The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

2010 Edgar Awards…

Congratulations to all of the Nominees and Winners!!!

The Mystery Writers of America held the 2010 Edgar Awards over April 28 & 29,  in New York City. As I mentioned before, Dorothy Gilman was the Grand Master.

The 2010 Edgar Awards are as follows:

Best Novel:
The Last Child by John Hart (Winner)
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux
The Odds by Kathleen George
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Best First Novel:
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Winner)
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Best Paperback Original:
Body Blows by Marc Strange (Winner)
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano
The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill
The Herring-Seller’s Apprentice by L.C. Tyler

Best Short Story:
Amapola by Luis Alberto Urrea
Last Fair Deal Gone Down by Ace Atkins
Femme Sole by Dana Cameron
Digby, Attorney at Law by Jim Fusilli
Animal Rescue by Dennis Lehane

Best Fact Crime:
Columbine by Dave Cullen (Winner)
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn
The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide by Dick Lehr
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo
Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti

Best Critical/Biographical:
The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler (Winner)
Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak
The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent

Best Young Adult:
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (Winner)
If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney
The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low
Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Best Juvenile:
Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn (Winner)
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett
The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil
Creepy Crawly Crime by Aaron Reynolds
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer

Best Television Episode Teleplay:
Place of Execution by Patrick Harbinson, PBS/WGBH Boston
Strike Three by Steven Kane, The Closer
Look What He Dug Up This Time by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman, Damages
Grilled by George Mastras, Breaking Bad
Living the Dream by Clyde Phillips, Dexter

Ellery Queen Award:
Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
A Dreadful Day by Dan Warthman, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (Dell Magazines)

Raven Awards:
Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers Festival

The Simon & Schuster – Mary Higgins Clark Award:
Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Winner)
Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement
Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron
Lethal Vintage by Nadia Gordon
Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel

If you would like to take a look at other Mystery Book Awards, click here.

2009 Malice Domestic Agatha Awards… Given Out in 2010

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE NOMINEES AND WINNERS!!!

The 2009 Agatha Awards were given out at this year’s Malice Domestic convention which took place in the Washington, D.C. area over April 29, 30, and May 1. Remember that although the awards were given in 2010, they are for the preceeding year’s books…

Best Novel:
A Brutal Telling by Louise Penny  (Winner)
Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews
Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett
Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen
Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best First Novel:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Winner)
For Better For Murder by Lisa Bork
Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole
The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

Best Short Story:
On the House by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Winner)
Femme Sole by Dana Cameron
Handbaskets, Drawers and a Killer Cold by Kaye George
The Worst Noel by Barb Goffman
Death Will Trim Your Tree by Elizabeth Zelvin

Best Non-Fiction:
Dame Agatha’s Shorts by Elena Santangelo (Winner)
Duchess of Death by Richard Hack
Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D. James
Blood on the Stage by 1925-1950 by Amnon Kabatchnik
The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

Best Children/Young Adult:
The Hanging Hill by Chris Grabenstein (Winner)
The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford
The Case of the Poisoned Pig by Lewis B. Montgomery
The Other Side of Blue by Valerie O. Patterson
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer

2010 Lifetime Achievement: Mary Higgins Clark 
2010 Poirot Award: William Link

♦If you’re interested in more Mystery Book Awards, click here♦

Stanley Waters Mystery Series by Bill Crider and Willard Scott Brings Us Beautiful Weather for a Murder…

I just started a new mystery book series that I am really enjoying. It’s the Stanley Waters Mystery Series co-written by Bill Crider and Willard Scott. Yep! Willard Scott! Some of you may remember waking up with him every weekday morning, as he would tell us what type of weather we could expect AND bring us information about centenarians (sponsored by Smucker’s, of course!) all over the country >>> on the OLD Today Show… way back to the time when Jane Pauley, Tom Brokaw, and Bryant Gumbel held the helm.

The Stanley Waters Mystery Series features a retired, nationally-recognized weatherman who, after becoming a widower, opens a Bed & Breakfast in the Virginia town he grew up in. I am truly enjoying the first book in the series.

As I sit here typing this entry, I am mentally going through some of the characteristics of a Cozy Mystery, and this book has several: It has characters who I really enjoy “spending time with” and takes place in a town where everybody seems to know each other. Some of the characters are a little odd, some of the characters gossip, there are three cats thrown into the mix, and the authors (I know I have said this very same thing before… while describing other authors!) have a great command of the English language, thus not necessitating swearing all the way through the book.

So far, I have only come up with one bad thing about the Stanley Waters Mystery Series… there are only TWO books in the series, and since the last one was written in 1999, I doubt there will be any more in the future. But, there is a bright side to this particular problem… Bill Crider has written several other mystery series from which to choose!

The Bonnie Hunt Show Is Truly Being Cancelled … I Still Can’t Believe It!

(I was going to post another entry today, but Jerry posted a comment about The Bonnie Hunt Show, and I want to respond…) Also, please read the last paragraph…

I am still in disbelief that they are going to cancel this show… I truly thought that some big-wig at one of the networks would see The Bonnie Hunt Show and get the rights to produce it. It is a uniquely different show, one that embraces the good in life and people, one that doesn’t go out of its way to sensationalize or dictate what the audience should feel, one that fills the television void for so many people.

I think that it is simply a question of demographics… The show doesn’t appeal to the majority of the viewing audience which apparently wants to see “cat fights” amongst the guests, private paternity cases being solved in front of a hissing and booing audience, marital cheating being revealed while all of the guilty are on stage fighting and laughing about being caught, ETC. (I don’t actually watch ANY of these types of shows, but I have seen enough of the promotions to get the gist. And, those types of shows are still going strong!)

She isn’t a sensational “gotcha” kind of host. She is truly kind to the people she is interviewing and doesn’t invite them on just to embarrass them. Her guests are people (and don’t forget how many times some of the Sesame Street Muppets have been on!) from today’s movies and television shows, as well as some of the true icons of television/movies: Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White, Carl Reiner… That’s very impressive!

To quote my twenty four year old daughter: Bonnie Hunt is a “very refreshing TV personality.  She’s genuinely funny without being crude, and she isn’t sickeningly saccharin…”

I don’t think that it is a matter of the age of her audience. I really do think that she has a following of young people, but they aren’t the young people who apparently make a difference in the ratings… And, even if it is a matter of age and her audience is old enough to appreciate the guests I mentioned above>>> What’s wrong with that?!? I bet that I spend a lot more money at the grocery/department store than someone  younger who “hoots it up” while watching a wife beat up a mistress (or two, or three!!!) on a surviving talk show! Good grief!

The  Bonnie Hunt Show is the only daytime show that I watch, and I will TRULY MISS IT!

 

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