Here are this year’s Edgar Allan Poe Award nominees.

The Mystery Writers of America has just announced the nominations for this year’s Edgar Allan Poe Award. Celebrating the 213th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, the award recognizes the best titles in mystery fiction and non-fiction, as well as teleplays, from 2021. The Annual Edgar Allan Awards ceremony will be held at New York Marriott Marquis Times Square on April 28.

Below are this year’s nominees!

Best Novel

Rhys Bowen, The Venice Sketchbook
(Amazon Publishing – Lake Union)

S.A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears
(Macmillan Publishers – Flatiron Books)

James Kestrel, Five Decembers
(Hard Case Crime)

Will Leitch, How Lucky
(HarperCollins – Harper)

Kat Rosenfield, No One Will Miss Her
(HarperCollins – William Morrow)

Best First Novel by an American Author 

Erin Flanagan, Deer Season
(University of Nebraska Press)

Vera Kurian, Never Saw Me Coming
(Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row)

Fabian Nicieza, Suburban Dicks
(Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

JoAnne Tompkins, What Comes After
(Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)

Caitlin Wahrer, The Damage
(Penguin Random House – Viking Books/Pamela Dorman Books)

Best Paperback Original

David Bell, Kill All Your Darlings
(Penguin Random House – Berkley)

C.J. Cooke, The Lighthouse Witches
(Penguin Random House – Berkley)

Daryl Gregory, The Album of Dr. Moreau
(Tom Doherty Associates – Tordotcom)

C.S. O’Cinneide, Starr Sign
(Dundurn Press)

Alan Parks, Bobby March Will Live Forever
(Europa Editions – World Noir)

Laura Purcell, The Shape of Darkness
Penguin Random House – Penguin Books

Best Fact Crime

Margalit Fox, The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History
(Random House Publishing Group – Random House)

Elon Green, Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York
(Celadon Books)

Ann Hagedorn, Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away
(Simon & Schuster)

Ellen McGarrahan, Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice
(Penguin Random House – Random House)

Benjamin T. Smith, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Curtis Wilkie, When Evil Lived in Laurel:  The “White Knights” and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Best Critical/Biographical

Mark Aldridge, Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World
(HarperCollins Publishers – Harper360)

Richard Greene, The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene
(W.W. Norton & Company)

James McGrath Morris, Tony Hillerman: A Life
(University of Oklahoma Press)

John Tresch, The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Edward White, The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Best Short Story

Michael Bracken & James A. Hearn, “Blindsided,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
(Dell Magazines)

V.M. Burns, “The Vermeer Conspiracy,” Midnight Hour
(Crooked Lane Books)

Tracy Clark, “Lucky Thirteen,” Midnight Hour
(Crooked Lane Books)

R.T. Lawton “The Road to Hana,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
(Dell Magazines)

Gigi Pandian, “The Locked Room Library,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
(Dell Magazines)

Cornell Woolrich, “The Dark Oblivion,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
(Dell Magazines)

Best Juvenile

 Elizabeth C. Bunce, Cold-Blooded Myrtle
(Workman Publishing – Algonquin Young Readers)

Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Concealed
Scholastic – Scholastic Press

Marthe Jocelyn, Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Dead Man in the Garden
(Penguin Random House Canada – Tundra Books)

M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman, Kidnap on the California Comet: Adventures on Trains #2
(Macmillan Children’s Publishing – Feiwel & Friends)

Jennifer A. Nielsen, Rescue
(Scholastic – Scholastic Press)

 Best Young Adult

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Ace of Spades
(Macmillan Children’s Publishing – Feiwel & Friends)

Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper’s Daughter
(Macmillan Children’s Publishing – Henry Holt and Company BFYR)

Pamela N. Harris, When You Look Like Us
(HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)

June Hur, The Forest of Stolen Girls
(Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)

Tess Sharpe, The Girls I’ve Been
(Penguin Young Readers – G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR)

Best Television Episode Teleplay

Tim Balme, “Dog Day Morning,” The Brokenwood Mysterie
(Acorn TV)

Gaby Chiappe, “Episode 1,” The Beast Must Die
(AMC+)

Andrew Haigh, “The Men Are Wretched Things,” The North Water
(AMC+)

 Nicholas Hicks-Beach, “Happy Families,” Midsomer Murders
(Acorn TV)

Iturri Sosa, “Boots on the Ground,” Narcos: Mexico
(Netflix)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

Rob Osler, “Analogue,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
(Dell Magazines)

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award

Katherine Cowley, The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet
(Tule Publishing – Tule Mystery)

Tracy Gardner, Ruby Red Herring
(Crooked Lane Books)

Naomi Hirahara, Clark and Division
(Soho Press – Soho Crime)

Callie Hutton, The Sign of Death
<(Crooked Lane Books)

Elizabeth Penney, Chapter and Curse
(St. Martin’s Paperbacks)

The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award

Elizabeth Breck, Double Take
(Crooked Lane Books)

Tracy Clark, Runner
(Kensington Books)

Thomas Kies, Shadow Hill
(Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Kwei Quartey, Sleep Well, My Lady
(Soho Press – Soho Crime)

S.J. Rozan, Family Business
(Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

Special Awards 

Grand Master

Laurie R. King

Raven Award

Lesa Holstine
(Lesa’s Book Critiques; Library Journal Reviewer)

Ellery Queen Award

Juliet Grames
(Soho Books)