The 2005 Edgar Award Nominations: The List
(This post will stay up at the top of the blog all day. For analysis of the major categories, scroll down to the posts below starting at midnight EDT.)
BEST NOVEL
Evan's Gate by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
Remembering Sarah by Chris Mooney (Atria Books)
California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker (William Morrow)
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (St. Martin's Minotaur)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas (Hard Case Crime)
Relative Danger by Charles Benoit (Poisoned Pen Press)
Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan (Delacorte Press)
Tonight I Said Goodbye by Michael Koryta (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Country of Origin by Don Lee (W.W. Norton & Company)
Bahamarama by Bob Morris (St. Martin's Minotaur)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Librarian by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books)
Into the Web by Thomas H. Cook (Bantam)
Dead Men Rise Up Never by Ron Faust (Dell)
Twelve-Step Fandango by Chris Haslam (Dark Alley)
The Confession by Domenic Stansberry (Hard Case Crime)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories
edited by Leslie S. Klinger (W.W. Norton)
Latin American Mystery Writers: An A-to-Z Guide by Daniel B. Lockhart(Greenwood Press)
Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard-Boiled Novel by Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe (McFarland &Co.)
The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. 3: 1956-1991 by Norman Sherry (Viking Books)
BEST FACT CRIME
Ready for the People: My Most Chilling Cases as Prosecutor by Marissa N. Batt (Arcade Publishing)
Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice by Leonard Levitt (Regan Books)
Forensics for Dummies by D.P. Lyle, MD
(Wiley Publishing - For Dummies)
Are You There Alone?: The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates by Suzanne O'Malley (Simon &
Schuster)
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank
Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein (Little, Brown)
Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer - America's Deadliest Serial Murderer by Ann Rule (Free Press)
BEST SHORT STORY
"Something About a Scar" -
Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You by Laurie Lynn
Drummond (HarperCollins)
"The Widow of Slane" by Terence Faherty (EQMM - March/April 2004)
"The Book Signing" - Brooklyn Noir by Pete Hamill (Akashic Books)
"Adventure of the Missing Detective" - Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years by Gary Lovisi (St. Martin's Minotaur)
"Imitate the Sun" by Luke Sholer (EQMM - November 2004)
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Story Time by Edward Bloor (Harcourt Children's Books)
In Darkness, Death by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler (Philomel Books)
Jude by Kate Morgenroth (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick (Wendy Lamb Books)
Missing Abby by Lee Weatherly (David Fickling Books)
BEST JUVENILE
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (Scholastic Press)
Assassin: The Lady Grace Mysteries by Patricia Finney (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Abduction! by Peg Kehret (Dutton Children's Books)
Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater (HarperCollins Children's Books)
The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
BEST PLAY
Spatter Pattern (Or, How I Got
Away With It) by Neal Bell (Playwrights Horizons)
Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life by Max Allan Collins (The Art House)
An Evening of Murder and the Like by Edward Musto (Barrow Group Studio Theatre)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
Law & Order:
Criminal Intent - "Want", Teleplay by Elizabeth Benjamin. Story byRené Balcer & Elizabeth Benjamin
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Conscience", Teleplay by Gerry Conway. Story by René
Balcer & Gerry Conway
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Consumed", Teleplay by Warren Leight. Story by René Balcer &
Warren Leight
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Pas De Deux", Teleplay by Warren Leight. Story by René Balcer & Warren Leight
Monk - "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf", Teleplay by Hy Conrad
BEST TELEVISION FEATURE OR MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY
State of Play by Paul Abbott (BBC America)
Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness by Peter Berry (Granada TV & WGBH Boston)
Death in Holy Orders by Robert Jones, based on the novel by P.D. James (BBC Worldwide)
Amnesia by Chris Lang (BBC America)
"The Darkness of Light" - Wire in the Blood by Alan Whiting (Coastal Productions)
BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY
A Very Long Engagement - Screenplay by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, based on the Novel by Sebastien Japrisot (2003 Productions)
The Bourne Supremacy - Screenplay by Tony Gilroy, based on the Novel by Robert Ludlum. (The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Universal Pictures, Hypnotic)
Collateral by Stuart Beattie (DreamWorks SKG)
I'm Not Scared - Screenplay by Francesca Marciano, based on the Novel by Niccolo Ammaniti. (Miramax Films)
Maria Full of Grace - Screenplay by Joshua Marston (HBO Films)
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
Thomas Morrissey
"Can't Catch Me" - Brooklyn Noir (Akashic Books)
GRAND MASTER
Marcia Muller
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Carolyn Marino, Vice President/Executive Editor, HarperCollins
RAVEN AWARDS
Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre (founded by Steve Oney)
DorothyL listserv (founded by Diane Kovacs and Kara Robinson
Murder by the Book, Houston, TX (Martha Farrington, Owner)
SPECIAL EDGAR AWARDS
David Chase (writer/producer - The Sopranos, The Rockford Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and many other breakthrough TV shows)
Tom Fontana (writer/producer - Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz, and The Jury and many other breakthrough TV shows)
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER-MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Perfect Sax by Jerrilyn Farmer (William Morrow/Avon)
The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman (Ballantine Books)
Scent of a Killer by Christiane Heggan (MIRA Books)
Grave Endings by Rochelle Krich (Ballantine Books)
Murder in a Mill Town by P.B. Ryan (Berkley Prime Crime)
The Best Novel line-up is one of the best I've seen in years for the Edgars. Four of the 5 were among my favorite books of the year. (I didn't read the other one.)
Kudos to the committee!
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | February 06, 2005 at 06:38 PM
I'm surprised the four of the five nominations for Best Teleplay went to LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT... when there was THE WIRE, THE SHIELD, THE SOPRANOS, LAW AND ORDER SVU, CSI, WITHOUT A TRACE and so much else to choose from. I know why it happened, too...the committee didn't reach out beyond what was sent to them. Rene Balcer, the ep of L&O:CI, inundates the committee with cassettes of every single episode. No other show, or producer, is as diligent about submitting work as he is. He makes it easy for them. I'm not saying L&O:CI isn't deserving of nomination... it is... but for four out of the five slots? I don't think so.
Posted by: Lee Goldberg | February 06, 2005 at 08:16 PM
What great news for Hard Case Crime. In there first year that garner 2 nominations! Congrats to Domenic and Richard (Charles, you are a genius) for their work.
Posted by: Aldo | February 06, 2005 at 08:18 PM
As good as the Best Novel list is, the Best First Novel list is pretty weak. I did enjoy Richard Aleas' book. I'm very underwhelmed by the other selections, though.
Posted by: David Montgomery | February 06, 2005 at 08:38 PM
Um, yes-what happend to The Wire and The Soprano's??
Posted by: Elaine Flinn | February 06, 2005 at 09:16 PM
I agree, the best novel list is stupendous. And ditto on Teleplay. Strange.
Posted by: m.j. rose | February 07, 2005 at 08:38 AM
I wasn't quite sure which post to put this one under as similar comments appear under a couple of the blog entries but, as a woman (last time I checked) I have absolutely no problem with some of the lists not having any female authors. Why should they? I'm assuming that the judges (men and women alike) read the books and made their selections based on what they thought were the best books, not whether the authors were male, female, or green, hermaphrodite aliens from the Planet Zog. If books by females aren't on the short list, does that not just mean that there were no books on the longlist by females that all the judges thought were good enough?
I would hate to think that the Edgars committee would say "Oh look, we have 3 female and 2 male authors in the Best Novel shortlist, we need to have 3 males and 2 females in best first."
Considering my own favourite list of best 6 novels from last year, I have 5 males and 1 female on the list. And similar ones for best first and best PBO, and all my favourite short stories are by male authors. I'm certainly not saying that males are better writers than females and I don't think the Edgars judges are either. I hadn't even thought about sex. Well, let me clarify ;o) I hadn't thought about the sex of the writers of my favourite books/stories and I'm sure the Edgars judges (again - male AND female judges) didn't either.
And finally, I have to say that if this was the other way round, and there had been more women than men nominated, and a male blogger/commenter had asked where the men were, he would have been roundly scolded :o)
Donna
Posted by: Donna | February 07, 2005 at 04:26 PM
The Wire didn't submit this year.
Posted by: Laura | February 07, 2005 at 06:17 PM
Wow! So much new reading material. Thanks for posting it all. Now I'll never get any work done.
Posted by: thevamp | February 09, 2005 at 12:04 AM
Re: Teleplay nominations.
Sounds like sour grapes from Lee Goldberg. Not to mention he's factually incorrect in stating LO:CI submits every episode. They submitted 16 out of 23 episodes produced. SVU submitted 14 episodes: if the committee thought any of those episodes were more deserving than CI, they would've nominated them. Same goes for the 39 non-LOCI episodes submitted. As for the Sopranos, and THe Wire, fine as those shows are, they don't really fit the mystery genre.
Posted by: nick | March 01, 2005 at 12:55 PM
Actually, apart from "Want", I would have nominated other LOCI episodes, like "Great Barrier", "The Saint", and "Magnificant."
Posted by: ebrown2112 | May 09, 2006 at 12:03 AM