Agatha Accolades

The winners of the 2023 Agatha Awards were announced last evening at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland. These literary prizes go to what are described as “traditional mysteries,” those “loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as ‘hard-boiled.’” There are six categories of recipients.

Best Contemporary Novel:
A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Bayou Book Thief, by Ellen Byron (Berkley Prime Crime); Death by Bubble Tea, by Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley); Fatal Reunion, by Annette Dashofy (Level Best); and Dead Man’s Leap, by Tina de Bellegarde (Level Best)

Best Historical Novel:
Because I Could Not Stop for Death, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)

Also nominated: The Counterfeit Wife, by Mally Becker (Level Best); The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Mobius); and Under a Veiled Moon, by Karen Odden (Crooked Lane)

Best First Novel:
Cheddar Off Dead, by Korina Moss (St. Martin’s Press)

Also nominated: Death in the Aegean, by M.A. Monnin (Level Best); The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Constable); Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane); The Finalist, by Joan Long (Level Best); and The Gallery of Beauties, by Nina Wachsman (Level Best)

Best Short Story: “Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Magazine, February 2022)

Also nominated: “There Comes a Time,” by Cynthia Kuhn (from Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Diabolical, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press); “Fly Me to the Morgue,” by Lisa Q Mathews (from Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Diabolical); “The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot,” by Richie Narvaez (from Land of 10,000 Thrills, Bouchercon Anthology 2022, edited by Greg Herren; Down & Out); and “The Invisible Band,” by Art Taylor (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer; Down & Out)

Best Non-fiction: Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction, edited by Diane Vallere (Sisters in Crime)

Also nominated: The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins); The Handbook to Agatha Christie: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, by Mary Anna Evans and J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic); The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie, by Carla Valentine (Sourcebooks); and Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Also nominated: Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young People); In Myrtle Peril, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); #shedeservedit, by Greg Herren (Bold Strokes); and Sid Johnson and the Phantom Slave Stealer, by Frances Schoonmaker (Auctus)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Ann Cleeves

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!