THE EDGAR AWARDS

Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2015 Edgar Allen Poe Awards on April 29th at the 69th annual Edgar Awards Gala Dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The winners of the best Mystery writing of 2014 were:

Best Novel
MR. MERCEDES. Stephen King. Simon & Schuster

Best First Novel by an American Author
DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY. Tom Bouman. W.W. Norton

Best Paperback Original
THE SECRET HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS. Chris Abani. Penguin Books

Best Fact Crime
TINSELTOWN: MURDER, MORPHINE AND MADNESS AT THE DAWN OF HOLLYWOOD. William J. Mann. Harper Collins

Best Critical, Biographical
POE-LAND: THE HALLOWED HAUNTS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE.
J. W. Ocker. W.W. Norton

Best Short Story
“WHAT DO YOU DO?” - ROGUES. Gillian Flynn. Bantam Books

Best Juvenile
GREENGLASS HOUSE. Kate Milford. Clarion Books

Best Young Adult
THE ART OF SECRETS. James Klise. Algonquin Young Readers

Best Television Episode Teleplay
EPISODE 1, HAPPY VALLEY. Sally Wainwright. Netflix

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award
GETAWAY GIRL, ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Zoe Z. Dean.
Dell Magazines

Raven Awards
Ruth & Jon Jordan. Crimespree Magazine
Kathryn Kennison, Magna Cum Murder

Ellery Queen Award
Charles Ardai, Editor & Founder, Hard Case Crime

Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award
THE STRANGER YOU KNOW. Jane Casey. Minotaur Books


The finalists (who went on to win in their categories) were announced in my Blog Post on March 6th. Of the 13 winners, six were women, and five were men. Unless Chris Abani and J. W. Ocker are men, in which case, seven were men. Pretty even. All of the books were from traditional publishers, not self-publishers.

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For those still waiting for THE GREEN BOUGH to go on Amazon’s Countdown, the latest news is that, due to two minor changes having to do with Front Matter and Back Matter, plus missing photographs, Amazon considers this a new submission and the book must be in KDP Select for a certain length of time before it’s eligible for Countdown. The new date is June 3rd.