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