Angling for Agatha’s Approval

On the heels of Friday’s news about contenders for this year’s Barry Awards comes today’s announcement of nominees for the 2022 Agatha Awards. According to Malice Domestic, the organization that hosts these prizes, the Agathas “celebrate the Traditional Mystery, best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence, and would not be classified as ‘hard-boiled.’”

Below are the six categories of Agatha candidates.

Best Contemporary Novel:
• Cajun Kiss of Death, by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane)
• Watch Her, by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
• The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• Her Perfect Life, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)
• Symphony Road, by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best)

Best Historical Novel:
• Murder at Mallowan Hall, by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington)
• Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• Death at Greenway, by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins)
• The Devil’s Music, by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose)

Best First Novel:
• The Turncoat’s Widow, by Mally Becker (Kensington)
• A Dead Man’s Eyes, by Lori Duffy Foster (Level Best)
• Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)
• Murder in the Master, by Judy L. Murray (Level Best)
• Mango, Mambo, and Murder, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)

Best Short Story:
• “A Family Matter,” by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2021)
• “A Tale of Two Sisters,” by Barb Goffman (from Murder on the Beach; Destination Murders)
• “Doc’s at Midnight,” by Richie Narvaez (from Midnight Hour,
edited by Abby L. Vandiver; Crooked Lane)
• “The Locked Room Library,” by Gigi Pandian (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July/August 2021)
• “Bay of Reckoning,” by Shawn Reilly Simmons (from Murder
on the Beach)

Best Non-fiction:
• The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston’s Struggle for Justice, by Jan Brogan (Bright Leaf Press)
• Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter, by Chris Chan (Level Best)
• The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England, by Julie Kavanaugh
(Atlantic Monthly Press)
• How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King (Simon & Schuster)

Best Children’s/YA Mystery:
• Cold-Blooded Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin
Young Readers)
• The Forest of Stolen Girls, by June Hur (Fiewel and Friends)
• I Play One on TV, by Alan Orloff (Down & Out)
• Leisha’s Song, by Lynn Slaughter (Fire and Ice)
• Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

These commendations will be presented on Saturday, April 23, during the 2022 Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland.