Edgar Nominations: The Heat Is On!

It’s January 19th and I’m extremely apprehensive about viewing any news or social media sites. I’m certain this sense of foreboding arose because I’m not sure how much more of the “bad” I can take. Sure, there’s good news floating about today—the Edgar nominations were announced (congratulations to each of the nominees).

I especially follow the publications of Seventh Street Books. Actually, I have one entire shelf filled from end to end with books published by Seventh Street, so it’s especially nice to see a nod to their authors.

This year, three Seventh Street writers were nominated for Edgar Awards. Lori Rader-Day for Little Pretty Things (The Simon and Schuster – Mary Higgins Clark Award). Gordon McAlpine – Woman with a Blue Pencil (Best Paperback Original). And Adrian McKinley – Gun Street Girl (Best Paperback Original).

So yes, congratulations to all three of these wonderful authors.

But, for me, the joy of the Edgar nominations is a bit overshadowed this morning.

The day began with deep gray skies and steady rain here in our little corner of California. The air is still and void of the usual chirps and whistles of the multitude of birds that visit our backyard for their morning and evening meals. Many of the surrounding trees are bare and nothing more than fat trunks with gangly and gnarled limbs that click and tick against each other when the evening winds push them about. Grapevines have also lost their foliage, leaving behind seas of carefully placed sticks standing in perfectly aligned rows that follow the contours of the hills and valleys.

And Glenn Frey is dead. Glenn Frey of the Eagles is gone. THE Glenn Frey.

David Bowie also left us. Alan Rickman died a few days ago, as did René Angélil (Rene’ is Celine Dion’s husband. Dion’s brother also died within the past few days),  Mott the Hoople drummer, Dale Griffin, died Sunday at the age of 67 (he’d been suffering from Alzheimers for quite a while), and Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) succumbed to cancer. Natalie Cole passed away on New Years Eve. Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead’s frontman died a month ago. And Mic Gillette, founder of the group Tower of Power, died last weekend. I met and played music/jammed with Gillette and a small gathering of Bay Area musicians several years ago. What a tragic loss to the music world and to his family and friends.

And, sadly, Joey Feek (Joey and Rory) is soon to leave this world. She has maybe a month left before her body gives in to the cancer she’s been fighting for so long. Joey’s husband Rory has been chronicling Joey’s day-to-day life on his blog, This Life I Live. The story is amazing, but I caution you to have a box of tissues handy before settling in to read and watch the videos.

So yeah, it’s still raining here and, while the emotions are a mixture of both sad and happy, the day somehow has a feeling that’s a bit peaceful and easy because I know we’ll all be okay. There’ll be more Edgar Awards to celebrate, and, sadly, we’ll lose more of the folks who bring joy to our lives.

But we’ll move on, life will go on, and, well, I’ve stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and it made me smile when I did. Couldn’t help it. It just felt good. And, while standing there with Denene at my side, I could hear that Eagles song playing inside my head. Today, others will stand on that same corner, and many more will do the same for many years to come, and each time someone does I’m sure they’ll experience the “peaceful easy feeling” I felt.

Life is good so live it. And to those of you who were nominated for Edgar Awards, well, The Heat Is On!

 

~

Edgar Nominations

BEST NOVEL

The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The Lady From Zagreb by Philip Kerr (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Life or Death by Michael Robotham (Hachette Book Group – Mulholland Books)
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy (Penguin Random House – Dutton)
Canary by Duane Swierczynski (Hachette Book Group – Mulholland Books)
Night Life by David C. Taylor (Forge Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster)
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm (Penguin Random House – Viking)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay (Hachette Book Group – Mulholland Books
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Woman with a Blue Pencil by Gordon McAlpine (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)
Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)
The Daughter by Jane Shemilt (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)

BEST FACT CRIME

Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the American Genocide by Eric Bogosian (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)
Where The Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him by T.J. English (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
American Pain: How a Young Felon and his Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s  Deadliest Drug Epidemic by John Temple (Rowman & Littlefield – Lyons Press)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins Publishers – HarperCollins)
The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue by Frederick Forsyth (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald by Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan (Arcade Publishing)
Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica by Matthew Parker (Pegasus Books)
The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury USA)

BEST SHORT STORY

“The Little Men” – Mysterious Bookshop by Megan Abbott (Mysterious Bookshop)
“On Borrowed Time” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Mat Coward (Dell Magazines)
“The Saturday Night Before Easter Sunday” – Providence Noir by Peter Farrelly (Akashic Books)
“Family Treasures” – Let Me Tell You  by Shirley Jackson (Random House)
“Obits” – Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
“Every Seven Years” – Mysterious Bookshop by Denise Mina (Mysterious Bookshop)

BEST JUVENILE

Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi (Algonquin Young Readers – Workman)
If You Find This by Matthew Baker (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C.Chester  (HarperCollins Publishers – HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands  (Simon & Schuster – Aladdin)
Footer Davis Probably is Crazy by Susan Vaught (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Endangered by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperTeen)
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books)
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (Scholastic – Scholastic Press)
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma (Algonquin Young Readers – Workman)
Ask the Dark by Henry Turner (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Clarion Books)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode 7,” – Broadchurch, Teleplay by Chris Chibnall (BBC America)
“Gently with the Women” – George Gently, Teleplay by Peter Flannery (Acorn TV)
“Elise – The Final Mystery” – Foyle’s War, Teleplay by Anthony Horowitz (Acorn TV)
 “Terra Incognita” – Person of Interest, Teleplay by Erik Mountain & Melissa Scrivner Love (CBS/Warner Brothers)
“The Beating of her Wings” – Ripper Street, Teleplay by Richard Warlow (BBC America)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“Chung Ling Soo’s Greatest Trick” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 
by Russell W. Johnson (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

Walter Mosley

RAVEN AWARDS

Margaret Kinsman
Sisters in Crime

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Janet Rudolph, Founder of Mystery Readers International

* * * * * *

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody (Minotaur Books – A Thomas Dunne Book)
The Masque of a Murderer by Suzanne Calkins (Minotaur Books)
Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson (Llewellyn Worldwide – Midnight Ink)
Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)

The EDGAR (and logo) are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.