Awards for Great Mysteries

When gathering a reading list of novels for our mystery genre #bookbootcamp chat, I started with two awards that recognize the best in mystery literature for the year.  Both include juvenile and or young adult titles, and both have consistently included titles that are among my favorites, and that appeal to my students.

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The Edgars are awarded by the Mystery Writers of America association. Some of the nominees for the juvenile category were already in our school library, but I was missing the winner, The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo.  These are the five nominees for 2013.

The Young Adult winner for the 2013 Edgar was my favorite novel of the last year, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.  Of the other four nominees, I've read Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak and The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George, and found them to be middle school appropriate.  I have not read the other two nominees.  Maybe you have and would like to comment?

One cool thing about the Edgar site is the Edgars database.  You can search it for nominees in any category during a range of years, thus generating a possible reading list or consideration file.

The Agatha Awards are given to novels written in the "spirit" of Agatha Christie, the first lady of mystery writers. The award is given by Malice Domestic, a fan club convention of devotees of "traditional mysteries," mysteries with no explicit sex or excessive violence.  The convention is held in May and recognizes books published the previous calendar year.  The award categories include Best Children/Young Adult Novel.  The 2012 Agatha winner is the second in a series I was unfamiliar with, The Code Busters Club by Penny Warner, The Haunted Lighthouse. I've added it to my TBR list!  It will have to be great because Seconds Away by Harlan Coben and Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead were already on my favorites list, and those would be hard to beat.  Code Name Verity shows up on this list as well as The Edge of Nowhere.

 

We are more than halfway through 2013.  The Edgar and Agatha awards committees are bound to be reading now for next year's awards.  What novels do you hope to see on the 2014 lists?