A Complete List of the Edgar Award Nominees

Mystery Writers of America announced (on the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe), its Nominees for the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at their 65th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

The EDGAR (and logo) are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.


BEST NOVEL

Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA - Viking)

The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)



BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR


Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)

The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)

The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)

Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)

Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)



BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL


Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)

The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)

Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)

Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)



BEST FACT CRIME

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)

The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South
by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)

Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery
by Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)

Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International Hunt for his
Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House - Doubleday)

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)



BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL


The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making
by John Curran (HarperCollins)

Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendevouz with American
History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)



BEST SHORT STORY


"The Scent of Lilacs" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)

"The Plot" – First Thrills by Jeffery Deaver (Tom Doherty – Forge Books)

"A Good Safe Place” – Thin Ice by Judith Green (Level Best Books)

"Monsieur Alice is Absent" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
by Stephen Ross (Dell Magazines)

"The Creative Writing Murders" – Dark End of the Street by Edmund White (Bloomsbury)



BEST JUVENILE


Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)

The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)

Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jiim Krieg (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children’s Books)



BEST YOUNG ADULT


The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)

7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)

The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)



BEST PLAY


The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre – Burbank, CA)

The Tangled Skirt by Steve Braunstein (New Jersey Repertory Company)

The Fall of the House by Robert Ford (Alabama Shakespeare Festival)



BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY


“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

“Episode 4” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

“Full Measure” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)

“No Mas” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)

“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler,
Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)



ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD


"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)



GRAND MASTER

Sara Paretsky



RAVEN AWARDS


Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois

Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota



THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010)


Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)

Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)

Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins - Avon)



Congratulations to all of the authors and the people who helped get them on this list. I'm honored to have 'met' many of them them through their books. And by golly, I've stayed at the Grand Hyatt

Timothy Hallinan Got 'er Done.

Tim Hallinan snuck up on me.

And now, after all of his sneakiness, he's been nominated for an Edgar! For those of you who don't know, being nominated for an Edgar is, to writers of mystery and suspense, the equivalent of being nominated for an Oscar. The biggest difference is that there is no best and worst dressed competition. That's probably because it's not televised.

He's written a few little stories. This last bunch, surrounding a fellow named Poke Rafferty (yeah, totally believable name—*smirk*) takes place in Bangkok. So far, no connection. Am I right?

I'd read a story by another author set in someplace hot and Asian, and well . . . it didn't exactly ignite my jets. So even though I heard a lot of nice chatter on Dorothy L and For Mystery Addicts (both Yahoo groups), I just shook my head. We all have different tastes in our reading. And this Tim Hallinan person was apparently an author who catered to those who had different tastes than mine.

There was a temporary flurry, when for some reason Tim's first novel in the Poke Rafferty series was being offered as a free download on Kindle. So, based on the chatter I'd heard—and the word FREE—I went ahead and downloaded A Nail Through the Heart. When Tim learned I'd done this (probably through one of the Yahoo loops), he told me not to be put off from the rest of the series because Nail was kind of dark, and the rest not so much.

So I stalled. And stalled some more. I don't know what I'd been reading, or what was happening in my personal life, but 'dark' sounded dreadful.

One day, without another compelling read, I thought I might as well give A Nail Through the Heart a shot. Within pages (or locations, if you read on Kindle), I'd fallen in love. I hadn't seen a mystery yet, but the setting and characters had drawn me in. Tight. Close. Personal. Connected.

Tim's nomination is for the fourth book in the Poke Rafferty series. It's called The Queen of Patpong. Beyond a doubt, one of the finest books I've read in years.

But start at the beginning. Give Poke and the people who accompany him through this life your attention. They deserve it. Start your journey with A Nail Through the Heart.

And, oh yeah. Celebrate what might be the boot of up the economic ladder of one of those fabulous authors of the last couple of decades.


And by the way, I'm CR: The Four Last Things by Timothy Hallinan on my Kindle. This is from an earlier series of his. Coincidence? Yes. But then, I have a lot of catching up to do.

It's all better with friends.