Edgars Have Been Loosed

During a “gala banquet” held tonight in New York City, the Mystery Writers of America handed out its Edgar Awards for 2012. Here are the fortunate winners as well as the other contenders.

Best Novel: Gone, by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic)

Also nominated: The Ranger, by Ace Atkins (Putnam); The Devotion of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur); 1222, by Anne Holt (Scribner); and Field Gray, by Philip Kerr (Putnam/Marion Wood)

Best First Novel by an American Author: Bent Road,
by Lori Roy (Dutton)

Also nominated: Red on Red, by Edward Conlon (Spiegel & Grau); Last to Fold, by David Duffy (Thomas Dunne); All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen (The Permanent Press); and Purgatory Chasm, by Steve Ulfelder (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne)

Best Paperback Original: The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)

Also nominated: The Faces of Angels, by Lucretia Grindle (Felony & Mayhem Press); The Dog Sox, by Russell Hill (Caravel Mystery Books); Death of the Mantis, by Michael Stanley (Harper); and Vienna Twilight, by Frank Tallis (Random House)

Best Fact Crime: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, by Candice
Millard (Doubleday)

Also nominated: The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars, by Paul Collins (Crown); The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge, by T.J. English (Morrow); Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, by Steve Miller (Berkley); and The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter, by Mark Seal (Viking)

Best Critical/Biographical: On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling, by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)

Also nominated: The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of Our Time, by Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer and John-Henri Holmberg (St. Martin’s Griffin); Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making, by John Curran (HarperCollins); Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film, by Philippa Gates (SUNY Press); and Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie, by Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick (University of Illinois Press)

Best Short Story: “The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train,” by Peter Turnbull (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM])

Also nominated: “Marley’s Revolution,” by John C. Boland (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine); “Tomorrow’s Dead,” by David Dean (EQMM); “The Adakian Eagle,” by Bradley Denton (from Down These Strange Streets, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois; Ace Books); “Lord John and the Plague of Zombies,” by Diana Gabaldon (from Down These Strange Streets); and “The Case of Death and Honey,” by Neil Gaiman (from A Study in Sherlock, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Bantam)

Best Juvenile: Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)

Also nominated: Horton Halfpott, by Tom Angleberger (Amulet); It Happened on a Train, by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers); Vanished, by Sheela Chari (Disney Hyperion); and The Wizard of Dark Street, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey (Egmont USA)

Best Young Adult: The Silence of Murder, by Dandi Daley Mackall (Knopf Young Readers)

Also nominated: Shelter, by Harlan Coben (Putnam Juvenile); The Name of the Star, by Maureen Johnson (Putnam Juvenile); The Girl Is Murder, by Kathryn Miller Haines (Roaring Creek Press); and Kill You Last, by Todd Strasser (Egmont USA)

Best Play: The Game’s Afoot, by Ken Ludwig (Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, Ohio)

Also nominated: Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, by Jeffrey Hatcher (Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix, Arizona)

Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Pilot,” Homeland, teleplay by Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff (Showtime)

Also nominated: “Innocence,” Blue Bloods, teleplay by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS Productions); “The Life Inside,” Justified, teleplay by Benjamin Cavell (FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television); “Part 1,” Whitechapel, teleplay by Ben Court and Caroline Ip (BBC America); and “Mask,” Law & Order: SVU, teleplay by Speed Weed (Wolf Films/Universal Media Studios)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“A Good Man of Business,” by David Ingram (EQMM)

Grand Master: Martha Grimes

Raven Awards:
M is for Mystery Bookstore, San Mateo, California
Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries

Ellery Queen Award:
Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group

The Simon & Schuster-Mary Higgins Clark Award: Learning to Swim, by Sara J. Henry (Crown)

Also nominated: Now You See Me, by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur); Come and Find Me, by Hallie Ephron (Morrow); Death on Tour, by Janice Hamrick (Minotaur); and Murder Most Persuasive, by Tracy Kiely (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne)

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)