An Electronic Dispensing of Edgars

Well, there is no glittering evening convocation of this genre’s stars at New York City’s Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, as has been the tradition in years past. And those folks won’t all sit down to a celebratory banquet before the announcements are made of which authors, books, TV shows, and other people associated with crime and mystery fiction have won the Mystery Writers of America’s 2020 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Nonetheless, this morning brought those announcements—on schedule, but via Twitter.

Best Novel:
The Stranger Diaries, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Also nominated: Fake Like Me, by Barbara Bourland (Grand Central); The River, by Peter Heller (Knopf); Smoke and Ashes, by Abir Mukherjee (Pegasus); and Good Girl, Bad Girl, by Michael Robotham (Scribner)

Best First Novel by an American Author:
Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Also nominated: My Lovely Wife, by Samantha Downing (Berkley); The Good Detective, by John McMahon (Putnam); The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott (Knopf); Three-Fifths, by John Vercher (Agora); and American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson (Random House)

Best Paperback Original:
The Hotel Neversink, by Adam O’Fallon Price (Tin House)

Also nominated: Dread of Winter, by Susan Alice Bickford (Kensington); Freedom Road, by William Lashner (Thomas & Mercer); Blood Relations, by Jonathan Moore (Mariner); February’s Son, by Alan Parks (World Noir); and The Bird Boys, by Lisa Sandlin (Cinco Puntos Press)

Best Fact Crime:
The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity, by Axton Betz-Hamilton (Grand Central)

Also nominated: The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America, by Karen Abbott (Crown); American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century, by Maureen Callahan (Viking); Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History, by Peter Houlahan (Counterpoint Press); and Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall, by James Polchin (Counterpoint Press)

Best Critical/Biographical: Hitchcock and the Censors, by John Billheimer (University Press of Kentucky)

Also nominated: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan, by Ursula Buchan (Bloomsbury); The Hooded Gunman: An Illustrated History of Collins Crime Club, by John Curran (Collins Crime Club); Medieval Crime Fiction: A Critical Overview, by Anne McKendry (McFarland); and The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, by Mo Moulton (Basic)

Best Short Story: “One of These Nights,” by Livia Llewellyn (from Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers, edited by Joyce Carol Oates; Akashic)

Also nominated: “Turistas,” by Hector Acosta (from ¡Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas!, edited by Angel Luis Colón; Down & Out); “The Passenger,” by Kirsten Tranter (from Sydney Noir, edited by John Dale; Akashic); “Home at Last,” by Sam Wiebe (from Die Behind the Wheel: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan, edited by Brian Thornton; Down & Out); and “Brother’s Keeper,” by Dave Zeltserman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May/June 2019)

Best Juvenile: Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse,
by Susan Vaught (Paula Wiseman)

Also nominated: The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster, by Cary Fagan (Tundra); Eventown, by Corey Ann Haydu (Katherine Tegen); The Whispers, by Greg Howard (Putnam Books for Young Readers); and All the Greys on Greene Street, by Laura Tucker (Viking Books for Young Readers)

Best Young Adult:
Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)

Also nominated: Killing November, by Adriana Mather (Knopf Books for Young Readers); Patron Saints of Nothing, by Randy Ribay (Kokila); The Deceivers, by Kristen Simmons (Tor Teen); and Wild and Crooked, by Leah Thomas (Bloomsbury)

Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Season 5, Episode 4” – Line of Duty, teleplay by Jed Mercurio (Acorn TV)

Also nominated: “Season 5, Episode 3” – Line of Duty, teleplay by Jed Mercurio (Acorn TV); “Episode 1” – Dublin Murders, teleplay by Sarah Phelps (STARZ); “Episode 1” – Manhunt, teleplay by Ed Whitmore (Acorn TV); “Episode 1” – The Wisting, teleplay by Katherine Valen Zeiner and Trygve Allister Diesen (Sundance Now)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“There’s a Riot Goin’ On,” by Derrick Harriell (from Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessey; Akashic)

Ellery Queen Award: Kelley Ragland, associate publisher and
editorial director of Minotaur Books

Raven Award: Left Coast Crime

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award: The Night Visitors, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)

Also nominated: One Night Gone, by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House); Strangers at the Gate, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur); Where the Missing Go, by Emma Rowley (Kensington); and The Murder List, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award: Borrowed Time, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)

Also nominated: Shamed, by Linda Castillo (Minotaur); The Missing Ones, by Edwin Hill (Kensington); The Satapur Moonstone, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime); The Alchemist’s Illusion, by Gigi Pandian (Midnight Ink); and Girl Gone Missing, by Marcie R. Rendon (Cincos Puntos Press)

If you have never been able to attend an Edgar Awards banquet, you’ve missed out on the recipients’ acceptance speeches. One good thing that can be said of this year’s online event is that those addresses are now available to all of us on YouTube.

Congratulations to all of the 2020 Edgar nominees and winners!

A sad concluding note: Barbara Neely, the author of four novel in the Blanche White series (Blanche on the Lam, etc.), had been named at the end of 2019 as this year’s recipient of the MWA Grand Master Award. But she passed away on March 2, 2020, at age 78, as a result of a heart ailment. She and others are remembered in today’s “In Memoriam” video segment.

READ MORE: “Celebrating the 2020 Edgars from Afar,” by Oline H. Cogdill (Mystery Scene).