BookOpinion

The Mystery Writers of America just released their 2007 Edgar Awards for excellence in mystery fiction or non-fiction. The nominees and winners (in bold) are listed below: Best Novel Nominees:

• The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard (HarperCollins)
• The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)
• Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
• The Dead Hour by Denise Mina (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)
• The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (Random House - Ballantine Books)
• Liberation Movements by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best First Novel By An American Author:

• The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Random House)
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Crown - Shaye Areheart Books)
• King of Lies by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur - Thomas Dunne Books)
• Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith (St. Martin's Minotaur)
• A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read (Warner Books - Mysterious Press)

Best Paperback Original:

• The Goodbye Kiss by Massimo Carlotto, translated by Lawrence Venuti (Europa Editions)
• The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
• Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara (Bantam Dell Publishing - Delta Books)
• The Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine (Bantam Dell Publishing - Bantam Books)
• City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate (Penguin Group - Riverhead Books)

Best Critical/Biographical:

• Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir by John T. Irwin (Johns Hopkins University Press)
• The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear by E.J. Wagner (John Wiley & Sons)

Best Fact Crime:

• Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger (W.W. Norton and Co.)
• Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine by Capt. Joseph K. Loughlin & Kate Clark Flora (University Press of New England)
• Ripperology: A Study of the World's First Serial Killer by Robin Odell (The Kent State University Press)
• The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower (Dutton) 
• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson (HarperCollins - William Morrow)

Best Short Story:

• "The Home Front" - Death Do Us Part by Charles Ardai (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)
• "Rain" - Manhattan Noir by Thomas H. Cook (Akashic Books)
• "Cranked" - Damn Near Dead by Bill Crider (Busted Flush Press)
• "Building" - Manhattan Noir by S.J. Rozan (Akashic Books)

Best Young Adult:

• The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks (Scholastic - The Chicken House)
• The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson (Penguin YR - Sleuth/Viking)
• Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks (Simon & Schuster - Richard Jackson Books/Atheneum)
• Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready (Penguin YR - Dutton Children's Books)
• The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci (Harcourt Children's Books)

Best Juvenile:

• Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison (Penguin Young Readers - Sleuth/Dutton)
• The Stolen Sapphire: A Samantha Mystery by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishing)
• Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• The Bloodwater Mysteries: Snatched by Pete Hautman & Mary Logue (Penguin Young Readers - Sleuth/Putnam)
• The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers - Philomel/Sleuth)

See Past Winners of the Edgar Awards here.