2005 Edgar Award Nominees Announced

The nominees for the 2005 Edgar awards were announced yesterday. There are several places to quibble (e.g., the soft best first novel picks, the TV category dominated by just one show), but it's a nice list overall.

The Best Novel category, in particular, is very strong, with 4 of my favorite books of the year making the shortlist. (I haven't read the other, although I've heard good things about it.)

I also see that 2 of the picks for Best Novel (Parker and Lippman) were also shortlisted for the Gumshoe Award. I would be very pleased to see either of those books win.

Here's the MWA's announcement:

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce its Nominees for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2005, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2004. The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at our 59th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2005 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL

Evan's Gate by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
Remembering Sarah by Chris Mooney (Atria Books)
California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker (William Morrow)
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas (Hard Case Crime)
Relative Danger by Charles Benoit (Poisoned Pen Press)
Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan (Delacorte Press)
Tonight I Said Goodbye by Michael Koryta (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Country of Origin by Don Lee (W.W. Norton & Company)
Bahamarama by Bob Morris (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Librarian by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books)
Into the Web by Thomas H. Cook (Bantam)
Dead Men Rise Up Never by Ron Faust (Dell)
Twelve-Step Fandango by Chris Haslam (Dark Alley)
The Confession by Domenic Stansberry (Hard Case Crime)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories
edited by Leslie S. Klinger (W.W. Norton)
Latin American Mystery Writers: An A-to-Z Guide by Daniel B. Lockhart (Greenwood Press)
Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard-Boiled Novel
by Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe (McFarland & Co.)
The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. 3: 1956-1991 by Norman Sherry (Viking Books)

BEST FACT CRIME

Ready for the People: My Most Chilling Cases as Prosecutor by Marissa N. Batt (Arcade Publishing)
Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice by Leonard Levitt (Regan Books)
Forensics for Dummies by D.P. Lyle, MD (Wiley Publishing - For Dummies)
Are You There Alone?: The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates by Suzanne O'Malley (Simon & Schuster)
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein (Little, Brown)
Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer - America's Deadliest Serial Murderer by Ann Rule (Free Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

"Something About a Scar" - Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You by Laurie Lynn Drummond (HarperCollins)
"The Widow of Slane" by Terence Faherty (EQMM - March/April 2004)
"The Book Signing" - Brooklyn Noir by Pete Hamill (Akashic Books)
"Adventure of the Missing Detective" - Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years by Gary Lovisi (St. Martin's Minotaur)
"Imitate the Sun" by Luke Sholer (EQMM - November 2004)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Story Time by Edward Bloor (Harcourt Children's Books)
In Darkness, Death by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler (Philomel Books)
Jude by Kate Morgenroth (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick (Wendy Lamb Books)
Missing Abby by Lee Weatherly (David Fickling Books)

BEST JUVENILE

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (Scholastic Press)
Assassin: The Lady Grace Mysteries by Patricia Finney (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Abduction! by Peg Kehret (Dutton Children's Books)
Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater (HarperCollins Children's Books)
The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

BEST PLAY

Spatter Pattern (Or, How I Got Away With It) by Neal Bell (Playwrights Horizons)
Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life by Max Allan Collins (The Art House)
An Evening of Murder and the Like by Edward Musto (Barrow Group Studio Theatre)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Want", Teleplay by Elizabeth Benjamin. Story by René Balcer & Elizabeth Benjamin
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Conscience", Teleplay by Gerry Conway. Story by René Balcer & Gerry Conway
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Consumed", Teleplay by Warren Leight. Story by René Balcer & Warren Leight
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Pas De Deux", Teleplay by Warren Leight. Story by René Balcer & Warren Leight
Monk - "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf", Teleplay by Hy Conrad

BEST TELEVISION FEATURE OR MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY

State of Play by Paul Abbott (BBC America)
Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness by Peter Berry (Granada TV & WGBH Boston)
Death in Holy Orders by Robert Jones, based on the novel by P.D. James (BBC Worldwide)
Amnesia by Chris Lang (BBC America)
"The Darkness of Light" - Wire in the Blood by Alan Whiting (Coastal Productions)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

A Very Long Engagement - Screenplay by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, based on the Novel by Sebastien Japrisot (2003 Productions)
The Bourne Supremacy - Screenplay by Tony Gilroy, based on the Novel by Robert Ludlam. (The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Universal Pictures, Hypnotic)
Collateral by Stuart Beattie (DreamWorks SKG)
I'm Not Scared - Screenplay by Francesca Marciano, based on the Novel by Niccolo Ammaniti. (Miramax Films)
Maria Full of Grace - Screenplay by Joshua Marston (HBO Films)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

Thomas Morrissey
"Can't Catch Me" - Brooklyn Noir (Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTER

Marcia Muller

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Carolyn Marino, Vice President/Executive Editor, HarperCollins

RAVEN AWARDS

Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre (founded by Steve Oney)
DorothyL listserv (founded by Diane Kovacs and Kara Robinson
Murder by the Book, Houston, TX (Martha Farrington, Owner)

SPECIAL EDGAR AWARDS

David Chase (writer/producer - The Sopranos, The Rockford Files,
Kolchak: The Night Stalker and many other breakthrough TV shows)
Tom Fontana (writer/producer - Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz, and The Jury and many other breakthrough TV shows)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER-MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

Perfect Sax by Jerrilyn Farmer (William Morrow/Avon)
The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman (Ballantine Books)
Scent of a Killer by Christiane Heggan (MIRA Books)
Grave Endings by Rochelle Krich (Ballantine Books)
Murder in a Mill Town by P.B. Ryan (Berkley Prime Crime)