It is May, and that means time to refresh your To Be Read list for summertime reading. In order to help you do just that, here are the winners of three different awards, the Edgars, the Agathas and the Leftys.
I am starting with the Edgars simply because I wrote a diary in January, celebrating Edgar Allen Poe's 205th birthday with a complete listing of all of the nominated books in the three main categories. The Edgar Awards were presented at the Mystery Writers of America's 68th Gala Banquet, May 1, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.
Best Novel
This was a bit of a surprise to me. Of all of the nominated books, this one felt the most like one I should read rather than one I would want to read. It didn't even have a place on my TBR list because it seemed to be more a coming of age story rather than a mystery.
Ordinary Grace
by William Kent Krueger
Published by Simon & Schuster – Atria Books
March 26, 2013
307 pages
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson’s Drug Store soda counter, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a summer in which death assumed many forms.
When tragedy unexpectedly comes to call on his family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, Juilliard-bound older sister, and wise-beyond-his years kid brother, Frank finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal.
On the surface, Ordinary Grace is the story of the murder of a beautiful young woman, a beloved daughter and sister. At heart, it’s the story of what that tragedy does to a boy, his family, and ultimately the fabric of the small town in which he lives. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, it is a moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.(less)
Goodreads
The other nominees:
Best First Novel
This win did not surprise me at all. In my review of this CIA caper book, I mentioned that I thought it would become a best seller in spite of the whitewashing of the agency and the stark black and white, good guy, bad guy framing totally lacking any nuance. But that appears to be what the readers want from a spy story.
Red Sparrow
by Jason Matthews
Published by Simon & Schuster - Scribner
June 4th 2013
431 pages
In today’s Russia, dominated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the cast-iron bureaucracy of post-Soviet intelligence. Drafted against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress in the service, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the CIA’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception, and inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s valuable mole in Moscow. Seeking revenge against her soulless masters, Dominika begins a fatal double life, recruited by the CIA to ferret out a high-level traitor in Washington; hunt down a Russian illegal buried deep in the U.S. military and, against all odds, to return to Moscow as the new-generation penetration of Putin’s intelligence service. Dominika and Nathaniel’s impossible love affair and twisted spy game come to a deadly conclusion in the shocking climax of this electrifying, up-to-the minute spy thriller
Goodreads
The other nominees:
Best Paperback Original
This one was already on my TBR list. But it is a very long list.
The Wicked Girls
by Alex Marwood
Published by Penguin Group USA - Penguin Books
July 30th 2013
384 pages
A rundown British seaside amusement park, Funnland, provides the backdrop for the pseudonymous Marwood’s memorable first novel. Thanks to U.K. rehab policies, impoverished Jade Walker and neglected Bel Oldacre—accused, arrested, and sentenced as 11-year-olds for murdering a six-year-old girl in 1986—have become in 2011 Kirsty Lindsay, a newspaper stringer with an out-of-work husband, and Amber Gordon, a big-hearted Funnland cleaner, living with a handsome, enigmatic man given to black moods. Though the law forbids the two to meet, Amber’s discovery of a teenage girl’s body—the third local murder that year—in Innfinnity, the park’s creepy hall of mirrors, and Kirsty’s assignment to get the story behind the killings bring them together again. Marwood fills this disturbing thriller with sordid red herrings and brutal reflections of lower- and middle-class economic hardships, grinding in the sadly familiar message that societal injustice cruelly distorts women’s lives.
Publishers Weekly
The other nominees:
Best Fact Crime
I am adding this non-fiction category today even though it was not included in my earlier survey. The winner happens to be one that I am in the process of reading and will be writing about in a future diary. And it means that my TBR list is less the weight of one more interesting read.
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War
by Daniel Stashower
Published by Minotaur Books
January 29th 2013
368 pages
In February of 1861, just days before he assumed the presidency, Abraham Lincoln faced a “clear and fully-matured” threat of assassination as he traveled by train from Springfield to Washington for his inauguration. Over a period of thirteen days the legendary detective Allan Pinkerton worked feverishly to detect and thwart the plot, assisted by a captivating young widow named Kate Warne, America’s first female private eye.
As Lincoln’s train rolled inexorably toward “the seat of danger,” Pinkerton struggled to unravel the ever-changing details of the murder plot, even as he contended with the intractability of Lincoln and his advisors, who refused to believe that the danger was real. With time running out Pinkerton took a desperate gamble, staking Lincoln’s life—and the future of the nation—on a “perilous feint” that seemed to offer the only chance that Lincoln would survive to become president. Shrouded in secrecy—and, later, mired in controversy—the story of the “Baltimore Plot” is one of the great untold tales of the Civil War era.
Goodreads
The other nominees:
There are more Edgar categories, lots more, and a visit to the website will give you a complete list of all of the nominees in all of the categories.
The Agatha and the Lefty Awards are below the fold.
The 2013 Agatha Awards were announced at the 26th Annual Malice Domestic Convention in Bethesda, Maryland on May 3, 2014.
Best Contemporary Novel
This win made me smile. Although the competition was tough, and I would have cheered most any winner, this book was just so much fun to read that it made me happy to see it recognized.
Monday Murder Mystery: Hank Phillippi Ryan's Boston
The Wrong Girl
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Published by Forge Books
September 10th 2013
368 pages
Award-winning and Boston Globe bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan presents a spine-chilling, heart-wrenching suspense novel that explores a terrifying scenario striking at the heart of every family.
Does a respected adoption agency have a frightening secret? Tipped off by a determined ex-colleague on a desperate quest to find her birth mother, Boston newspaper reporter Jane Ryland begins to suspect that the agency is engaging in the ultimate betrayal—reuniting birth parents with the wrong children.
For detective Jake Brogan and his partner, a young woman’s brutal murder seems a sadly predictable case of domestic violence, one that results in two toddlers being shuttled into the foster care system. Then Jake finds an empty cradle at the murder scene. Where is the baby who should have been sleeping there?
Goodreads
The other nominees:
Best Historical Novel
A Question of Honor
by Charles Todd
Published by William Morrow
August 27th 2013
320 pages
In this emotionally powerful new entry in the "vivid period mystery series" (New York Times Book Review), nurse Bess Crawford investigates an old murder that occurred during her childhood in India, a search for the truth that will transform her and leave her pondering a troubling question: How can facts lie?
Goodreads
Other nominees:
Best First Novel
Death Al Dente
by Leslie Budewitz
Published by Berkley
August 6th 2013
304 pages
The town of Jewel Bay, Montana—known as a Food Lovers' Village—is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family’s century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin’s freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead…
Goodreads
The other nominees:
Best Nonfiction
Once again the winner is:
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War
by Daniel Stashower
Published by Minotaur Books
January 29th 2013
368 pages
See description above.
Other nominees:
For more information on the Agatha Awards and a complete list of all nominees and winners, please see the Malice Domestic Website.
Left Coast Crime, a regional event run by volunteers, for fans, met in Monterey this year for Calamari Crime 2014 and announced its winners on March 22, 2014.
The Lefty
Best humorous mystery novel
The Good Cop
by Brad Parks
Published by Minotaur Books
March 5th 2013
336 pages
Starred Review This is the fourth outing for Carter Ross, the New Jersey newspaper reporter with a strong sense of justice, a passion for journalism, and a self-deprecating sense of humor. Carter is awakened early one morning by a phone call from his boss, who orders him to follow up on a cop killing. Carter visits the widow and learns a lot about the victim, none of which makes sense when he is later told that the cop took his own life. The widow is adamant that her husband was murdered, but when her preacher pulls his support from the investigation, Carter knows something is up. He keeps digging, despite being shot at, while his current flame and previous girlfriend complicate his life further. Meanwhile, there is another story line involving gun smuggling that eventually intersects with the cop killing, making for a thoughtful look at gun laws in New Jersey that, in light of the Sandy Hook massacre, becomes even more compelling and disturbing. This is a tautly written page-turner with charm and humor, a terrific combination that is sure to appeal to David Rosenfelt and Janet Evanovich fans. --Stacy Alesi
Amazon
Other Nominees:
The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award
Best historical mystery novel covering events before 1960
Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses
by Catriona McPherson
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
July 5th 2012
307 pages
Upper-class Scottish sleuth Dandy Gilver recalls a perfect summer in her teens spent in the bosom of the Lipscott family—the widowed mother and her golden daughters, Aurora, Pearl, and Fleur—when decades later a worried Pearl asks Dandy to see what has gone wrong with Fleur, the adored youngest. Fleur, an imaginative child who became a wild teenager, is now a fearful English teacher at a girls’ school who tells Dandy she’s killed four people. When a woman’s body washes up on a nearby beach, Fleur proclaims this number five, then disappears. As Alec Osborne, Dandy’s detective colleague, looks into the recent departures of several of the school’s instructors, Dandy investigates from her new position on the school staff, and together they try to account for Fleur’s four previous corpses. Dandy’s reminiscences of the Lipscotts cast a lovely patina on the seventh in this fine series, which moves between lighthearted and deadly serious, with intuitive, no-nonsense Dandy dealing with flighty girls and despairing adults with equal aplomb and showing increasing assurance in her professional and personal life. --Michele Leber
Amazon
Other nominees:
The Squid
Best mystery set within the United States
Ordinary Grace
by William Kent Krueger
Published by Simon & Schuster – Atria Books
March 26, 2013
307 pages
Also winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, see above for full description.
Other nominees:
The Calamari
Best mystery set anywhere else in the world
How the Light Gets In
by Louise Penny
Published by Minotaur Books
August 27, 2013
405 pages
Starred Review. Complex characterizations and sophisticated plotting distinguish Agatha-winner Penny's masterful ninth novel (after 2012's The Beautiful Mystery). The devastating conclusion to the previous book saw Jean-Guy Beauvoir abandon his mentor, Chief Insp. Armand Gamache of the Quebec Sûreté, and return to substance abuse. Things have never looked bleaker for the unassuming and empathic Gamache. A corrupt superior has gutted his homicide department, and the agents he now supervises treat their cases with blatant indifference. Amid all this personal and professional turmoil, Gamache lands a strange murder case. There's no obvious motive for why somebody killed elderly Constance Ouellet—the only living member of a set of quintuplets who were national celebrities in their youth—by striking her in the head with a lamp. Fair-play clues lead to a surprising solution to the murder, while Gamache's battle to save his career unfolds with subtlety and intelligence. Once again, Penny impressively balances personal courage and faith with heartbreaking choices and monstrous evil.
Publishers Weekly
Other nominees:
For more information on Left Coast Crime, click on the link.