The Mystery Writers of America have announced the Edgar Award nominees and special winners. The Edgars banquet—an annual black-tie gala celebrating crime fiction, non-fiction, and television writing—will be held on Thursday, April 28th, 2016 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. As always, it's a fantastic list of great work that deserves to be checked out! What have you read already?
BEST NOVEL
The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter
The Lady From Zagreb by Philip Kerr
Life or Death by Michael Robotham
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
Canary by Duane Swierczynski
Night Life by David C. Taylor
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton
Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
Woman with a Blue Pencil by Gordon McAlpine
Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty
The Daughter by Jane Shemilt
BEST FACT CRIME
Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide by Eric Bogosian
Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him by T.J. English
Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid
American Pain: How a Young Felon and his Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic by John Temple
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards
The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue by Frederick Forsyth
Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald by Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan
Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica by Matthew Parker
The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett by Nathan Ward
BEST SHORT STORY
“The Little Men” – Mysterious Bookshop by Megan Abbott
“On Borrowed Time” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Mat Coward
“The Saturday Night Before Easter Sunday” – Providence Noir by Peter Farrelly
“Family Treasures” – Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson
“Obits” – Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
“Every Seven Years”– Mysterious Bookshop by Denise Mina
BEST JUVENILE
Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi
If You Find This by Matthew Baker
Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands
Footer Davis Probably is Crazy by Susan Vaught
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Endangered by Lamar Giles
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
Ask the Dark by Henry Turner
BEST TV EPISODE/TELEPLAY
“Episode 7” – Broadchurch, Teleplay by Chris Chibnall
“Gently with the Women” – George Gently, Teleplay by Peter Flannery
“Elise – The Final Mystery” – Foyle's War, Teleplay by Anthony Horowitz
“Terra Incognita” – Person of Interest, Teleplay by Erik Mountain and Melissa Scrivner Love
“The Beating of her Wings” – Ripper Street by Richard Warlow
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
“Chung Ling Soo's Greatest Trick”–Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Russell W. Johnson
MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins
Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson
Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day
Many congratulations to all the nominees, and good luck!