Malice Domestic has announced the nominees for the 2009 Agatha Awards for works published in 2008. Winners are voted on by attendees of Malice XXI (21): May 1-3, 2009 and will be announced at the Agatha Banquet on May 2.

 The Agatha Awards honor the “traditional” or “cozy” mystery. (Think Agatha Christie.) The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that:

• 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

Note from Kate: Conventions differ on how they designate awards. Some assign the year of publication, some the year the award was given. For consistency’s sake and to help our readers, Mystery Scene designates awards by the  year in which they were (or will be) GIVEN. Hence, the 2009 Agatha Nominees announced here are for the Agatha Awards to be announced on May 2, 2009.

Best Novel

Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen (Penguin Group)
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry (Random House)
I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur Books)

Best First Novel

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)
Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)
Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan (Midnight Ink)

Best Non-fiction

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland & Co.)
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press)
Anthony Boucher, A Bibliography 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 by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Co.)

Best Short Story

“The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron, Wolfsbane & Mistletoe (Penguin Group)
“Killing Time” by Jane Cleland, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine – November 2008
“Dangerous Crossing” by Carla Coupe, Chesapeake Crimes 3 (Wildside Press)
“Skull & Cross Examination” by Toni Kelner, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine – February 2008
“A Nice Old Guy” by Nancy Pickard, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine – August 2008

Best Children’s/Young Adult

Into the Dark by Peter Abrahams (Harper Collins)
A Thief in the Theater (A Kit Mystery) by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishers)
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein (Random House Children’s Books)
The Great Circus Train Robbery by Nancy Means Wright (Hilliard & Harris)