Before I go one word further, I want to extend my congratulations to ALL the nominees and winners of both of the Agatha Awards and the Edgar Awards!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

Wow! Last week was a great week for mystery readers everywhere. Both the Malice Domestic and the Mystery Writers of America held their annual conventions! I’m most interested in the Malice Domestic convention, simply because these are the mystery awards that are closest to what we know as Cozy Mysteries. As I have mentioned many times before, there is a reason the Agatha Awards have that name. They are the mystery books that are the closest to what Agatha Christie wrote for us. No graphic violence, sex, language >>> pretty much >>> Cozies! However, both awards are very important to us as mystery lovers.

AGATHA AWARDS MALICE DOMESTIC AWARDS
2016: Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Katherine Hall Page *** How neat is this!

AGATHA AWARDS BEST NOVEL
2015: Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron (Winner)
Bridges Burned by Annette Dashofy
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson
The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
What You See by Hank Phillipi Ryan

AGATHA AWARDS BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL
2015: Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King (Winner)
Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins
Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante by Susan Elia MacNeal
Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson

AGATHA AWARDS BEST FIRST NOVELS
2015: On the Road with Del and Louise by Art Taylor (Winner)
Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman by Tessa Arlen
Macdeath by Cindy Brown
Plantation Shudders by Ellen Byron
Just Killing Time by Julianne Holmes

AGATHA AWARDS BEST SHORT STORY
2015: A Year Without Santa Claus by Barb Goffman (Winner)
A Questionable Death by Edith Maxwell
A Killing at the Beausoleil by Terrie Farley Moran
Suffer the Poor by Harriette Sackler
A Joy Forever by B.K. Stevens

AGATHA AWARDS BEST CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT
2015: Andi Unstoppable by Amanda Flower (Winner)
Pieces and Players by Blue Balliett
Need by Joelle Charbonneau
Woof by Spencer Quinn
Fighting Chance: A Martial Arts Mystery by B.K. Stevens

AGATHA AWARDS BEST NON-FICTION
The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story by Martin Edwards (Winner)
The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes by Zack Dundas
A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup
Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo
The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For by Kate White, editor

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD GRAND MASTER
2016: Walter Mosley

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARDS BEST NOVEL
2016: Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST FIRST NOVEL
2016: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
2016: The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST SHORT STORY
2016: Obits by Stephen King (Winner) found in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST FACT CRIME
2016: Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL WORK
2016: The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST JUVENILE
2016: Footer Davis Probably is Crazy by Susan Vaught (Winner)

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST YOUNG ADULT
2016: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (Winner)

MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
2016: Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day (Winner)
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins
Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson

EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD BEST EPISODE OF A TV SERIES
2016: Gently with the Women by Peter Flannery, George Gently (Winner)

Again, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

We’ll soon be finding out who the winner will be for the Bony Blithe Awards. When I visited their website, I found out that the Bony Blithe awards are the Canadian awards for “light mysteries”. All of the nominated authors have to be Canadian citizens, or at least residents of Canada >>> permanent residents, that is! Young Adult and Noir mystery authors are not included in the nominations. They liken their Bony Blithe Awards to our Agatha Awards, which as I have said many times, are the Coziest of the mystery awards. Apparently these awards used to be presented at the Bloody Words Banquet, but are now being presented at the Bony Blithe Bash.

Congratulations to all of the nominees of this year, and all nominees and winners from the previous years!

2015
The Corpse with the Platinum Hair by Cathy Ace (Winner)
Many Unpleasant Returns by Judith Alguire
Seeing the Light by E.C. Bell
Night of the Living Thread by Janet Bolin
The Resurrection of Mary Mabel McTavish by Allan Stratton

2014
Framed for Murder by Cathy Spencer (Winner)
Thread and Buried by Janet Bolin
Gold Web by Vicki Delany
Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By by Elizabeth J. Duncan
Miss Montreal by Howard Shrier

2013
A Small Hill to Die On by Elizabeth J. Duncan (Winner)
Threaded for Trouble by Janet Bolin
Food for the Gods by Karen Dudley
A Private Man by Chris Laing
Blood Bath & Beyond by Michelle Rowen
The Mastersinger from Minsk by Morley Torgov

2012
Cheat the Hangman by Gloria Ferris
Dire Threads by Janet Bolin
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder by Mary Jane Maffini
Champagne for Buzzards by Phyllis Smallman

To see more mystery awards, just click on this link to go to my Cozy Mystery site’s Mystery Awards page.

P.S. I just posted the winner of the 2015 Bony Blithe award on this entry, since they just announced that Cathy Ace won! Congratulations, Cathy!

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE AGATHA AWARD WINNERS AND NOMINEES!

I know the title may sound a little confusing with both 2015 and 2014 in it, but that’s because the Agatha Awards for the mystery books published in 2014 were just announced at the Malice Domestic convention in May 2015.

Here are the 2014 Agatha Award Winners:

Best Contemporary Novel: Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best Historical Novel: Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen

Best First Novel: Well Read, Then Dead by Terrie Farley Moran

Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel: The Code Buster’s Club, Case #4: The Mummy’s Curse by Penny Warner

Best Non-Fiction: Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan, Editor

Best Short Story: The Odds are Against Us by Art Taylor

Lifetime Achievement: Lifetime Achievement: Sara Paretsky

Again, Congratulations to ALL!

If you would like to see some of the past Agatha Award winners and nominees, click on this link to go to my Mystery Book Award page.

P.S. The Agatha Awards are actually teapots! You can’t get much Cozier than that!