Criminal Minds of Another Time

This is shaping up to be a week of prize-associated events, the highlight being the presentation on Thursday night of the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Meanwhile, St. Martin’s Minotaur and the Mystery Writers of America have just announced the winner of their debut First Crime Novel Competition. She’s Stefanie Pintoff of Westchester, New York, who will be formally introduced during the Edgar Awards Banquet on May 1 in New York City. Here’s the nut of the press release:

The competition winner is Stefanie Pintoff, an attorney who has completed extensive academic research in detective fiction and the history of criminology. Her winning novel, tentatively titled In the Shadow of Gotham, is set in turn-of-the-century New York City and will be published in 2009. The novel tells the story of a detective who teams up with one of the criminal profiler[s] of the time; it makes full use of Pintoff’s knowledge of theories of crime over one hundred years ago.

The release goes on to explain that “St. Martin’s Minotaur and the Mystery Writers of America selected Pintoff’s manuscript after reviewing over 700 entries.” As the champ, she receives a one-book, $10,000 contract.

St. Martin’s is already accepting submissions for next year’s competition. The rules are apparently the same as last year’s, which can be found here.