Mystery Writers of America Announces the 2012 Edgar Award Nominees

Mystery Writers of America has announced on the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2011. The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at the 66th Gala Banquet, April 26, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

And the nominees are:

BEST NOVEL

The Ranger by Ace Atkins (
Gone by Mo Hayder
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino )
1222 by Anne Holt
Field Gray by Philip Kerr

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Red on Red by Edward Conlon
Last to Fold by David Duffy
All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen
Bent Road by Lori Roy
Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle
The Dog Sox by Russell Hill
Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley
Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis

BEST FACT CRIME

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins
The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender by Steve Miller
The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time by Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer & John-Henri Holmberg
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making by John Curran
On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda
Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film by Philippa Gates
Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds and Marnie by Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick

BEST SHORT STORY

"Marley's Revolution" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by John C. Boland
"Tomorrow's Dead" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by David Dean
"The Adakian Eagle" – Down These Strange Streets by Bradley Denton
"Lord John and the Plague of Zombies" – Down These Strange Streets by Diana Gabaldon
"The Case of Death and Honey" – A Study in Sherlock by Neil Gaiman
"The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train," – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Peter Turnbull

BEST JUVENILE

Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger
It Happened on a Train by Mac Barnett
Vanished by Sheela Chari
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Shelter by Harlan Coben
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall
The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines
Kill You Last by Todd Strasser

BEST PLAY

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club by Jeffrey Hatcher (Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix, AZ)
The Game's Afoot by Ken Ludwig (Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Innocence" – Blue Bloods, Teleplay by Siobhan Byrne O'Connor
"The Life Inside" – Justified, Teleplay by Benjamin Cavell
"Part 1" – Whitechapel, Teleplay by Ben Court & Caroline Ip
"Pilot" – Homeland, Teleplay by Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff
"Mask" – Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Speed Weed

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"A Good Man of Business" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by David Ingram

GRAND MASTER

Martha Grimes

RAVEN AWARDS

M is for Mystery Bookstore, San Mateo, CA
Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA's Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 25, 2012)

Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton
Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron
Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely