Edgars Have Their Day

Today, on the 209th anniversary of author Edgar Allan Poe’s birth in Boston, Massachusetts, the Mystery Writers of America has announced its nominees for the 2018 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television published or produced in 2017.” The full list of winners will be declared during a banquet in New York City on April 26. Congratulations to all of the nominees.

Best Novel:
• The Dime, by Kathleen Kent (Mulholland)
• Prussian Blue, by Philip Kerr (Putnam)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Mulholland)
• A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Pegasus)
• The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, by Hannah Tinti (Dial Press)

Best First Novel by an American Author:
• She Rides Shotgun, by Jordan Harper (Ecco)
• Dark Chapter, by Winnie M. Li (Polis)
• Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Crown)
• Tornado Weather, by Deborah E. Kennedy (Flatiron)
• Idaho, by Emily Ruskovich (Random House)

Best Paperback Original:
• In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Ragged Lake, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
• Black Fall, by Andrew Mayne (Harper)
• The Unseeing, by Anna Mazzola (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Penance, by Kanae Minato (Mulholland)
• The Rules of Backyard Cricket, by Jock Serong (Text)

Best Fact Crime:
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the
Birth of the FBI, by David Grann (Doubleday)
• The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple,
by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster)
• American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land,
by Monica Hesse (Liveright)
• The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery, by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James (Scribner)
• Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation, by Brad Ricca (St. Martin’s Press)

Best Critical/Biographical:
• From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon, by Mattias Bostrom (Mysterious Press)
• Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana
de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Press)
• Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall, by Curtis Evans (McFarland)
• Chester B. Himes: A Biography, by Lawrence P. Jackson (Norton)
• Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes,
by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury USA)

Best Short Story:
• “Spring Break,” by John Crowley (from New Haven Noir,
edited by Amy Bloom; Akashic)
• “Hard to Get,” by Jeffery Deaver (Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine, July/August 2017)
• “Ace in the Hole,” by Eric Heidle (from Montana Noir,
edited by James Grady and Keir Graff; Akashic)
• “A Moment of Clarity at the Waffle House,” by Kenji Jasper
(from Atlanta Noir, edited by Tayari Jones; Akashic)
• “Chin Yong-Yun Stays at Home,” by S.J. Rozan (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2017)

Best Juvenile:
• Audacity Jones Steals the Show, by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press)
• Vanished! by James Ponti (Aladdin)
• The Assassin’s Curse, by Kevin Sands (Aladdin)
• First Class Murder, by Robin Stevens (Simon & Schuster)
• NewsPrints, by Ru Xu (Graphix)

Best Young Adult:
• The Cruelty, by Scott Bergstrom (Feiwel & Friends)
• Grit, by Gillian French (HarperTeen)
• The Impossible Fortress, by Jason Rekulak (Simon & Schuster)
• Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum)
• The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray)

Best Television Episode Teleplay:
• “Episode 1,” Loch Ness, teleplay by Stephen Brady (Acorn TV)
• “Something Happened,” Law & Order: SVU, teleplay by Michael Chernuchin (NBC Universal/Wolf Entertainment)
• “Somebody to Love,” Fargo, teleplay by Noah Hawley
(FX Networks/MGM)
• “Gently and the New Age,” George Gently, teleplay by Robert
Murphy (Acorn TV)
• “The Blanket Mire,” Vera, teleplay by Paul Matthew Thompson
and Martha Hillier (Acorn TV)

The Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award:
• The Vineyard Victims, by Ellen Crosby (Minotaur)
• You’ll Never Know, Dear, by Hallie Ephron (Morrow)
• The Widow’s House, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)
• Uncorking a Lie, by Nadine Nettmann (Midnight Ink)
• The Day I Died, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)

In addition, authors Jane Langton, William Link, and Peter Lovesey have been selected to receive the 2018 Grand Master Awards; Kristopher Zgorski of BOLO Books as well as The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, will be honored with Raven Awards; Robert Pépin has been named as this year’s recipient of the Ellery Queen Award; and “The Queen of Secrets,” by Lisa D. Gray (from New Haven Noir; Akashic) will be given the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award.