Touting “Traditional” Treats

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in terms of crime and mystery fiction prizes. Nominees for the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards were announced, followed by the lists of contenders for this year’s Left Coast Crime commendations and the 2014 Dilys Award. Now add to all of those the following works vying for this year’s Agatha Awards.

Best Contemporary Novel:
• Through the Evil Days, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur)
• Pagan Spring, by G.M. Malliet (Minotaur)
• How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• Clammed Up, by Barbara Ross (Kensington)
• The Wrong Girl, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Novel:
• Death Al Dente, by Leslie Budewitz (Berkley Prime Crime)
• You Cannoli Die Once, by Shelley Costa (Pocket)
• Board Stiff, by Kendel Lynn (Henery Press)
• Kneading to Die, by Liz Mugavero (Kensington)
• Front Page Fatality, by LynDee Walker (Henery Press)

Best Historical Novel:
• Heirs and Graces, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
• Death in the Time of Ice, by Kaye George (Untreed Reads)
• A Friendly Game of Murder, by J.J. Murphy (Signet)
• Murder in Chelsea, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley Prime Crime)
• A Question of Honor, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

Best Children's/YA Novel:
• The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau (HMH Books for Young Readers)
• Traitor in the Shipyard, by Kathleen Ernst (American Girl Mysteries)
• Andi Unexpected, by Amanda Flower (Zonderkidz)
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)
• Code Busters Club: Mystery of the Pirate’s Treasure, by Penny Warner (Edgmont USA)

Best Non-fiction:
• Georgette Heyer, by Jennifer Kloester (Source Books)
• Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by Maria Konnikova (Viking)
• Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea: An Interesting & Entertaining History of Malice Domestic’s First 25 Years, edited by Verena Rose and Rita Owen (Wildside Press)
• The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)

Best Short Story:
• “Evil Little Girl,” by Barb Goffman (from Don’t Get Mad, Get Even; Wildside Press)
• “Nightmare,” Barb Goffman (from Don’t Get Mad, Get Even)
• “The Hindi Houdini,” by Gigi Pandian (from Fish Nets, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside Press)
• “Bread Baby,” by Barbara Ross (from Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler; Level Best Books)
• “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants,” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)

The Agatha Awards honor “traditional mysteries” (containing no “explicit sex,” “excessive gore or gratuitous violence”). This year’s winners will be selected by a vote of the attendees at the 26th annual Malice Domestic Conference, which is to be held in Bethesda, Maryland, from May 2 to 4.