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Do you have any readers who like the traditional mystery?  Do you have a reading group that might eschew more towards the cozy then the hardboiled?  Then you can celebrate the announcement of the 2009 Agatha Awards announced over the weekend at the Malice Domestic mystery convention.

It is the intent of the award to recognize efforts that fit the following criteria:

contain no explicit sex

contain no excessive gore or gratuitous violence

usually feature an amateur detective

take place in a confined setting and contain characters who know one another

Here are the awards. 

Best Novel:

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

Nominees

Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)

A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen (Penguin Group)

Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry (Random House)

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur Books)

Best First Novel:

Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)

Nominees

Through a Glass, Deadly by Sarah Atwell (Berkley Trade)

The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis (Penguin Group)

Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris (Minotaur Books)

Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan (Midnight Ink)

Best Non-fiction:

How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press)

Nominees

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland & Co.)

Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography by Jeff Marks (McFarland & Co.)

Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe (Metro Books)

The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher, or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Co.)

Best Children’s/Young Adult:

The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein (Random House Children’s Books)

Nominees

Into the Dark by Peter Abrahams (Harper Collins)

A Thief in the Theater (A Kit Mystery) by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishers)

The Great Circus Train Robbery by Nancy Means Wright (Hilliard & Harris)

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 1:54 pm and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.