The Edgars Find Their Homes

Thanks to the technological wonder that is live-blogging (courtesy of the Mystery Writers of America), we already have the winners of the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which were handed out this evening during a banquet in New York City. They are as follows:

Best Novel: Down River, by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Also nominated: Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt); Priest, by Ken Bruen (St. Martin’s Minotaur); The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins); and Soul Patch, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)

Best First Novel by an American Author: In the Woods, by Tana French (Viking)

Also nominated: Missing Witness, by Gordon Campbell (Morrow); Snitch Jacket, by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press); Head Games, by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books); and Pyres, by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original: Queenpin, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)

Also nominated: Blood of Paradise, by David Corbett (Mortalis); Cruel Poetry, by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent’s Tail); Robbie’s Wife, by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime); and Who Is Conrad Hirst?, by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

Best Fact Crime: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, by Vincent Bugliosi (Norton)

Also nominated: The Birthday Party, by Stanley Alpert (Putnam); Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn’t Commit, by Kerry Max Cook (Morrow); Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn’t Quit, by Kevin Flynn (Putnam); and Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind, by Bruce Watson (Viking)

Best Critical/Biographical: Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Charles Foley (Penguin Press)

Also nominated: The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction, by Patrick Anderson (Random House); A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational, by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan); Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction, by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan); and Chester Gould: A Daughter’s Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy, by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland & Company)

Best Short Story: “The Golden Gopher,” by Susan Straight (from Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton; Akashic Books)

Also nominated: “The Catch,” by Mark Ammons (from Still Waters, edited by Kate Flora, Ruth McCarty, and Susan Oleksiw; Level Best Books); “Blue Note,” by Stuart M. Kaminsky (from Chicago Blues, edited by Libby Fischer Hellmann; Bleak House Books); “Hardly Knew Her,” by Laura Lippman (from Dead Man’s Hand, edited by Otto Penzler; Harcourt); and “Uncle,” by Daniel Woodrell (from A Hell of a Woman, edited by Megan Abbott; Busted Flush Press)

Best Juvenile: The Night Tourist, by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)

Also nominated: The Name of This Book Is Secret, by Pseudonymous Bosch (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); Shadows on Society Hill, by Evelyn Coleman (American Girl Publications); Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion Books); and Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things, by Wendelin Van Draanen (Knopf)

Best Young Adult: Rat Life, by Tedd Arnold (Dial Books for Young Readers)

Also nominated: Diamonds in the Shadow, by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children’s Books); Touching Snow, by M. Sindy Felin (Atheneum Books for Young Readers); Blood Brothers, by S.A. Harazin (Random House Children’s Books); and Fragments, by Jeffry W. Johnston (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)

Best Play: Panic, by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers’ Festival)

Also nominated: If/Then, by David Foley (International Mystery Writers’ Festival); and Books, by Stuart M. Kaminsky (International Mystery Writers’ Festival)

Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Pilot,” Burn Notice, teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios)

Also nominated: “It’s Alive,” Dexter, teleplay by Daniel Cerone (Showtime); “Yahrzeit,” Waking the Dead, teleplay by Declan Croghan and Barbara Machin (BBC America); “Pie-Lette,” Pushing Daisies, teleplay by Bryan Fuller (ABC/Warner Bros Television); and “Senseless,” Law & Order: Criminal Intent, teleplay by Julie Martin and Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)

Best Motion Picture Screenplay: Michael Clayton, screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Also nominated: Eastern Promises, screenplay by Steven Knight (Focus Features); The Lookout, screenplay by Scott Frank (Miramax); No Country for Old Men, screenplay by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy (Miramax); and Zodiac, screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith (Warner Bros. Pictures)

As previously announced, Bill Pronzini was presented with the 2008 Grand Master Award; Sandi Ault was given the Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award for Wild Indigo; and both The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Kate’s Mystery Books, owned by Kate Mattes, received Raven Awards. Finally, the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award goes to “The Catch,” by Mark Ammons (from Still Waters, edited by Kate Flora, Ruth McCarty, and Susan Oleksiw; Level Best Books).

Well, I was wrong in my prediction that The Yiddish Policemen’s Union would triumph in the Best Novel category, but right about Tana French picking up Best First Novel honors. And special congratulations to The Rap Sheet’s own Megan Abbott, for winning in the Best Paperback Original category. We couldn’t be happier.