Agatha Awards 2011: Malice Domestic

What a wonderful evening at Malice! More when I get back to the Bay Area.... but the news you're waiting for....

Agatha Awards
The Agatha Awards are given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2010 (January 1-December 31), either in hardcover, as a paperback original, or e-published by an e-publishing firm. They were presented tonight at Malice Domestic.

Best Novel:
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Best First Novel:
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames

Best Non-fiction:
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Best Short Story:
"So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Sept./Oct. 2010

Best Children's/Young Adult:
The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith

Congratulations to all!

May Day Mysteries: Crime Fiction

"What potent blood hath modest May."- Ralph W. Emerson

For the past few years, I've posted a list of May Day Mysteries, and I'm updating the entries here. I love May Day with its Morris Dancing and the Maypole, all dating back to more pagan Celtic times. And, although May may seem idyllic with its flowers and showers, it can actually be murderous! Later this month, I will also have an updated list of Mother's Day mysteries which, of course, takes place in May.

I've expanded the list this year to include a few other May mysteries, not just May Day Mysteries. Let me know if I've forgotten any titles. Be sure and check out the Morris Dancing Mysteries at the end of the list.

MAY DAY MYSTERIES

Five Days in May by Paul Eiseman
30 Days in May by Wayne Hancock
Five Days in May by Christopher Hartpence
Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel
May Day by Jess Lourey
May Might Mean Murder by Bill McGrath 
May Day in Magadan by Anthony Olcott
The Merry Month of May by Elvi Rhodes
A Hot Day in May by Julian Jay Savarin
The May Day Murders by Scott Wittenburg

For over 30 years at dawn on May Day, Berkeley Morris Dancing takes place at Inspiration Point in Tilden Park. The Berkeley Morris Dancers will also perform at the University of California Botanical Garden (12 noon) May 1. Check for Morris Dancing in your area.

Morris Dancing Mysteries

Death of a Fool by Ngaio Marsh
Dead Men's Morris by Gladys Mitchell 
The Death-Cap Dancers by Gladys Mitchell

I met someone at Malice yesterday who has Morris Dancing in her mystery. Can't seem to find the title, so any help would be great. I'll go through my voluminous amount of postcards and bookmarks. I know I made a note.

Arthur Ellis Award Nominees: Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada 2011 Arthur Ellis Awards Nominees

Best Novel:
Slow Recoil, by C.B. Forrest (RendezVous Crime)
In Plain Sight, by Mike Knowles (ECW Press)
The Extinction Club, by Jeffrey Moore (Penguin Group)
Bury Your Dead, by Louise Penny (Little, Brown UK)
A Criminal to Remember, by Michael Van Rooy (Turnstone Press)

Best Short Story:
 “So Much in Common,” by Mary Jane Maffini (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
“In It Up to My Neck,” by Jas R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
“The Big Touch,” by Jordan McPeek (ThugLit)
“The Piper's Door,” by James Powell (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
“The Bust,” by William Deverall (from Whodunnit: Sun Media’s Canadian Crime Fiction Showcase)

Best Non-Fiction:
On the Farm, by Stevie Cameron (Knopf Canada)
Our Man in Tehran, by Robert Wright (HarperCollins)
Northern Light: The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson and the Woman Who Loved Him, by Roy MacGregor (Random House)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult:
Borderline, by Allan Stratton (HarperCollins)
The Worst Thing She Ever Did, by Alice Kuipers (HarperCollins)
Pluto’s Ghost, by Sharee Fitch (Doubleday Canada)
Victim Rights, by Norah McClintock (Red Deer Press)
The Vinyl Princess, by Yvonne Prinz (HarperCollins)

Best Crime Writing in French:
Cinq secondes, by Jacques Savoie (Libre Expression)
Dans le quartier des agités, by Jacques Côté (Alire)
Vanités, by Johanne Seymour (Libre Expression)
La société des pères meurtriers, by Michel Châteauneuf (Vents D’ouest)
Quand la mort s’invite à la première, by Bernard Gilbert
(Québec Amérique)

Best First Novel:
The Damage Done, by Hilary Davidson (Tom Doherty Associates)
The Debba, by Avner Mandleman (Other Press)
The Penalty Killing, by Michael McKinley (McClelland & Stewart)
The Parabolist, by Nicholas Ruddock (Doubleday)
Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s Press)

Unhanged Arthur (Best Unpublished First Crime Novel):
Better Off Dead, by John Jeneroux
Uncoiled, by Kevin Thornton
When the Bow Breaks, by Jayne Barnard

Winners will be announced June 2 during the Bloody Words Convention in Victoria, British Columbia.

Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards: 2011

Mystery Writers of America 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010.

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

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)

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

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)

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

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

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


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

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

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

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
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Congratulations to all!

Audie Award Nominees 2011

And, for those of you who 'read' your books with your ears, here's the list of Audie Award Nominees from the Audio Publishers Association. These awards recognize the best in audiobooks. The winners will be announced at the Audies Gala on May 24, 2011in New York City.

Awards are given out in many categories. These are the nominees for excellence in narration, direction, engineering, mix and abridgment (when applicable) of an unabridged or abridged mystery or thriller/suspense audiobook. Narrator(s) and publisher in parentheses. Thanks to Omnimystery News for this information. For the complete list of nominees, go HERE.

Mystery
Dog Tags by David Rosenfelt (Grover Gardner, Listen & Live Audio)
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen (Katherine Kellgren, Audible.com)
Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré (Robin Sachs, Penguin)
The Dead Room by Chris Mooney (Regina Reagan, Isis Publishing)
The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Peter Giles, Hachette Audio)
This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (John Lee, HarperCollins)

Thriller/Suspense
Dead Aim by Thomas Perry (Michael Kramer, Tantor Media)
Interface by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George (Oliver Wyman, Audible.com)
The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds (Kate Reading, Blackstone Audio)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Reg Keeland, Random House Audio)
Vengeance by A. J. Scudiere (Kristoffer Tabori, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Don Leslie, Griffyn Ink)

Robert B. Parker News: Ace Atkins will continue Spenser series

Deadline reports: Spenser and Jesse Stone are on the job once more. Robert B. Parker's estate announced that Michael Brandman will write the first Stone novel under the title Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues. The novel will be published September 13. Brandman was co-writer and producer of CBS's Stone movies featuring Tom Selleck, as well as producer of three Spenser novel adaptations for A&E.

Ace Atkins, whose novels include White Shadow, Infamous and Wicked City, will write the first new Spenser novel, to be released in the spring of 2012. Sixkill, Parker's final Spenser novel, will be released by Putnam in May.


Hat Tip: Shelf Awareness