The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Malice Domestic 2014 Agatha Awards – Do You Have a Favorite?

19844584[1]The 27th Malice Domestic is going to be held next weekend. That’s right! Next weekend (May 1-3, 2015), the Bethesda, Maryland’s Hyatt Regency Hotel will be the place to be! Those people attending the convention will be voting for the authors/mysteries they think should win in each of the categories. Pretty exciting!

I especially like these awards because they are supposed to go to mysteries that are similar to Agatha Christie’s books >>> thus their name! These are mysteries without gratuitous sex, violence, or gore >>> in short, pretty Cozy! I know I have said (more than too many times for some of you!) that these are the Coziest of Cozy Mystery awards out there.

The mystery books that have been nominated are those that were published (in any format) during 2014. By that I mean they can be paperbacks, hard covers, or even e-books.

I see lots of very familiar names and titles. I’m guessing there are a few of your very favorite Cozy Mystery authors within these categories. I think it would be pretty difficult to vote for one Cozy over another in some of these categories!

Congratulations to ALL the nominees!

AGATHA AWARD BEST NOVEL:
The Good, The Bad and The Emus by Donna Andrews
A Demon Summer by G.M. Malliet
Designated Daughters by Margaret Maron
The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan

AGATHA AWARD BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL:
Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen
Wouldn’t it Be Deadly by D.E. Ireland
Murder in Murray Hill by Victoria Thompson
Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd

AGATHA AWARD BEST FIRST NOVEL:
Circle of Influence by Annette Dashofy
Tagged for Death by Sherry Harris
Finding Sky by Susan O’Brien
Well Read, Then Dead by Terrie Farley Moran
Murder Strikes a Pose by Tracy Weber

AGATHA AWARD BEST CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT NOVEL:
Found by Harlen Coben
Andi Under Pressure  by Amanda Flower
Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Uncertain Glory by Lea Wait
The Code Buster’s Club, Case #4: The Mummy’s Curse by Penny Warner

AGATHA AWARD BEST SHORT STORY:
The Blessing Witch by Kathy Lynn Emerson
The Shadow Knows by Barb Goffman
Just Desserts for Johnny by Edith Maxwell
The Odds are Against Us by Art Taylor
Premonition by Art Taylor

AGATHA AWARD BEST NON-FICTION
The Poisoner: The Life and Crimes of Victorian England’s Most Notorious Doctor by Stephen Bates
Death Dealer: How Cops and Cadaver Dogs Brought a Killer to Justice by Kate Flora
400 Things Cops Know: Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga
Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan, Editor
The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley

Guest of Honor: Charles Todd & Ann Cleeves
Toastmaster: Toni L.P. Kelner
Lifetime Achievement: Sara Paretsky

Are any of your personal favorites nominated? 

P.S. If you would like to take a look at some of the winners and nominees from previous years, the categories can be found on my Mystery Book Awards page. (I’m pretty sure you’ll recognize a lot of the Cozy Mystery authors’ names!)

Two Mystery Awards – Lefty and Lovey!

I want to be sure all of you know about these nominations for prestigious mystery awards for which some of the authors on the Cozy Mystery site have been nominated. Congratulations to ALL of the nominees!

The Lefties are awarded at Left Coast Crime, an annual event taking place right now! This year, Left Coast Crime is March 12-15, in Portland, Oregon, and attendees will be voting on which of the fantastic nominees they want to see go home with the Lefty. The Lefty itself is intended for the finest in humorous mystery fiction, and this year’s nominees include many very funny and skilled writers, including some Cozy Mystery authors who are currently listed on the site.

Lefty Award nominees:
The Good, the Bad, and the Emus by Donna Andrews
January Thaw by Jess Lourey
Dying for a Dude by Cindy Sample
Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere
Herbie’s Game by Timothy Hallinan (Winner)

Also awarded at Left Coast Crime is the Bruce Alexander Memorial Mystery Award, considering all novels primarily taking place in or before the 1950s. The nominees for this award also include a number of site authors.

Bruce Alexander Memorial Mystery Award nominees:
Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen
From the Charred Remains by Susanna Calkins
A Deadly Measure of Brimstone by Catriona McPherson(Winner)
City of Ghosts by Kelli Stanley
Cup of Blood by Jeri Westerson

Another award recently named their winners… the LOVEY awards were recently released for this year. The LOVEYS are selected at the Love is Murder Writers & Readers Conference, this year hosted February 6-8 in Chicago. (yes… I know I am a bit late on reporting this… I like to “consolidate” these sort of awards posts so I can post on other topics as necessary.)

The LOVEYS are organized into nine different categories, many of which have many entries, so I’m not going to post a full list here… for a full list check the Love is Murder website. However I will list some of our own favorite authors who were recognized, either by winning or the honor of a nomination…

LOVEY Best Traditional/Amateur Sleuth:
Tradition of Deceit by Kathleen Ernst
Dead Between the Lines by Denise Swanson (Winner)

LOVEY Best Historical:
The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
From the Charred Remains by Susanna Calkins

LOVEY Best Paranormal/SiFi:
Plagued by Quilt by Molly MacRae (Winner)

LOVEY Best Series:
The Leigh Girard Series by Gail Lukasik
Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries by Molly MacRae
The Scumble River Mysteries by Denise Swanson

Congratulations to all the nominees! Wow, that sure is a lot of great books just for 2014! Here’s hoping that 2015 provides another great crop!

Do you have any personal favorites mentioned above? Please leave a comment below, as I always love to hear from you!

Wolfe Pack’s Black Orchid Novella Writing Contest

I am guessing we have a few aspiring authors out there who might want to take advantage of this terrific contest. The Wolfe Pack (as in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe) and the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine are hosting their 9th annual Black Orchid Novella contest. If you have visited the Awards pages on the Cozy Mystery site, then you have most likely seen the Black Orchid Novella award contest winners of the past.

The contest is intended for 15,000 to 20,000 word mystery works adhering to the spirit of the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout, one of the longest and most recognized Cozy Mystery series. This year, nominations are being organized by Jane K. Cleland, a popular modern Cozy author who is featured on the site!

As would be expected of any Cozy-friendly contest, the entries are expected to have no graphic violence or sex, while showcasing the talents of a detective to his/her fullest. Also, the novellas cannot have been published before. The winner will be announced at the Wolfe Pack’s Annual Black Orchid Banquet in December, and will net the winner a $1,000 prize and publication in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine!

You better hurry up and start writing your novellas, because the entries have to be postmarked May 31, 2015! You can find all of the details at www.nerowolfe.org.

2014 Nero Award & Black Orchid Novella Award

Well, I’ve finally posted this year’s winner on my Nero Awards page – big congratulations to David Morell for his novel, Murder as a Fine Art!

Of course, all the other nominees deserve congratulations as well – it’s a big honor to be nominated for an award as prestigious as the Nero! The Nero Awards are given out by the “Wolfe Pack”, a fan club devoted to author Rex Stout‘s “Nero Wolfe” series. This worldwide club’s members originally formed in 1977 specifically to discuss Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe (and don’t forget Archie Goodwin!) series. The Nero has since grown into one of the most prestigious awards available in mystery fiction.

As I said before, all the nominees should be honored – here’s a full list, in case you’re interested in looking up their works!

2014 Black Orchid Awards Nominees:

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell (winner!)

Ask Not by Max Allan Collins

Three Can Keep a Secret by Archer Mayor

A Study in Revenge by Kieran Sheilds

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

In addition to giving out the Nero Award, the Wolfe Pack also recently awarded their Black Orchid Novella Award (which you can find on this page), presented jointly with the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to an outstanding shorter mystery work. This year, the winner is K.G. McAbee, for “Dyed to Death”. The chairperson for this award was Jane K. Cleland – of particular note to us Cozy Mystery fans as a very popular author in her own right, having recently released the ninth book in her popular Josie Prescott AntiquesMystery Series (Blood Rubies)!

If you’d like to take a look at more mystery awards, here is the link to my Mystery Book Awards page.

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