Mystery Writers of America - 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominations

Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2024. The 79th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated on May 1, 2025, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.

BEST NOVEL

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Penguin Random House – Random House Worlds/Del Rey

Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD)

Things Don’t Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins (Penguin Random House – Crown)

My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Macmillan Publishers – Celadon Books)

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton (Crooked Lane Book

Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda (Crooked Lane Books)

The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee (CamCat Books)

A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis (Kensington Books – A John Scognamiglio Book)

The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

Holy City by Henry Wise (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row Books)

The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House)

Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler (HarperCollins – Harper Paperbacks)

A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (Dundurn Press Ltd.)

BEST FACT CRIME

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown)

A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co.)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)

American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)

Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing)

On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press)

Ian Fleming; The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins – Harper)

 BEST SHORT STORY

“Cut and Thirst,” Amazon Original Stories by Margaret Atwood (Amazon Publishing)

“Everywhere You Look,” Amazon Original Stories by Liv Constantine (Amazon Publishing)

“Eat My Moose,” Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse (Bard College)

“Barriers to Entry,” Amazon Original Stories by Ariel Lawhon (Amazon Publishing)

“The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July-August 2024 by Steven Sheil (Dell Magazine)

BEST JUVENILE

The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Mystery of Mystic Mountain by Janet Fox (Simon & Schuster BFYR)

Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix (HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)

The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Find Her by Ginger Reno (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (HarperCollins – Heartdrum)

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne (Random House Books for Young Readers)

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Teen)

49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode Five” – Rebus, Written by Gregory Burke (Viaplay)

“Episode One” – Monsieur Spade, Written by Tom Fontana & Scott Frank (AMC)

“Episode One” – Moonflower Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece PBS)

“Mirror” – Murderesses, Written by Wiktor Piatkowski, Joanna Kozłowska, Katarzyna Kaczmarek (Viaplay)

“Episode Two” – The Marlow Murder Club, Written by Robert Thorogood (Masterpiece PBS)

OTHER AWARDS

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD – 

Endowed by the family of Robert L. Fish.

“The Legend of Penny and the Luck of the Draw Casino,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2024 by Pat Gaudet (Dell Magazines)

“Head Start,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Kai Lovelace (Dell Magazines)

“Murder Under Sedation,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March-April 2024 by Lawrence Ong (Dell Magazines)

“The Jews on Elm Street,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Anna Stolley Persky (Dell Magazines)

“Sparrow Maker,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November-December 2024 by Jake Stein (Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – 

Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen (Amazon Publishing – Lake Union)

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow Paperbacks)

Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen (Crooked Lane Books)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – 

Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Landmark)

Proof by Beverly McLachlin (Simon & Schuster Canada – Simon & Schuster)

A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

All the Way Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

 

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD –

 Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Death and Fromage by Ian Moore (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Booked for Murder by P.J. Nelson (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Murder on Devil’s Pond by Ayla Rose (Crooked Lane Books)

The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

 

The Problem with DNA – 5 historical crime reads

Author Rebecca Alexander writes historical crime fiction as well as fantasy novels.  A Shroud of Leaves is the second book to feature Archaeologist Sage Westfield.  Here she suggests some brilliant historical crime novels.

 Writing crime novels has recently become harder. In the twenty-first century CCTV cameras watch every high street and business. DNA, blood spatter, fibre and hair analysis have become great forensic tools to solve murders.  Before the 1990s these technologies were in their infancy. Few people carried a mobile phone, even less a camera everywhere they went. Crime investigations were based on interviews, careful observation of the scene of crime and the accumulation of evidence. Setting a crime mystery in the pre-DNA days makes the investigation more difficult to solve, but relies on talking to real suspects. When I started writing about an archaeologist who solves a crime in 1580 in A Baby’s Bones, I had even less sources to rely on as all the suspects were long dead. In the sequel, A Shroud of Leaves, Sage Westfield has a direct comparison between modern forensic methods in investigating a contemporary crime, and the limited evidence available in 1992 and 1913.

 I’m not alone in setting crime novels in the pre-technological past. I can suggest a few brilliant reads for more crime novels set in history:

 SJ Parris’s Giordano Bruno series of books (Conspiracy from 2017 is the latest) are set around the 1580s. The books are full of treasonable or heretical plots and horrible murders, and a host of spies and double agents form Bruno’s circle. Bruno, an ex-priest and on the run from the Inquisition, uses his knowledge of people to solve the crimes. Everyone has secrets, everyone is a suspect. 

Antonia Hodgson’s The Devil in the Marshalsea gives us an unusual investigator. In 1727 Tom Hawkins is imprisoned for a debt of ten pounds. Tom fights to be released if he can solve a murder committed inside the chaotic, squalid prison. Well researched, the book shows a society devastated by financial collapse, gambling, exploitation and amorality. Tom, the central character, is our eyes and ears and the prison is as strange and terrifying a place for him as it seems to us. Almost every character is a rogue, including Tom, yet many are likeable, making a living as best they can. This is not a cosy, period drama, this is fast and dramatic with great characters as he solves the crime.

Kate Summerscale’s, The Suspicions of Mr Whicheror The Murder at Road HillHouse is a Victorian murder based on a true story. Summerscale evokes the difficulties of weaving together testimony from family members and servants. No-one dare tell the whole truth, the reader is left as frustrated as Detective Whicher by the divisions of class and education. She never lets us forget the three year old victim, his throat cut, in the servants’ privy.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is also based on a true crime, this time from Canada in 1843.  The story of sixteen year old Irish maid Grace Marks, who was convicted of killing her employer (and by implication, his mistress), Alias Grace explores her internal world through the efforts of an early American psychiatrist. Dr Simon Jordan is beguiled by Grace as he is repelled by her crime and the violence of her abusive captivity. The reader is left to weigh the evidence as it’s exposed, much like at the trial, in a mess of half-truths, lies and inexpert evidence.

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project is a ‘found history’, with witness statements from all parts of the examination (each with their prejudices and lies) including those of the prime suspect’s father, the prison doctor and his own journal. The seventeen-year-old Roderick Macrae is from the remotest part of the west coast of Scotland and is accused of three violent deaths. He is also suspected of ‘moral imbecility’ or madness, and the novel is written so convincingly as a family history it seems real. It asks questions about the effects of brutality and emotional neglect throughout, as well as exploring the murders themselves. Like Alias Grace, it asks questions about the effects of brutality and emotional neglect, as well as exploring Roddy’s relationship with the victims.

From police surgeons photographing the eyes of Jack the Ripper’s victims in 1888 to modern DNA phenotype profiles that can ‘read’ DNA to produce a portrait, scientists have been pushing technology forward to solve crime using evidence rather than flawed witness statements. As a writer, I love those unreliable witnesses and misleading statements. Sage Westfield will keep investigating historical crimes through archaeology because like a lot of us, she is deeply curious about human motivations – even if they end in murder.

A Shroud of Leaves by Rebecca Alexander (£8.99, Titan Books) Out Now

"The victim had been buried in a carved hollow in the grass and shrouded in fallen leaves..." Archaeologist Sage Westfield has her first forensics case: investigating the murder of a teenage girl. Hidden by holly leaves, the girl's body has been discovered on the grounds of a stately home, where another teenage girl went missing twenty years ago - but her body was never found. The police suspect the reclusive owner, Alistair Chorleigh, who was questioned but never charged. But when Sage investigates a nearby burial mound - and uncovers rumours of an ancient curse - she discovers the story of another mysterious disappearance over a hundred years ago. Sage will need both her modern forensics skills and her archaeological knowledge to unearth the devastating truth.

2015 Arthur Ellis Awards

At the Arthur Ellis Gala in Toronto, The Crime Writers of Canada presented the 2015 Arthur Ellis Awards on 29 May 2015. * = winners

Best Novel
Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman (Dundurn Press)
None so Blind by Barbara Fradkin (Dundurn Press)
*Plague by C.C. Humphreys (Doubleday Canada)
No Known Grave by Maureen Jennings (McClelland & Stewart), Killing Pilgrim by Alen Mattich (House of Anansi)

Best First Novel

A Quiet Kill by Janet Brons, (Touchwood Editions)
*Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows (Dundurn Press)

Windigo Fire by M.H. Callway (Seraphim Editions)
No Worst There Is None by Eve McBride (Dundurn Press)
Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe (Dundurn Press)

Best Novella

The Boom Room by Rick Blechta, (Orca Book Publishers)
Juba Good by Vicki Delany (Orca Book Publishers)

*The Dragon Head of Hong Kong by Ian Hamilton (House of Anansi)

A Knock on the Door by Jas. R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine)

Best Short Story
* Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart)

Hook, Line and Sinker by Melodie Campbell (Your McMurray Magazine)
Therapy by Peter Clement (Belgrave House)
First Impressions by Madona Skaff -The Whole She-Bang 2, (Sisters in Crime)

Writers Block by Kevin P. Thornton - World Enough and Crime, (Carrick Publishing)

Best Book in French
*Bondrée by Andrée Michaud (Editions Québec Amérique)

Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme by Jack Hervé Gagnon (Expression noir / Groupe librex)

 Meurtre à l’hôtel Despréaux by Maryse Rouy (Édition Druide)
Repentirs by Richard Ste Marie (Alire)

Best Juvenile/YA Book
Dead Man’s Switch by Sigmund Brouwer (Harvest House)

Face-Off by Michael Betcherman (Penguin Canada)
The Voice Inside My Head by S.J. Laidlaw (Tundra Books)
About That Night by Norah McClintock (Orca Book Publishers)
The Bodies We Wear by Jeyn Roberts (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Best Nonfiction Book,

Being Uncle Charlie by Bob Deasy (with Mark Ebner) (Penguin Random House)

*The Massey Murder by Charlotte Gray HarperCollins

Innocence on Trial: The Framing of Ivan Henry by Joan McEwen (Heritage House)

Life Real Loud: John Lefebvre, Neteller and the Revolution in Online Gambling by Bill Reynolds (ECW Press)
Extreme Mean by Paula Todd (McClelland & Stewart)

Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel
*Strange Things Done by Elle Wild

Rum Luck by Ryan Aldred

Full Curl by Dave Butler
Crisis Point by Dwayne Clayden
Afghan Redemption by Bill Prentice

Arthur Ellis Awards 2015

The short list for the Arthur Ellis Awards have been announced by the Crime Writers of Canada. The winners will be announced on 28 May at the Arthur Ellis Award Gala at the Arts and Letters Club, Tornoto.

Best Novel

Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman, Dundurn Press

None so Blind by Barbara Fradkin Dundurn Press

Plague by C.C. Humphreys, Doubleday Canada

No Known Grave, By Maureen Jennings, McClelland & Stewart

Killing Pilgrim by Alen Mattich, , House of Anansi

Best First Novel

A Quiet Kill by Janet Brons, Touchwood Editions

Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows, Dundurn Press

Windigo Fire,  by M.H. Callway  Seraphim Editions

No Worst, There Is None by Eve McBride Dundurn Press

Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe, Dundurn Press

Best Novella *
The Boom Room by Rick Blechta, Orca Book Publishers

Juba Good by Vicki Delany, Orca Book Publishers

The Dragon Head of Hong Kong by Ian Hamilton, House of Anansi

A Knock on the Door by Jas. R. Petrin Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

Best Short Story 

Stone Mattress,  by Margaret Atwood McClelland & Stewart

Hook, Line and Sinker by Melodie Campbell,  Your McMurray Magazine
Therapy by Peter Clement, Belgrave House

First Impressions  by Madona Skaff, The Whole She-Bang 2, Sisters in Crime

Writers Block by Kevin P. Thornton World Enough and Crime, Carrick Publishing

Best Book in French

Jack: Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme by Hervé Gagnon, Expression noir / Groupe librex

Bondrée, by Andrée Michaud, Editions Québec Amérique

Meurtre à l’hôtel Despréaux, by Maryse Rouy  Édition Druide

Repentirs by Richard Ste Marie, Alire

Best Juvenile/YA Book

Face-Off by Michael Betcherman, Penguin Canada

Dead Man's Switch by Sigmund Brouwer, Harvest House

The Voice Inside My Head by S.J. Laidlaw, Tundra Books

About That Night by Norah McClintock, Orca Book Publishers

The Bodies We Wear by Jeyn Roberts, Knopf Books for Young Readers

Best Nonfiction Book

Being Uncle Charlie  by Bob Deasy (with Mark Ebner), Penguin Random House

The Massey Murder  by  Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins

Innocence on Trial: The Framing of Ivan Henry by Joan McEwen, Heritage House

Life Real Loud: John Lefebvre, Neteller and the Revolution in Online Gambling by Bill Reynolds ECW Press

Extreme Mean by Paula Todd, McClelland & Stewart

Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel

Rum Luck by Ryan Aldred

Full Curl by Dave Butler

Crisis Point by Dwayne Clayden

Afghan Redemption by Bill Prentice

Strange Things Done by Elle Wild

*CWC announces the Lou Allin Memorial Award of $250 for the Arthur Ellis Novella Category

Sponsored by the 2011 Bloody Words Conference Committee, this award will be given in honour of Lou Allin.  Lou was a board member of CWC, a co-chair of the 2011 Bloody Words Conference, an award-winning writer, and a mentor to many.  This award is particularly fitting, as she was the winner of the first Arthur Ellis Novella Award.