Agatha’s Honors

The winners of the 2012 Agatha Awards, celebrating the craft and style of the traditional mystery, have been awarded. Winners were chosen by the people attending the 25th annual Malice Domestic conference, held May 3-5 in Bethesda, Maryland. The winners this year are as follows:

Best Novel: The Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Also nominated: The Diva Digs Up the Dirt, by Krista Davis (Berkley); A Fatal Winter, by G.M. Malliet (Minotaur); The Buzzard Table, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central); and The Other Woman, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best Historical Novel: Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder, by Catronia McPherson (Minotaur)

Also nominated: The Twelve Clues of Christmas, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime); Murder on Fifth Avenue, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley); An Unmarked Grave, by Charles Todd (Morrow); and Elegy for Eddie, by Jacqueline Winspear (HarperCollins)

Best First Novel: Lowcountry Boil, by Susan M. Boyer (Henery Press)

Also nominated: Iced Chiffon, by Duffy Brown (Berkley); A Scrapbook of Secrets, by Mollie Cox Bryan (Kensington); A Killer Read, by Erika Chase (Berkley); and Faithful Unto Death, by Stephanie Jaye Evans (Berkley)

Best Non-fiction: Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Atria/Emily Bestler)

Also nominated: Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950, edited by Joseph Goodrich (Perfect Crime); More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered, by D.P. Lyle (Medallion Press); Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben Macintyre (Crown); and The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie, edited by Mathew Prichard (Harper)

Best Short Story: “Mischief in Mesopotamia,” by Dana Cameron (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November 2012)

Also nominated: “Kept in the Dark,” by Shelia Connolly (in Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon, edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler; Level Best), “The Lord Is My Shamus,” by Barb Goffman (in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press), “Thea’s First Husband,” by B.K. Stevens (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2012), and “When Duty Calls,” by Art Taylor (in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder)

Best Children's/Young Adult Novel: The Code Busters Club, Case #2: The Haunted Lighthouse, by Penny Warner (EgmontUSA)

Also nominated: Seconds Away, by Harlan Coben (Putnam); The Edge of Nowhere, by Elizabeth George (Viking); Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb); and Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion)