Agatha Award

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The Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write via the same method as Agatha Christie (i.e. closed setting, no sex or violence, amateur detective). At an annual convention in Washington, D.C., the Agatha Awards are handed out by Malice Domestic Ltd, in six categories: Best Novel; Best First Mystery; Best Historical Novel; Best Short Story; Best Non-Fiction; Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery. Additionally, in some years the Poirot Award is presented to honor individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the mystery genre, but it is not an annual award.

Malice Domestic Ltd was established in 1989, and was incorporated in 1992. It is governed by a volunteer board of directors.[1]

Contents

Awards

Winners and, where known, nominated titles for each year:

Best First Novel

2011 - Sara J. Henry, Learning to Swim
  • Janet Bolin, Dire Threads
  • Kaye George, Choke
  • Rochelle Staab, Who Do, Voodoo?
  • Kari Lee Townsend, Tempest in the Tea Leaves
2010 - Avery Aames, The Long Quiche Goodbye
  • Laura Alden, Murder at the PTA
  • Amanda Flower, Maid of Murder
  • Sasscer Hill, Full Mortality
  • Alan Orloff, Diamonds for the Dead
2009 - Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Delacorte Press)
  • Lisa Bork, For Better, for Murder (Midnight Ink)
  • Meredith Cole, Posed for Murder (St Martins Minotaur)
  • Elizabeth Duncan, The Cold Light of Mourning (St Martin's Press)
  • Stefanie Pintoff, In the Shadow of Gotham (Minotaur Books)
2008 - G.M. Malliet, Death of a Cozy Writer (Midnight Ink)
  • Sarah Atwell, Through a Glass, Deadly (Berkley Trade)
  • Krista Davis, The Diva Runs Out of Thyme (Penguin Group)
  • Rosemary Harris, Pushing Up Daisies (Minotaur Books)
  • Joanna Campbell Slan, Paper, Scissors, Death (Midnight Ink)
2007 - Hank Phillippi Ryan, Prime Time (Harlequin)
2006 - Sandra Parshall, The Heat of the Moon (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Jane Cleland, Consigned to Death (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Honora Finkelstein and Susan Smily, The Chef Who Died Sauteing (Hilliard & Harris)
  • Hailey Lind, Feint of Art (Signet)
  • Karen MacInerney, Murder on the Rocks (Midnight Ink)
2005 - Laura Durham, Better Off Wed (HarperCollins Publishers)
  • Laura Bradford, Jury of One (Hilliard & Harris)
  • Shirley Damsgaard, Witch Way to Murder (Avon Books)
  • Maggie Sefton, Knit One, Kill Two (Berkley Publishing Group)
  • Lisa Tillman, Blood Relations (Hilliard & Harris)
2004 - Harley Jane Kozak, Dating Dead Men (Doubleday)
  • Judy Clemens, Till the Cows Come Home (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Patricia Harwin, Arson and Old Lace (Pocket Books)
  • Dorothy Salisbury Davis and Jerome Ross, God Speed the Night
  • Susan Kandel, I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason (HarperCollins)
  • Pari Noskin Taichert, The Clovis Incident: A Mystery (University of New Mexico Press)
2003 - Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs (Soho Press Inc.)
  • Elaine Flinn, Dealing in Murder (Avon)
  • Erin Hart, The Haunted Ground (Scribner)
  • S.W. Hubbard, Take the Bait (Pocket)
  • Maddy Hunter, Alpine for You (Pocket)
  • Joyce Kreig, Murder off Mike (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Sarah Stewart Taylor, O’ Artful Death (St. Martin's Press)
2002 - Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Pip Granger, Not All Tarts Are Apple (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Roberta Isleib, Six Strokes Under (Berkley)
  • Claire M. Johnson, Beat Until Stiff (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Nancy Martin, How to Murder a Millionaire (Signet)
  • Lea Wait, Shadows at the Fair (Scribner)
2001 - Sarah Strohmeyer, Bubbles Unbound (Dutton)
  • Tim Myer, Innkeeping with Murder (Berkley)
  • Charles O'Brien, Mute Witness (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Andy Straka, A Witness Above (Signet)
2000 - Rosemary Stevens, Death on a Silver Tray (Berkley Prime Crime)
  • Julie W. Herman, Three Dirty Women and the Garden of Death (Overmountain Press)
  • Irene Marcuse, Death of an Amiable Child (Walker & Company)
  • Denise Swanson, Murder of a Small Town Honey (Signet)
1999 - Donna Andrews, Murder with Peacocks (Thomas Dunne Books)
  • April Henry, Circles of Confusion (HarperTorch)
  • Kris Neri, Revenge of the Gypsy Queen (Rainbow Books)
  • Elena Santangelo, By Blood Possessed (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Marcia Talley, Sing It to Her Bones (Dell)
1998 - Robin Hathaway, The Doctor Digs a Grave (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Jerrilyn Farmer, Sympathy for the Devil (Avon)
  • Jacqueline Fiedler, Tiger's Palette (Pocket)
  • Judy Fitzwater, Dying to Get Published (Fawcett)
  • Sharon Kahn, Fax Me a Bagel (Scribner)
1997 - Sujata Massey, The Salaryman's Wife (HarperCollins)
  • Joanne Dobson, Quieter Than Sleep (Doubleday)
  • Phyllis Richman, The Butter Did It (HarperCollins)
  • Penny Warner, Dead Body Language (Bantam)
  • Barbara Jaye Wilson, Death Brims Over (Avon)
1996 - Anne George, Murder on a Girl's Night Out (Avon Books)
  • Dale Furutani, Death in Little Tokyo : A Ken Tanaka Mystery (St. Martin’s)
  • Terris Grimes, Somebody Else's Child (Onyx Books)
  • Teri Holbrook, The Grass Widow (Bantam Books)
  • Margaret K. Lawrence, Hearts and Bone: A Novel of Historical Suspense (Avon Books)
  • Lillian M. Roberts, Riding for a Fall (Gold Medal)
1995 - Jeanne M. Dams, The Body in the Transept (Walker)
  • Teri Holbrook, A Far and Deadly Cry
  • Jody Jaffe, Horse of a Different Killer
  • Virginia Lanier, Death in Bloodhound Red
  • Martha C. Lawrence, Murder in Scorpio
1994 - Jeff Abbott, Do Unto Others (Ballantine)
  • Janet Evanovich, One for the Money (Scribner)
  • Earlene Fowler, Fool's Puzzle
  • Barbara Burnett Smith, Writers of the Purple Sage
  • Polly Whitney, Until Death
1993 - Nevada Barr, Track of the Cat (Putnam)
  • Jan Burke, Goodnight, Irene
  • Deborah Crombie, A Share in Death
  • Sharan Newman, Death Comes as Ephiphany
  • Abigail Padgett, Child of Silence
1992 - Barbara Neely, Blanche on the Lam (St. Martin's Press)
1991 - Mary Willis Walker, Zero at the Bone (St. Martin's Press)
  • Mary Cahill, Carpool
  • Mary Daheim, Just Desserts
  • Rebecca Rothenberg, The Bulrush Murders
  • Ann Williams, Flowers for the Dead
1990 - Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Belfry (St. Martin's Press)
1989 - Jill Churchill, Grime and Punishment (Avon Books)
  • Eleanor Boylan, Working Murder
  • Frances Fyfield, A Question of Guilt
  • Melanie Johnson Howe, The Mother Shadow
  • Edith Skom, The Mark Twain Murders
1988 - Elizabeth George, A Great Deliverance (Bantam)

Best Novel

2011 - Margaret Maron, Three-Day Town
  • Donna Andrews, The Real Macaw
  • Krista Davis, The Diva Haunts the House
  • G.M. Malliet, Wicked Autumn
  • Louise Penny, A Trick of the Light
2010 - Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead
2009 - Louise Penny, A Brutal Telling (Minotaur Books)
2008 - Louise Penny, The Cruelest Month (Minotaur Books)
2007 - Louise Penny, A Fatal Grace (St. Martin's Minotaur)
2006 - Nancy Pickard, The Virgin of Small Plains (Random House)
2005 - Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Snowdrift (William Morrow)
  • Donna Andrews, Owls Well That Ends Well (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Margaret Maron, Rituals of the Season(Mysterious Press & Warner Books)
  • Pari Noskin Taichert, The Belen Hitch (University of NM Press)
  • Heather Webber, Trouble in Spades (Avon/HarperCollins Publishers)
  • Jacqueline Winspear, Pardonable Lies (Henry Holt Books)
2004 - Jacqueline Winspear, Birds of a Feather (Soho Press)
2003 - Carolyn Hart, Letter From Home (Berkley Prime Crime)
  • Donna Andrews, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
  • Jerrilyn Farmer, Mumbo Gumbo (William Morrow & Company)
  • Rochelle Majer Krich, Dream House (Ballantine Books)
  • Margaret Maron, Last Lessons of Summer (Mysterious Press)
  • Elaine Viets, Shop till You Drop (Signet)
2002 - Donna Andrews, You've Got Murder (Berkley Prime Crime)
  • Rhys Bowen, Death of Riley (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Rochelle Majer Krich, Blues in the Night (Ballantine)
  • Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Bonfire (Morrow)
  • Elizabeth Peters, The Golden One (Morrow)
2001 - Rhys Bowen, Murphy's Law (St Martin's Minotaur)
2000 - Margaret Maron, Storm Track (Mysterious Press)
1999 - Earlene Fowler, Mariner's Compass (Berkley Publishing Group)
1998 - Laura Lippman, Butchers Hill (Avon Books)
1997 - Kate Ross, The Devil In Music (Viking)
1996 - Margaret Maron, Up Jumps The Devil (Mysterious Press)
  • Earlene Fowler, Kansas Troubles (a Benni Harper Mystery) (Berkley)
  • Sharan Newman, Strong as Death (Forge)
1995 - Sharyn McCrumb, If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him (Ballantine)
  • Joan Hess, Miracles in Maggody
  • Sharan Newman, The Wandering Arm
  • Nancy Pickard, Twilight
  • Walter Satterthwait, Escapade
1994 - Sharyn McCrumb, She Walks These Hills (Scribner)
1993 - Carolyn Hart, Dead Man's Island (Bantam)
1992 - Margaret Maron, Bootlegger's Daughter (Mysterious Press)
1991 - Nancy Pickard, I.O.U. (Pocket)
1990 - Nancy Pickard, Bum Steer (Pocket)
1989 - Elizabeth Peters, Naked Once More (Warner)
1988 - Carolyn G. Hart, Something Wicked (Bantam)

Best Historical Novel

2011 - Rhys Bowen, Naughty in Nice

Best Non-Fiction

2010 - John Curran, Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making
  • Deborah Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
  • Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder Sherlock Holmes for Dummies
  • Katherine Hall Page, Have Faith in Your Kitchen
  • Yunte Huang, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
2009 - Elena Santangelo, Dame Agatha's Shorts (Bella Rosa Books)
  • Richard Hack, Duchess of Death (Phoenix Books)
  • P.D. James, Talking About Detective Fiction (Knopf)
  • Amnon Kabatchnik, Blood on the Stage 1925-1950 (Scarecrow Press)
  • Joan Schenkar, The Talented Miss Highsmith (St Martin's Press)
2008 - Kathy Lynn Emerson, How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries (Perseverance Press)
  • Frankie Y. Bailey, African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study (McFarland & Co.)
  • Jeffrey Marks, Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography (McFarland & Co.)
  • Dr. Harry Lee Poe, Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories (Metro Books)
  • Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (Walker & Co.)
2007 - Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (Penguin Press)
  • Penny Warner, The Official Nancy Drew Handbook (Quirck Productions)
2006 - Chris Roerden, Don't Murder Your Mystery (Bella Rosa Books)
  • Jim Huang and Austin Lugar, Mystery Muses (The Crum Creek Press)
  • Daniel Stashower, The Beautiful Cigar Girl (Dutton)
2005 - Melanie Rehak, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her (Harcourt)
  • Stuart Kaminsky, Behind the Mystery—Top Mystery Writers (Hothouse Press)
  • Marvin Lachman, The Heirs of Anthony Boucher (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Leslie S. Klinger, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (W.W. Norton)
2004 - Jack French, Private Eye-Lashes: Radio’s Lady Detectives (Bear Manor Media)
  • Leslie Klinger (editor), The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories (W.W. Norton & Company)
2003 - Elizabeth Peters and Kristen Whitbread (editors) and Dennis Forbes (design), Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium (William Morrow & Company)
  • Colleen A. Barnett, Mystery Women: An Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction, Volume 3 (Parts 1 & 2) (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl (editors), A Second Helping of Murder: More Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Jeffrey Marks, Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s and 1950s (Delphi Books)
2002 - Jim Huang (editor), They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels (Crum Creek Press)
  • Mike Ashley (editor), The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction (Avalon Publishing Group)
  • Colleen Barnett, Mystery Women: An Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Mary Higgins Clark, Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir (Simon and Schuster)
  • Sue Grafton (editor) with Jan Burke and Barry Zeman, Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America (Writer's Digest Press)
2001 - Tony Hillerman, Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir (HarperCollins)
  • Max Allan Collins, The History of the Mystery (Collector's Press)
  • G. Miki Hayden, Writing the Mystery: A Start-To-Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional (Intrigue Press)
  • Jeffrey Marks, Who Was That Lady? (Delphi Books)
  • The Sisters Wells, Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth (Authors Choice Press/iUniverse.com)
2000 - Jim Huang (editor), 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century (Crum Creek Press)
  • Marvin Lachman (editor), The American Regional Mystery
  • Matthew Bunson, The Complete Christie (Pocket)
  • Helen Windrath (editor), They Wrote the Book
  • Martha Dubose (editor), Women of Mystery
1999 - Daniel Stashower, Teller of Tales: the Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (Henry Holt & Company)
  • Kate Derie, The Deadly Directory (Deadly Serious Press)
  • Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl, A Taste of Murder: Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers (Poisoned Pen Press)
  • Willetta L. Heising, Detecting Women III (Purple Moon Press)
  • Rosemary Herbert, The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing (Oxford University Press)
1998 - Alzina Stone Dale, Mystery Reader's Walking Guide to Washington D.C. (Passport Books)
1997 - Willeta L. Heising, Detecting Men (Pocket Guide) (Purple Moon Press)
  • Nina King and Robin Winks, Crimes of the Scene (St. Martin's)
  • Ian Ousby, Guilty Parties (Thames & Hudson)
1996 - Willetta L. Heising, Detecting Women 2 (Purple Moon Press)
  • Elaine Raco Chase and Anne Wingate, Amateur Detectives: A Writer's Guide to How Private Citizens Solve Criminal Cases (Writer's Digest)
  • Ron Miller, Mystery: A Celebration (KQED Books)
  • Barbara Reynolds (editor), The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: The Making of a Detective Novelist (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  • Jean Swanson and Dean James, By a Woman's Hand, Second Edition (Berkley Publishing Group)
1995 - Alzina Stone Dale, Mystery Readers Walking Guide-Chicago (Passport Books, NTC Publishing Group)
  • Douglas Greene Ngaio, John Dickson Carr: the Man Who Explained Miracles
  • B.J. Rahn, Marsh: the Woman and Her Work
  • Kate Stine, The Armchair Detective Book of Lists, 2nd edition
  • Robin Whiteman, The Cadfael Companion', 2nd edition
1994 - Jean Swanson and Dean James, By a Woman's Hand (Berkley Publishing Group)
  • William L. DeAndrea, Encyclopedia Mysteriosa
  • Allen J. Hubin, Crime Fiction II
  • Kathleen Gregory Klein, Great Women Mystery Writers
  • Charlotte MacLeod, Had She But Known: Mary Roberts Rinehart
1993 - Barbara D'Amato, The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery (Noble Press)
  • Alzina Stone Dale, Dorothy L. Sayers
  • Michael C. Gerald, The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie
  • Edward Gorman, The Fine Art of Murder
  • Marvin Lachman, A Reader's Guide to the American Novel of Detection
  • Ellen A. Nehr, The Doubleday Crime Club Compendium 1928-91

Best Short Story

Best Children/Young Adult Fiction

  • 2010 - The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith
  • 2009 - The Hanging Hill by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)
  • 2006 - Pea Soup Poisonings by Nancy Means Wright (Hilliard & Harris)
  • 2005 - Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams, HarperCollins Publishers and Flush by Carl Hiaasen (Alfred A. Knopf)
  • 2004 - Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (Scholastic Press)
  • 2003 - The 7th Knot by Kathleen Karr (Marshall Cavendish)
  • 2002 - Red Card: A Zeke Armstrong Mystery (The Zeke Armstrong Mysteries, 1) by Daniel J. Hale & Matthew LaBrot (Top Publications)
  • 2001 - ''Mystery Of The Haunted Caves: A Troop 13 Mystery by Penny Warner (Meadowbrook Press)

Special Awards

Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement

Malice Domestic Poirot Award

References


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