Bring on the Agatha Bouquets

The organizers of Maryland’s annual Malice Domestic Conference this weekend announced the winners of their annual Agatha Awards, celebrating traditional mysteries (of the Agatha Christie variety). There were six categories of recipients.

Best Contemporary Novel:
A Midnight Puzzle, by Gigi Pandian

Also nominated: A Collection of Lies, by Connie Berry; A Very Woodsy Murder, by Ellen Byron; Fondue or Die, by Korina Moss; and The Dark Wives, by Ann Cleeves

Best Historical Novel:
To Slip the Bonds of Earth, by Amanda Flower

Also nominated: Hall of Mirrors, by John Copenhaver; The Last Hope, by Susan Elia MacNeal; The Paris Mistress, by Mally Becker; and The Wharton Plot, by Mariah Fredericks

Best First Novel:
You Know What You Did, by K.T. Nguyen

Also nominated: A Deadly Endeavor, by Jenny Adams; Ghosts of Waikīkī, by Jennifer K. Morita; Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, by Elizabeth Crowens; and Threads of Deception, by Elle Jauffret

Best Short Story:
“The Postman Always Flirts Twice,” by Barb Goffman (from Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer)

Also nominated: “Reynisfjara,” by Kristopher Zgorski (from Mystery Most International, edited by Rita Owen, Verena Rose, and Shawn Reilly Simmons); “Satan’s Spit,” by Gabriel Valjan (from Tales of Music, Murder and Mayhem: Bouchercon 2024, edited by Heather Graham); “Sins of the Father,” by Kerry Hammond (from Mystery Most International); and “A Matter of Trust,” by Barb Goffman (from Three Strikes—You’re Dead, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley)

Best Non-fiction: Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft, edited by Phyllis M. Betz

Also nominated: Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder, by Greg Lilly; Agatha Christie, Marple: Expert on Wickedness, by Mark Aldridge; Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers, by Chris Chan; and The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, by Evan Friss

Best Children’s/YA Mystery:
Sasquatch of Harriman Lake, by K.B. Jackson

Also nominated: First Week Free at the Roomy Toilet, by Josh Pachter; Sid Johnson and the Well-Intended Conspiracy, by Frances Schoonmaker; The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui, by K.B. Jackson; and The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!

(Note: It is my preference to include the names of publishers when listing books that are in contention for prizes. But the Malice Domestic folks failed to provide that information, and there are simply too many titles here for me to look up each one in a timely fashion.)