2018 Agatha Award Nominees

Malice Domestic has announced the 2018 Agatha Award nominees.

The Agatha Awards honor the “traditional mystery,” books typified by the works of Agatha Christie and others. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as “hard-boiled.” 

A ballot listing each category’s nominees will be given to all attendees of Malice Domestic 31, which will be held May 3-5, 2019. Attendees will vote by secret ballot, the ballots will be tabulated and the winners will be announced at the Agatha Awards Banquet to be held on Saturday May 4, 2019.

Best Contemporary Novel

  • Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
  •  Beyond the Truth by Bruce Robert Coffin (Witness Impulse)
  •  Cry Wolf by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press)
  •  Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
  •  Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best Historical Novel  

  • Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
  •  The Gold Pawn by LA Chandlar (Kensington)
  •  The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
  •  Turning the Tide by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
  •  Murder on Union Square by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

Best First Novel

  • A Ladies Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
  •  Little Comfort by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
  •  What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)
  •  Deadly Solution by Keenan Powell (Level Best Books)
  •  Curses Boiled Again by Shari Randall (St. Martin’s)

Best Short Story

  • “All God’s Sparrows” by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
  •  “A Postcard for the Dead” by Susanna Calkins in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)
  •  “Bug Appetit” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
  • The Case of the Vanishing Professor” by Tara Laskowski (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
  •  “English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Best Young Adult Mystery

  • Potion Problems(Just Add Magic) by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin) 
  • Winterhouse by Ben Guterson (Henry Holt)
  •  A Side of Sabotage by C.M. Surrisi (Carolrhoda Books)

Best Non-fiction

  • Mastering Plot Twists by Jane Cleland (Writer’s Digest Books)
  • Writing the Cozy Mystery by Nancy J Cohen (Orange Grove Press)
  •  Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox (Random House)
  •  Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson (Pegasus Books)
  •  Wicked Women of Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo (History Press)

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the story.] y