AGATHA AWARDS FOR MYSTERY NOVEL

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Established in 1989, the Agatha Award for mystery fiction honors the traditional or "cozy" mystery published in the United States the previous year.  Famous author Agatha Christie gives the Agatha its name, and the award itself is a teapot to reflect the English countryside setting of many traditional mysteries. Each spring at a convention in Washington DC, the mystery fans who staff the nonprofit organization Malice Domestic Ltd bestow the Agatha Award upon the best mystery (chosen by vote) in the several categories.

Follow the links on the titles below to full book reviews. The links in the green boxes lead you to Amazon.com.

2007 A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny. Inspector Gamache returns to the tiny, quirky Canadian village of Three Pines to investigate the murder of a hateful woman who made money as a spiritual guidance counselor.  2007 Best First Novel: Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Buy on Amazon: A Fatal Grace and  Prime Time

2006 The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. When a woman is found frozen to death in a small Kansas town, it reopens the investigation of a young woman who was murdered under similar circumstances years earlier, and then covered up by the town's authorities. 2006 Best First Novel: The Heat of The Moon by Sandra Parshall  See my review of The Virgin of Small Plains. Buy on Amazon: The Virgin of Small Plains and The Heat of the Moon

2005 The Body in the Snowdrift by Katherine Hall Page.  A caterer and her minister husband attend a family reunion at a Vermont ski resort, and must cope with finding dead bodies, filling in for the resort chef, and increasingly eccentric family behavior. 2005 Best First Novel: Better Off Wed by Laura Durham.  Buy on Amazon: The Body in the Snowdrift and Better Off Wed

2004 Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear. In London, just after the First World War, Investigator Maisie Dobbs is hired to find a missing woman, but before she can track down the woman's friends, they are murdered one by one.  2004 Best First Novel:  Dating Dead Men by Harley Jane Kozak.  Buy on Amazon: Birds of a Feather and Dating Dead Men

2003 Letter from Home by Carolyn Hart.  In a small Oklahoma town in 1944, a 13 year-old girl must solve the mystery of her friend's mother's murder to clear the prime suspect: her friend's dad, home on leave. 2003 Best First Novel: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Buy on Amazon: Letter From Home and Maisie Dobbs

2002 You've Got Murder by Donna Andrews.  Turing, an Artificial Intelligence residing in cyberspace, must investigate (with the help of two Universal Library workers) the disappearance of her programmer. 2002 Best First Novel: In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Also won the 2003 Dilys Award. Buy at Amazon:  You've Got Murder and In the Bleak Midwinter

2001 Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen.  In 1899, Molly must flee her Irish village. When she escorts a woman's children by ship to New York City, she becomes the prime suspect in a murder. 2001 Best First Novel:  Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer. Buy on Amazon: Murphy's Law and Bubbles Unbound

2000 Storm Track by Margaret Maron. Judge Deborah Knott of rural North Carolina must solve the murder of a lawyer's unfaithful wife at the same time that a hurricane approaches town. 2000 Best First Novel: Death on a Silver Tray by Rosemary Stevens.  Buy on Amazon: Storm Track and Death on a Silver Tray

1999 Mariner's Compass by Earlene Fowler. Benni, the curator of a folk museum in California, inherits a house from an unknown benefactor and finds within it many clues pointing to a secret involving her long-dead mother. 1999 Best First Novel: Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews. Buy on Amazon: Mariner's Compass and Murder With Peacocks

1998 Butcher's Hill by Laura Lippman. In Baltimore, a former journalist takes her first case as a private eye: tracking down witnesses to a vigilante shooting so that her client (the vigilante) can make reparations to them -- except that now the witnesses are turning up dead. 1998 Best First Novel:  The Doctor Digs a Grave by Robin Hathaway.  Buy on Amazon: Butchers Hill and The Doctor Digs a Grave

1997 The Devil In Music by Kate Ross. In 1821, an Italian aristocrat and music-lover is murdered and English dilettante-sleuth Julian Kestrel must solve the crime. 1997 Best First Novel: The Salaryman's Wife by Sujata Massey. Buy on Amazon: The Devil in Music and The Salaryman's Wife

1996 Up Jumps the Devil by Margaret Maron.  Judge Deborah Knott of rural North Carolina must solve a murder involving inherited land, and one of the suspects is the handsome drifter to whom she was once briefly married. 1996 Best First Novel: Murder on a Girl's Night Out by Anne George.  Buy on Amazon:  Up Jumps the Devil and Murder on a Girls' Night Out

1995 If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him by Sharyn McCrumb.  In Virginia, forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson must uncover evidence to help her lawyer brother defend a woman accused of poisoning her husband, an evil preacher. 1995 Best First Novel: The Body in the Transept by Jeanne M. Dams.  Buy on Amazon: If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him and The Body in the Transept

1994 She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb. Martha Ayers, a new sheriff's deputy, must prove herself in a case involving an elderly prison-escapee and a grad student who retraces the Appalachian trail used by a pioneer woman who fled from being held captive by Indians. 1994 Best First Novel: Do Unto Others by Jeff Abbott. Buy on Amazon: She Walks These Hills and Do Unto Others

1993 Dead Man's Island by Carolyn Hart. Henrietta, now retired after 50 years as a journalist, visits the private island of her former lover at his request to deduce which of several suspects tried to poison him.  1993 Best First Novel:  Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr. See Mystery Series List - Anna Pigeon Series by Nevada Barr.  Buy on Amazon:  Dead Man's Island and Track of the Cat

1992 Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. Attorney Deborah Knott of rural North Carolina must solve the 18 year-old murder of a promiscuous and mysterious woman.  This also won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery novel in 1993. 1992 Best First Novel: Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely. Buy on Amazon: Bootlegger's Daughter and Blanche on the Lam

1991 I.O.U. by Nancy Pickard. A woman investigating clues into her own mother's insanity and her father's bankrupcy uncovers dark family secrets that threaten her life. 1991 Best First Novel: Zero at the Bone by Mary Willis Walker.  Buy on Amazon:  I.O.U. and Zero at the Bone

1990 Bum Steer by Nancy Pickard.  Jenny, the director of a Kansas philanthropic organization, travels to Kansas City to meet an unknown benefactor who bequeathed his property to her organization -- only to find him murdered by one or more of several suspects she must investigate. 1990 Best First Novel:  The Body in the Bellfry by Katherine Hall Page. Buy on Amazon: Bum Steer and The Body in the Belfry

1989 Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters. Writer Jacqueline gets a lucrative contract to pen the sequel to a best-selling author's novel and must investigate that author's mysterious death.  1989 Best First Novel:  Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill. Buy on Amazon: Naked Once More and Grime and Punishment

1988 Something Wicked by Carolyn G. Hart. When Annie's boyfriend is accused of murder on the set of a production of Arsenic & Old Lace, she must clear his name, using the methods of her favorite sleuths. 1988 Best First Novel: A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George. Buy on Amazon: Something Wicked and A Great Deliverance  

Noteworthy Links:   Wonderquest - Science Q/A! The Connection - Tech blog! Author site - John the Eunuch Historical Mystery series, Cozy Mystery List for all your cozy mystery needs, Obsidian Bookshelf - reviews of gay-themed fiction.
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