MWA Announces Grandmaster, Raven, Ellery Queen Award Winners

Picks of the Week

Alafair Burke: 212: A Novel
If you live in New York, you'll recognize the cases 212 is based on, but the headline rip doesn't really matter: what's more important is that this is a story that is rooted in the now, where the investigation depends on web 2.0 being used for both good and ill, and where the book's heroine, Ellie Hatcher, acts in a smart, capable manner and, even when not in control of a situation, knows what she must do to re-assert it. When I say 212 is a mystery of superior professionalism, I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Burke's territory is her own, and I'm eager to see how she carves out an even larger corner that belongs to no one else. Powell’s | Borders | Amazon | B & N | Indiebound
Kate White: Hush: A Novel
White's novels, for me, are the perfect vacation read, even when I am up to my ears in deadlines. HUSH, however, is a departure from the first person Bailey Weggins mysteries (which owe their debts to fair-play mysteries), instead a third-person femjep spiraling out from one woman's impulsive sexual decision. What follows is a broken-glass sequence of murder, workplace tension, and the growing sense that someone is going to kill Lake Warren only after she's been subject to all kinds of psychological torture. I know I felt genuine palpitations while reading HUSH; something tells me many others will, too. Indiebound | Powell’s | B & N | Borders | Amazon
Lisa Lutz: The Spellmans Strike Again: A Novel
What do you mean this is the end of the Spellman Saga? Don't we get to find out what happens to Rae in college, or whether Isabel will stay the maturity course, or if Henry can stay sane amidst the craziness of a clan perfectly happy to spy on each other and others and withhold information from each other (and themselves!) all in the purpose of greater good? Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But this fourth and final installment perfectly encapsulates the zany sweetness and the larger ramifications of family that loves each other too much, in their own way - even if that way of demonstrating involves regular surveillance. Amazon | Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound | B & N
Sean Cregan: The Levels
It's a new name, a new style, and a new publisher for the man once and still known as John Rickards, and I think the change on all writerly fronts is absolutely the right one to make at this point in his career. THE LEVELS is dystopic without being obvious about it, instead creating a tangible, darkened world each of the seemingly doomed characters inhabits, tries to escape from and ultimately accepts in one form or another. It's the written version of the burnt out, empty buildings captured on film by Godfrey Riggio with Philip Glass scoring underneath - a landscape that repels and attracts but is too busy moving and changing to care what you think or are uncomfortable with. Indiebound | Borders | B & N | Amazon | Powell’s
Zoe Heller: The Believers: A Novel
On the one hand, I wish I had read this book when it came out in hardcover. On the other hand, I'm glad I waited because THE BELIEVERS demands total attention and now was the time for me to give it. The characters are so caustic and yet inspire such empathy. The narrative moves briskly yet embeds a considerable amount of detail. The dialogue is spot-on and hyper-literate, and Heller is catlike in her observations of family dysfunction, leftist politics and religiosity of all stripes, seeing all and asserting power over her characters, paradoxically, by giving them the floor to screw up and triumph. It is marvelous. Amazon | B & N | Indiebound | Borders | Powell’s

December 09, 2009

MWA Announces Grandmaster, Raven, Ellery Queen Award Winners

The Mystery Writers of America won't give out the Edgar Awards until April 29, but today they announced the 2010 Grandmaster, Raven and Ellery Queen Award recepients. Dorothy Gilman, the author of the delightful (and strangely little-talked about lately) Mrs. Polifax novels, is the new Grandmaster.

"What a lovely surprise!" Gilman said in the accompanying press release. "The list of past Grand Masters is like a Who's Who of the great mystery writers of the last century. To be chosen for this award by my professional peers has to be the greatest honor of my 60 years as an author."

Zev Buffman, a Broadway producer and the man behind the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, KY, and Mary Alice Gorman & Richard Goldman, proprietors of the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, will receive the Raven Awards. Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald of the Poisoned Pen - Bookstore and Press - are the Ellery Queen Award winners.

Posted at 11:00 AM in World of Mystery | Permalink

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Comments

No matter where my career ends up, I will always cherish the time I spent haunting the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. Congrats, Barbara and Robert!

Posted by: Stacey Cochran | December 09, 2009 at 11:48 AM

It's great to see Dorothy Gilman receiving the recognition she deserves. An excellent choice by MWA.

Posted by: Dean James | December 09, 2009 at 12:33 PM

I am a long time fan of Dorothy Gilman's adult mysteries as well as her juvenile novels, and now regret that I no longer attend the Edgar's. I did meet her once at Black Orchid and wish I hadn't been too shy to say much.

Posted by: CLM | December 13, 2009 at 11:45 AM

I have read all of the Mrs. Pollifax novels and loved every one of them. She deserves the award. I wonder if she is still writing or has she retired?

Posted by: Violete | December 19, 2009 at 10:20 PM

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December 09, 2009

MWA Announces Grandmaster, Raven, Ellery Queen Award Winners

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