Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

Let’s suspend our disbelief for a brief moment and imagine that Edgar Allan Poe, now 204 years old, were still alive. Perhaps he’s revising his latest rewrite, “The Purloined Email.” Maybe he’s picking up a book to read, no doubt assisted by his scientifically advanced cyborg eyes (204 years is a long time, people). Is there anyone more capable of picking this year’s Edgar Award nominees than their namesake?  I should hope not, but the Mystery Writers of America have taken a noble stab. Here are their nominations for this year’s award. The winner of each category will be announced at a gala ceremony on May 2nd.

BEST NOVEL

The Lost Ones, by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham, by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
Potboiler, by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset, by Al Lamanda
Live by Night, by Dennis Lehane
All I Did Was Shoot My Man, by Walter Mosley

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Map of Lost Memories, by Kim Fay
Don’t Ever Get Old, by Daniel Friedman
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, by Susan Elia MacNeal
The Expats, by Chris Pavone
The 500, by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays, by Michael Sears

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Complication, by Isaac Adamson
Whiplash River, by Lou Berney
Bloodland, by Alan Glynn
Blessed are the Dead, by Malla Nunn
The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters

BEST FACT CRIME

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, by Paul French
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, by Gilbert King
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers’ Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered, by D.P. Lyle, MD
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up, by Richard Lloyd Parry

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed, by John Paul Athanasourelis
Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics, by James O’Brien
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero, edited by Otto Penzler

BEST SHORT STORY

“Iphigenia in Aulis” – An Apple for the Creature, by Mike Carey
“Hot Sugar Blues” – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance, by Steve Liskow
“The Void it Often Brings With It” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, by Tom Piccirilli
“The Unremarkable Heart” – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance, by Karin Slaughter
“Still Life No. 41″ – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, by Teresa Solana

BEST JUVENILE

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind, by Tom Angleberger
13 Hangmen, by Art Corriveau
The Quick Fix, by Jack D. Ferraiolo
Spy School, by Stuart Gibbs
Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things, by Kathryn Burak
The Edge of Nowhere, by Elizabeth George
Crusher, by Niall Leonard
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, by Kat Rosenfield
Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.