Agatha Acclamation

The winners of the 2024 Agatha Awards for best “traditional mysteries” (defined as containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence) were given out this last weekend at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland.

Best Contemporary Mystery Novel:
The Weekend Retreat, by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)

Also nominated: Wined and Died in New Orleans, by Ellen Byron (Berkley); Helpless, by Annette Dashofy (Level Best); A Case of the Bleus, by Korina Moss (St. Martin’s Press); and The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)

Best Historical Mystery Novel:
The Mistress of Bhatia House, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated: Death Among the Ruins, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House); Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, by Celeste Connally (Minotaur); I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, by Amanda Flower (Berkley); and Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

Best First Mystery Novel:
Crime and Parchment, by Daphne Silver (Level Best)

Also nominated: Glory Be, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus); The Hint of Light, by Kristin Kisska (Lake Union); Dutch Treat, by Josh Pachter (Genius); and Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story:
“Ticket to Ride,” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski (from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)

Also nominated: “The Knife Sharpener,” by Shelley Costa (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2023); “A Good Judge of Character,” by Tina deBellegarde (from Malice Domestic 17: Murder Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press); “Real Courage,” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2023); and “Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective, by Richie Narvaez (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out)

Best Mystery Non-fiction: Finders: Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated: Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder, by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press); A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press); and Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery Novel: The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)

Also nominated: Myrtle, Means and Opportunity, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); Araña and Spiderman, by Alex Segura (Marvel Press); The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle, by Taryn Sounders (Sourcebooks Young Readers); and Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Congratulations to the victors as well as the other nominees!