Thursday, April 29, 2021

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!

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