And Malice Toward All

The traditional mysteries fan organization Malice Domestic has announced the winners of its 2008 Agatha Awards as follows:

Best Novel: A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny (St. Martin’ Minotaur)

Also nominated: The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, by Donna Andrews (St. Martin’s Minotaur); Her Royal Spyness, by Rhys Bowen (Penguin); Hard Row, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing); and Murder With Reservations, by Elaine Viets (NAL)

Best First Novel: Prime Time, by Hank Phillipi Ryan (Harlequin)

Also nominated: A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch (St. Martin’s Minotaur); A Real Basket Case, by Beth Groundwater (Five Star); and Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn (Mira)

Best Non-fiction: Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, by Charles Foley, Jon Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Penguin)

Also nominated: The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, by Penny Warner (Quirck Productions)

Best Short Story: “A Rat’s Tale,” by Donna Andrews (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2007)

Also nominated: “Please Watch Your Step,” by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine, Spring 2007); “Casino Gamble,” by Nan Higginson (Murder New York Style, edited by Randy Kendel; L&L Dreamspell); “Popping Round to the Post,” by Peter Lovesey (EQMM, November 2007); and “Death Will Clean Your Closet,” by Elizabeth Zelvin (Murder New York Style)

Best Children’s/Young Adult: A Light in the Cellar, by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl)

Also nominated: Bravo Zulu, Samantha!, by Kathleen Benner Duble (Peachtree Publishers); Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl, by John Feinstein (Knopf); The Falconer’s Knot, by Mary Hoffman (Bloomsbury USA); and Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin)

In addition, British novelist Peter Lovesey (The Headhunters) was given Malice Domestic’s Lifetime Achievement Award. And the Poirot Awards (honoring “individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the Malice Domestic genre”) went to Linda Landrigan, the editor of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Winners were announced last evening during an awards banquet at the Malice Domestic XX convention in Arlington, Virginia.

(Hat tip to The Gumshoe Site.)

READ MORE: “Malice Aforethought,” by B.V. Lawson (In Reference to Murder); “Malice Domestic XX Report,” by Beth Groundwater.