Lucky Day

In advance of Thursday night’s Edgar Allan Poe Awards banquet in New York City (the list of nominees can be found here), the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has announced the winner of its Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award. It’s Wild Indigo (Berkley), the first book in the Jamaica Wild series, by Colorado fire information officer and author Sandi Ault. According to a press release, “It is the first time a debut mystery novel has received this award.” The release goes on to say of Ault’s book:

Wild Indigo, set on an Indian pueblo in Northern New Mexico, is inspired by Ault’s love for the still-vital culture of the Native Puebloans. Ault deftly describes the People, the landscape, life with a wolf (Ault--like her sleuth--does, in fact, live with a wolf), and the endangered and vanishing Wild West. And in her 2008 release, Wild Inferno, Ault brings her experience as a wildland firefighter into the mix of danger, murder, indigenous culture and artifacts, heroic fire teams, and remote and treacherous terrain to create a wildfire of a mystery.

The MWA Web site explains that the winner of this annual commendation “is selected by a special MWA committee for the book most closely written in the Mary Higgins Clark tradition, according to the following guidelines set forth by Ms. Clark:

• The protagonist is a very nice young woman, 27-38 or so, whose life is suddenly invaded. She is not looking for trouble--she is doing exactly what she should be doing and something cuts across her bow (as in ship).
• She solves her problem by her own courage and intelligence.
• She’s in an interesting job.
• She’s self-made--independent--has primarily good family relationships.
• No on-scene violence.
• No four-letter words or explicit sex scenes.

I’ve never seen those specifications for Mary Higgins Clark Award winners, so I just had to throw them in.