Who Walked Off with the Edgars?

The Mystery Writers of America today announced the winners of its 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2020.”

Best Novel: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara
(Random House)

Also nominated: Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Poisoned Pen Press); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco); The Missing American, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime); and The Distant Dead, by Heather Young (Morrow)

Best First Novel by an American Author:
Please See Us, by Caitlin Mullen (Gallery)

Also nominated: Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); Catherine House, by Elisabeth Thomas (Morrow); Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco); and Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley)

Best Paperback Original:
When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)

Also nominated: The Deep, Deep Snow, by Brian Freeman (Blackstone); Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer); The Keeper, by Jessica Moor (Penguin); and East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (Harper 360)

Best Fact Crime:
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic, by Eric Eyre (Scribner)

Also nominated: Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America, by Mark A. Bradley (Norton); The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (Hachette); Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country, by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Random House); and Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, by Ariel Sabar (Doubleday)

Best Critical/Biographical:
Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)

Also nominated: Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Harper360/Collins Crime Club); Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland); Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction, by Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff (Syracuse University Press); and This Time Next Year We’ll be Laughing, by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press)

Best Short Story: “Dust, Ash, Flight,” by Maaza Mengiste (from Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza Mengiste; Akashic)

Also nominated: “The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay,” by Leslie Elman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2020); “Etta at the End of the World,” by Joseph S. Walker (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020); and “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (from In League with Sherlock Holmes, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Pegasus Crime)

Best Juvenile: Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce
(Algonquin Young Readers)

Also nominated: Me and Banksy, by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (Puffin Canada); From the Desk of Zoe Washington, by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen); Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Books for Young Readers); Nessie Quest, by Melissa Savage (Crown Books for Young Readers); and Coop Knows the Scoop, by Taryn Souders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)

Best Young Adult: The Companion, by Katie Alender (Putnam
Books for Young Readers)

Also nominated: The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); They Went Left, by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); The Silence of Bones, by June Hur (Feiwel & Friends); and The Cousins, by Karen M. McManus (Delacorte Press)

Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Episode 1, Photochemistry,” Dead Still, teleplay by John Morton (Acorn TV)

Also nominated: “Episode 1, The Stranger,” Harlan Coben’s The Stranger, teleplay by Danny Brocklehurst (Netflix); “Episode 1, Open Water,” The Sounds, teleplay by Sarah-Kate Lynch (Acorn TV); “Episode 1,” Des, teleplay by Luke Neal (Sundance Now); and “What I Know,” The Boys, teleplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine; based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Amazon)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“The Bite,” by Colette Bancroft (from Tampa Bay Noir, edited by Colette Bancroft; Akashic)

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award:
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Death of an American Beauty, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow); The First to Lie, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Cold Wind, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)

The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award:
Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery, by Rosalie Knecht (Tin House)

Also nominated: The Burn, by Kathleen Kent (Mulholland); Riviera Gold, by Laurie R. King (Ballantine); Dead Land, by Sara Paretsky (Morrow); The Sleeping Nymph, by Ilaria Tuti (Soho Crime); and Turn to Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Grand Masters: Jeffery Deaver and Charlaine Harris

Raven Award: Malice Domestic

Ellery Queen Award: Reagan Arthur, Alfred A. Knopf

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees!