggle to avoid killing others.

McKay recently travelled to Afghanistan to see Canadian soldiers in action through the Canadian Forces Artists Program.

Other winners:

• Best short story: Pasha Malla, of London, Ont., Filmsong.
• Best Crime Writing in French: Jacques Côté, Le Chemin des brumes.
• Best first novel: Howard Shrier of Toronto, Buffalo Jump.
• Best unpublished first crime novel: Douglas A. Moles, of Oro Station, Ont., Louder.

Arthur Ellis was the working name of Canada's official hangman in the 1900s. The awards are Canada's top award for crime writing.