Malice Has Its Rewards

Last evening, during a presentation at the annual Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland, it was announced which authors and books have won the 2016 Agatha Awards. They are as follows ...

Best Contemporary Novel: Long Upon the Land, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central)

Also nominaed: Burned Bridges, by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press); The Child Garden, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink); Nature of the Beast, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); and What You See, by Hank Phillipi Ryan (Forge)

Best Historical Novel: Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

Also nominated: Malice at the Palace, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley); The Masque of a Murderer, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur); Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, by Susan Elia Macneal (Bantam); and Murder on Amsterdam Avenue, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

Best First Novel: On the Road with Del & Louise, by Art Taylor
(Henery Press)

Also nominated: Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman, by Tessa Arlen (Minotaur); Macdeath, by Cindy Brown (Henery Press); Plantation Shudders, by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane); and Just Killing Time, by Julianne Holmes (Berkley)

Best Non-fiction: The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes, by Zack Dundas (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); A Is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury USA); Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio, by Jane Ann Turzillo (Arcadia); and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For, edited by Kate White (Quirk)

Best Short Story: “A Year Without Santa Claus?” by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], January/February 2015)

Also nominated: “A Questionable Death,” by Edith Maxwell (from History and Mystery, Oh My!, edited by Sarah E. Glenn; Mystery & Horror, LLC); “A Killing at the Beausoleil,” by Terri Farley Moran (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November 2015); “Suffer the Poor,” by Harriette Sackler (from History and Mystery, Oh My!); and “A Joy Forever,” by B.K. Stevens (AHMM, March, 2015)

Best Children’s/Young Adult: Andi Unstoppable, by Amanda Flower (Zonderkidz)

Also nominated: Pieces and Players, by Blue Balliett (Scholastic Press); Need, by Joelle Charbonneau (HMH Books for Young Readers); Woof, by Spencer Quinn (Scholastic Press); and Fighting Chance, by B.K. Stevens (Poisoned Pen Press)

As Les Blatt notes in his Classic Mysteries blog, “The Agatha Awards are presented to honor books written in the ‘traditional mystery’ style exemplified by the works of Agatha Christie and others. They have no explicit sex, gratuitous gore, or extreme violence. Attendees at Malice Domestic voted by secret ballot to select the winners.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees!

READ MORE: “Malice, Agatha & More,” by Art Taylor.