Mystery Writers of America Announces 2013 Edgar Award Nominees

Oscars, Emmys, Nobel Prizes… yeah, they’re nice too. But these are the award nominations we wait all year to hear.

Today, Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees and honorees for the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012.

The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at the 67th Mystery Writers of America Gala Banquet, May 2, 2013 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

For your consideration and edification, whatever's linked includes excerpts posted here from nominated works, original commentary on those or their authors, and even posts by nominees themselves.

And now…here are the nominees…

BEST NOVEL

The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset by Al Lamanda
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
The Expats by Chris Pavone
The 500 by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays by Michael Sears

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Complication by Isaac Adamson
Whiplash River by Lou Berney
Bloodland by Alan Glynn
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters

BEST FACT CRIME

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers’ Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle, MD
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo—and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis
Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler

(We were fortunate enough to host sweepstakes for two of these great titles, but posted no specific commentary or excerpts. Note to selves!!)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Iphigenia in Aulis” – An Apple for the Creature by Mike Carey
“Hot Sugar Blues” – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance by Steve Liskow
“The Void it Often Brings With It” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Tom Piccirilli
“The Unremarkable Heart” – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance by Karin Slaughter
“Still Life No. 41” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Teresa Solana

BEST JUVENILE

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger
13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau
The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
Crusher by Niall Leonard
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Pilot” – Longmire, Teleplay by Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny
“Child Predator” – elemeNtarY, Teleplay by Peter Blake
“Slaughterhouse” – Justified, Teleplay by Fred Golan
 “A Scandal in Belgravia” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Steven Moffat
“New Car Smell” – Homeland, Teleplay by Meredith Stiehm

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“When They Are Done With Us” – Staten Island Noir by Patricia Smith

GRAND MASTER

Ken Follett
Margaret Maron

RAVEN AWARDS

Oline Cogdill
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego & Redondo Beach, CA
 
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Akashic Books

(some of this publisher's titles include: The Dewey Decimal System, Black Orchid Blues, Long Island Noir, San Diego Noir, and The Heroin Chronicles)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, May 1, 2013)

Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton
A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell
The Reckoning by Jane Casey
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Sleepwalker by Wendy Corsi Staub
 

Congratulations to all!

Now tell us, which of these nominees have you read, watched, and adored?

Comments

  1. Terrie Farley Moran

    Wonderful list! Congratulations to all and a hat tip to Criminal Element for being so current and presenting us with blogs, excerpts etc. of much of what has now been deemed “the best of the best.”

  2. Dorothy Hayes

    Thanks Criminal Element for the great post. Now to read all these wonderful books! I recognize some of the names such as Connolly’s book on the world’s greatst mystery writers. Several other repsected sources have recommended this book.

    Murder at the P&Z by Dorothy H. Hayes will be published on April 1.

  3. Paul Dumont

    Thrilled to see recognition for Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity – one of the most memorable reading experiences that I’ve had in any genre.

  4. Triss Stein

    I’ve already read Pavone’s Expats. It’s is a stunning debut, a smoothly told story about deception, full of twists and turns.

    Triss Stein

Comments are closed.