It’s Edgars Time, Folks

On the 201st anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth, the Mystery Writers of America has announced its nominees for the 2010 Edgar Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2009.” And the nominees are:

Best Novel
• The Missing, by Tim Gautreaux (Knopf)
• The Odds, by Kathleen George (Minotaur)
• The Last Child, by John Hart (Minotaur)
• Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie
Huston (Ballantine)
• Nemesis, by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
• A Beautiful Place to Die, by Malla Nunn (Atria)

Best First Novel by an American Author
• The Girl She Used to Be, by David Cristofano (Grand Central)
• Starvation Lake, by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
• The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf (Mira)
• A Bad Day for Sorry, by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur)
• Black Water Rising, by Attica Locke (HarperCollins)
• In the Shadow of Gotham, by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original
• Bury Me Deep, by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• Havana Lunar, by Robert Arellano (Akashic)
• The Lord God Bird, by Russell Hill (Caravel Books)
• Body Blows, by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press)
• The Herring-Seller’s Apprentice, by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem)

Best Fact Crime
• Columbine, by Dave Cullen (Twelve)
• Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde,
by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster)
• The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide,
by Dick Lehr (HarperCollins)
• Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (Penguin Press)
• Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa,
by R.A. Scotti (Knopf)

Best Critical/Biographical
• Talking About Detective Fiction, by P.D. James (Knopf)
• The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler
(Little, Brown)
• Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King,
by Lisa Rogak (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s)
• The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, by Bev Vincent
(Fall River Press)

Best Short Story
• “Last Fair Deal Gone Down,” by Ace Atkins (from Crossroads
Blues; Busted Flush Press)
• “Femme Sole,” by Dana Cameron (from Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane; Akashic)
• “Digby, Attorney at Law,” by Jim Fusilli (Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine)
• “Animal Rescue,” by Dennis Lehane (Boston Noir)
• “Amapola,” by Luis Alberto Urrea (from Phoenix Noir; Akashic)

Best Juvenile
• The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity, by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour,
by Michael D. Beil (Knopf)
• Closed for the Season, by Mary Downing Hahn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books)
• Creepy Crawly Crime, by Aaron Reynolds (Henry Holt Books
for Young Readers)
• The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline, by Nancy Springer (Philomel)

Best Young Adult
• Reality Check, by Peter Abrahams (HarperTeen)
• If the Witness Lied, by Caroline B. Cooney (Delacorte)
• The Morgue and Me, by John C. Ford (Viking Children’s Books)
• Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone, by Dene Low (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books)
• Shadowed Summer, by Saundra Mitchell (Delacorte)

Best Television Episode Teleplay
• Place of Execution, teleplay by Patrick Harbinson
(PBS/WGBH Boston)
• “Strike Three,” The Closer, teleplay by Steven Kane
(Warner Bros TV for TNT)
• “Look What He Dug Up This Time,” Damages, teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)
• “Grilled,” Breaking Bad, teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony)
• “Living the Dream,” Dexter, teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award
“A Dreadful Day,” by Dan Warthman (Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine)

Grand Master
Dorothy Gilman

Raven Awards
Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers’ Festival

Ellery Queen Award
Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald)

The Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award
• Awakening, by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur)
• Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof, by Blaize Clement (Minotaur)
• Never Tell a Lie, by Hallie Ephron (Morrow)
• Lethal Vintage, by Nadia Gordon (Chronicle)
• Dial H for Hitchcock, by Susan Kandel (HarperCollins)

This year’s winners will be announced during a banquet at New York City’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on April 29.