2013 Edgar Award Nominees

Edgar Allan Poe (Photo Source: poets.org)

Attention mystery and crime readers.  As you have no doubt heard, the Mystery Writers of America just announced the nominees for this year's Edgar awards.  The prestigious prize, named for Edgar Allan Poe, recognizes the best in mystery writing in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, and television published or produced in the previous year. 

The list of nominees, which is accessible via this Edgar link, includes writers in the following categories:  best novel, best first novel, best paperback original, best fact crime, best critical/biographical, best short story, best juvenile, best young adult, and best TV episode teleplay.  The nominees are a combination of who's who and rising stars in the mystery and crime genres.

I have read one of the best novel nominees, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and one of the best first novel nominees, The Expats by Chris Pavone.  Both were among the best novels I read in 2012.  I have also seen one of the nominated TV episode teleplays, "New Car Smell" from the Showtime series, Homeland.  Suffice it to say that I am a huge Homeland fan.  Two other nominees, Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (nominated for best first novel) and The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (nominated for best paperback original) are on my book shelf waiting to be read.

I just finished reading the short story that will receive the Robert L. Fish Memorial award, When They Are Done With Us by Patricia Smith, which was published in Staten Island Noir, a collection of short stories.  In addition to writing the story, Smith edited the collection.  Kudos to Smith for a dark, all-too-real portrait of dysfunctional family relationships.

More information about the Mystery Writers of America is available here.

Catherine

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2013 Edgar Award Nominees was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without express written consent.