And That’s a Wrap on the 2017 Edgars

It’s been an unusual evening at the Edgar Awards banquet in New York City. The Mystery Writers of America’s newly minted president, Jeffery Deaver, collapsed on stage (allegedly from exhaustion) and was quickly attended to by emergency medical technicians, while fellow author Donna Andrews was enlisted to take over the event hosting. “It was a tense and strange little while,” one attendee reported on Twitter. “Real-life drama here,” proclaimed another. But Deaver was later said to be in stable condition, and the night’s prize presentations and speeches continued on, as scheduled.

Here are the final results:

Best Novel: Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)

Also nominated: The Ex, by Alafair Burke (Harper); Where It Hurts, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam); Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam); and What Remains of Me, by Alison Gaylin (Morrow)

Best First Novel by an American Author: Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry (Penguin)

Also nominated: 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); and The Lost Girls,
by Heather Young (Morrow)

Best Paperback Original: Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty
(Seventh Street)

Also nominated: Shot in Detroit, by Patricia Abbott (Polis); Come Twilight, by Tyler Dilts (Thomas & Mercer); The 7th Canon, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer); A Brilliant Death, by Robin Yocum (Seventh Street); and Heart of Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Best Fact Crime: The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin Press)

Also nominated: 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); and While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man’s Descent into Madness,
by Eli Sanders (Viking)

Best Critical/Biographical: Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright)

Also nominated: 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); and Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright)

Best Short Story: “Autumn at the Automat,” by Lawrence Block (from In Sunlight or in Shadow, edited by Lawrence Block; Pegasus)

Also nominated: “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); “The Music Room” by Stephen King (from In Sunlight or in Shadow); and “The Crawl Space,” by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2016)

Best Juvenile: OCDaniel, by Wesley King (Paula Wiseman)

Also nominated: Summerlost, by Ally Condie (Dutton Books for Young Readers); 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), and Things Too Huge to Fix, by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught
(Paula Wiseman)

Best Young Adult: Girl in the Blue Coat, by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books
for Young Readers)

Also nominated: Three Truths and a Lie, by Brent Hartinger (Simon Pulse); The Girl I Used to Be, by April Henry (Henry Holt); My Sister Rosa, by Justine Larbalestier (Soho Teen); and Thieving Weasels, by Billy Taylor (Dial)

Best Television Episode Teleplay: “A Blade of Grass,” Penny Dreadful, teleplay by John Logan (Showtime)

Also nominated: 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); “Return 0,” Person of Interest, teleplay by Jonathan Nolan and Denise The (CBS/Warner Bros.); and “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 Shattered Tree, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

Also nominated: The Other Sister, by Dianne Dixon (Sourcebooks Landmark); Quiet Neighbors, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink); Say No More, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Blue Moon, by Wendy Corsi Staub (Morrow)

Congratulations to all the winners as well as the other nominees!

READ MORE: “The 71st Annual Edgar Awards,” by Irma Heldman
(Open Letters Monthly); “At the 2017 Edgar Awards, with Acceptance Speeches!” by Peter Rozovsky (Detectives Beyond Borders).