Angling for the Edgars

A new year, a new season of awards-giving. On this day, the 208th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, the Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for its 2017 Edgar Awards. These prizes honor what the MWA says are “the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2016.” Winners will be announced and the awards presented during a banquet in New York City on April 27. Here are all of this year’s contenders:

Best Novel:
• The Ex, by Alafair Burke (Harper)
• Where It Hurts, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam)
• Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam)
• What Remains of Me, by Alison Gaylin (Morrow)
• Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley
(Grand Central)

Best First Novel by an American Author:
• Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry (Penguin)
• Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (Crown)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)
• The Drifter, by Nicholas Petrie (Putnam)
• Dancing with the Tiger, by Lili Wright (Marian Wood Book/Putnam)
• The Lost Girls, by Heather Young (Morrow)

Best Paperback Original:
• Shot in Detroit, by Patricia Abbott (Polis)
• Come Twilight, by Tyler Dilts (Thomas & Mercer)
• The 7th Canon, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)
• A Brilliant Death, by Robin Yocum (Seventh Street)
• Heart of Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Fact Crime:
• Morgue: A Life in Death, by Dr. Vincent DiMaio and Ron Franscell
(St. Martin’s Press)
• The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan, by Laurence Leamer (Morrow)
• Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane: A True Story of Victorian Law and Disorder: The Unsolved Murder that Shocked Victorian England, by Paul Thomas Murphy (Pegasus)
• While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man’s Descent into Madness, by Eli Sanders (Viking)
• The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin Press)

Best Critical/Biographical:
• Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life, by Peter Ackroyd (Nan A. Talese)
• Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime: Works and Authors of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden Since 1967, by Mitzi M. Brunsdale (McFarland & Company)
• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright)
• Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright)

Best Short Story:
• “Oxford Girl,” by Megan Abbott (from Mississippi Noir,
edited by Tom Franklin; Akashic)
• “A Paler Shade of Death,” by Laura Benedict (from St. Louis Noir, edited by Scott Phillips; Akashic)
• “Autumn at the Automat,” by Lawrence Block (from In Sunlight or in Shadow, edited by Lawrence Block; Pegasus)
• “The Music Room” by Stephen King (from In Sunlight or in Shadow)
• “The Crawl Space,” by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2016)

Best Juvenile:
• Summerlost, by Ally Condie (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
• OCDaniel, by Wesley King (Paula Wiseman)
• The Bad Kid, by Sarah Lariviere (Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers)
• Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Framed! by James Ponti (Aladdin)
• Things Too Huge to Fix, by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught
(Paula Wiseman)

Best Young Adult:
• Three Truths and a Lie, by Brent Hartinger (Simon Pulse)
• The Girl I Used to Be, by April Henry (Henry Holt)
• Girl in the Blue Coat, by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books for
Young Readers)
• My Sister Rosa, by Justine Larbalestier (Soho Teen)
• Thieving Weasels, by Billy Taylor (Dial)

Best Television Episode Teleplay:
• Episode 1: “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, teleplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (FX Network)
• “The Abominable Bride,” Sherlock, teleplay by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (Hartswood Films/Masterpiece)
• Episode 1: “Dark Road,” Vera, teleplay by Martha Hillier (Acorn TV)
• “A Blade of Grass,” Penny Dreadful, teleplay by John Logan (Showtime)
• “Return 0,” Person of Interest, teleplay by Jonathan Nolan and Denise The (CBS/Warner Bros.)
• “The Bicameral Mind,” Westworld, teleplay by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (HBO/Warner Bros.)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: “The Truth of the Moment,” by E. Gabriel Flores (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, December 2016)

Grand Master: Max Allan Collins and Ellen Hart

Raven Award: Dru Ann Love

Ellery Queen Award: Neil Nyren

The Simon & Schuster–Mary Higgins Clark Award:
• The Other Sister, by Dianne Dixon (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Quiet Neighbors, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
• Say No More, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)
• Blue Moon, by Wendy Corsi Staub (Morrow)
• The Shattered Tree, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

While this list doesn’t overlap at all with my own choices for Best Crime Novels of 2016, it just makes clear how wonderfully diverse crime fiction is nowadays. I’m especially pleased to see Patricia Abbott nominated in the Best Paperback Original category, since I thought her first novel, Concrete Angel (2015), should have been a contender last year. Meanwhile, I’m surprised not to see You Will Know Me, by her daughter, Megan Abbott, make the Best Novel cut.

(Hat tip to Shotsmag Confidential.)