2019 Edgar Nominees Announced
This morning, Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2019 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Here at Booklist, we take pride in our year-round coverage of the mystery genre, culminating in our Mystery Showcase issue and Mystery Month celebration in May. (That’s also when we announce our own list of the year’s best crime novels.) Below you’ll find all the book-length nominees for this year’s Edgars, linked to their Booklist reviews when available. Winners will be announced at the MWA’s 73rd gala banquet, to be held April 25 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
Congrats and good luck to all the finalists!
Best Novel
Down the River Unto the Sea, by Walter Mosley
A Gambler’s Jury, by Victor Methos
House Witness, by Mike Lawson
The Liar’s Girl, by Catherine Ryan Howard
Only to Sleep, by Lawrence Osborne
A Treacherous Curse, by Deanna Raybourn
Best First Novel
Bearskin, by James A. McLaughlin
The Captives, by Debra Jo Immergut
A Knife in the Fog, by Bradley Harper
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy, by Nova Jacobs
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
Best Paperback Original
Hiroshima Boy, by Naomi Hirahara
If I Die Tonight, by Alison Gaylin
The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Slimani
Under a Dark Sky, by Lori Rader-Day
Under My Skin, by Lisa Unger
Best Fact Crime
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson
The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World’s Most Powerful Mafia, by Alex Perry
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara
The Last Wild Men of Borneo: A True Story of Death and Treasure, by Carl Hoffman
Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal, by Jonathan Green
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, by Robert W. Fieseler
Best Critical / Biographical
Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life, by Laura Thompson
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s, by Leslie S. Klinger
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, by Alice Bolin
Mark X: Who Killed Huck Finn’s Father? by Yasuhiro Takeuchi
The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction, by Laird R. Blackwell
Best Juvenile
Charlie & Frog, by Karen Kane
Denis Ever After, by Tony Abbott
Otherwood, by Pete Hautman
Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective, by A. B. Greenfield
Winterhouse, by Ben Guterson
Zap! by Martha Freeman
Zora & Me: The Cursed Ground, by T. R. Simon
Best Young Adult
After the Fire, by Will Hill
Blink, by Sasha Dawn
Contagion, by Erin Bowman
A Room Away From the Wolves, by Nova Ren Suma
Sadie, by Courtney Summers
Mary Higgins Clark
Bone on Bone, by Julia Keller
A Borrowing of Bones, by Paula Munier
A Death of No Importance, by Mariah Fredericks
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, by Dianne Freeman
The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey
Once you develop the knack of cataloging the abundance of character’s names ( and permutations ) you relax and ride the ETicket to soul solvency. I liked it!! Lee