Oline H. Cogdill

 

Stephen King didn't show up for the Edgar Awards that were given on April 28, 2016, during the the 70th Annual Edgar Awards Banquet held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

And that's a shame because not only did he win for best short story, but he also missed a good party and a true celebration of the mystery genre.

King also missed Grand Master Walter Mosley's poignant acceptance speech that included a short story he wrote just for the Edgars.

Author Jeff Abbott, the new MWA president, made a charming and very funny host, often joking that he had a book due this weekend, and that no one should be surprised if he took out his laptop during the acceptance speeches. He didn't. Good luck on that book, Jeff.

This also may be the first time a Pulitzer Prize winner also took home an Edgar—Viet Thanh Nguyen won best first novel for his The Sympathizer.

Lori Roy's win for best novel also set a milestone—she became the third author to win both first and best novel Edgars, and the only woman to do so.

Mystery Scene congratulates all the winners and nominees, who are already winners to readers.

For more information on Mystery Writers of America (MWA), visit the MWA site.

The Edgar Award winners are listed first in each category and are in bold. These awards are for work published in 2015.

BEST NOVEL
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy (Penguin Random House – Dutton)
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)
Canary by Duane Swierczynski (Hachette Book Group – Mulholland Books)
Night Life by David C. Taylor (Forge Books)
 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)

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)
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
Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil (HarperCollins Publishers - Harper)
Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian 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)
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
"Obits” by Stephen King – Bazaar of Bad Dreams (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)

“The Little Men” by Megan AbbottMysterious Bookshop (Mysterious Bookshop)
“On Borrowed Time” by Mat Coward – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (Dell Magazines)
“The Saturday Night Before Easter Sunday” by Peter Farrelly – Providence Noir (Akashic Books)
“Family Treasures” by Shirley Jackson – Let Me Tell You (Random House)
“Every Seven Years” by Denise Mina – Mysterious Bookshop (Mysterious Bookshop)
 
BEST JUVENILE
Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy by Susan Vaught (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)

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)

 
BEST YOUNG ADULT
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books)

Endangered by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Children’s Books - HarperTeen)
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
“Gently with the Women” - George Gently, Teleplay by Peter Flannery (Acorn TV)

“Episode 7,” - Broadchurch, Teleplay by Chris Chibnall (BBC America)
“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” by Russell W. Johnson – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (Dell Magazines)

THE GRAND MASTER
Walter Mosley

THE RAVEN AWARD
Margaret Kinsman and Sisters in Crime

THE ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Janet A. Rudolph

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(which is given during Edgar Week but is not an MWA award)
Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)

A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody (Minotaur Books – A Thomas Dunne Book)
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur Books)
Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson (Llewellyn Worldwide – Midnight Ink)

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