Working on your summer mystery reading list? Explore winning authors and titles from this year’s prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Awards—considered the Oscars of mystery writing. In categories from Best Novel to Best Short Story, the Edgars® have been presented since 1946, going to authors the likes of Truman Capote, Stephen King, and Elly Griffiths. Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders script for MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS won Best Television Episode Teleplay in 2023.
“Winners in nine different categories are selected by volunteer panels of published writers from Mystery Writers of America’s 2,000+ members,” says MWA Vice President, Donna Andrews. “Over the past year, judges collectively read over 1,750 books, short stories, and teleplays before choosing winners.” Explore some of the year’s best writing in mystery and crime below and find the full winners list on the Edgar Awards website.
- 1.
Best Novel: Flags on the Bayou
About the Book: Flags on the Bayouisset in Civil War-era Louisiana. The Confederate army is in disarray in fall 1863, corrupt structures are falling apart, and a brilliant cast of characters—enslaved and free women, plantation gentry, and battle-weary soldiers from north and south—are caught in the maelstrom. Author Burke “stitches plot threads and historical details with ease, weaving it all into an urgent, propulsive story steeped in his deep personal connections to Louisiana,” says Publishers Weekly.
About the Author: James Lee Burke is aNew York Timesbestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar® Award as well as the Edgar’s Grand Master Award, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger and Gold Dagger and the Grand Prix deLittératurePolicière, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
- 2.
Best Fact Crime: Crooked
About the Book:In Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal, first-time author Nathan Masters shares a true story of inconceivable corruptness involving an ambitious senator, a public reckoning at the Department of Justice, and the rise of J. Edgar Hoover. “Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil,” says Kirkus Reviews.
About the Author: Nathan Masters produces and hosts the Emmy Award-winning local seriesLost LA, which airs on PBS SoCal. Helives in the mountains of Southern California with his wife, author and TV writer KseniyaMelnik, and their two children.Crookedis his first book.
- 3.
Best First Novel by an American Author: The Peaco*ck and the Sparrow
About the Book:Aging CIA agent Shane Collins is stationed in Bahrain when his final mission goes seriously amiss. Ensnared in the Arab Spring revolution, he finds himself dealing with both murder and consuming passion. When ultimately forced to shed his indifference and choose sides, Collins must face the stunning ramifications of his decisions. “A spy thriller that is engaging and utterly believable…cynical, fast moving and immensely readable,” says NPR.
About the Author: I.S. Berryspent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She’s one of only a few female spy novelists who were actually spies. Berry lives in Virginia with her husband and son. The CIA is producing a short film about the author and her book.
- 4.
Best Paperback Original: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
About the Book:Vera Wong is a lonely yet feisty tea shop owner in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Her business has lost most of its customers and her Gen-Z son rarely returns her texts, but things get exciting when she finds a dead body and steals key evidence from the crime scene. Wong uses a big imagination paired with tea and home-cooked meals to humorously suss out four suspects. “Sutanto hits all the right notes in this cozy mystery, perfectly blending meddling, murder, and found family,” says BookPage.
About the Author: Jesse Q. Sutantois the award-winning author ofDial A for Aunties; Well, That Was Unexpected;The Obsession; and Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit. Adaptations of her titles for film and TV are in the works. Sutanto grew up in cities across Southeast Asia and today makes her home in Jakarta. She lives on the same street as her parents and about 700 meddlesome aunties.
- 5.
Best Short Story: Hallowed Ground
About the Book:Hallowed Ground features Chief of Police Kate Burkholder searching for answers when her dog brings home a human bone. (Castillo’s Kate Burkholder thriller series set in Ohio Amish country numbers over 20 novels and stories to date.) Burkholder and her fiancé work to solve the mystery while rumors, macabre theories, and ghost stories circulate locally. Kirkus Reviews says Castillo’s characters are ones “you care about, and a cleareyed look at their unique culture make this series the best of the Amish bunch.”
About the Author: Linda Castillo was a double winner at the 2024 Edgar® Award ceremonies: She also received MWA and G.P. Putnam’s Sons’ Sue Grafton Memorial Award forAn Evil Heart, a novel finding Kate Burkholder respond to a murder committed with a crossbow. Castillo has a passion for horses and lives on a Texas ranch with her husband.
- 6.
Best Juvenile: The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto
About the Book:Twelve-year-old Rafael “Rafa” prefers the world of a role-playing game called The Forgotten Age to his actual home life. When Rafa and his pals take the game into the real world and land in trouble, his dad sends him to work on a New Mexico ranch for a month, far from his friends and their game. Some very odd and inexplicable incidents occur on this ranch, which may be haunted by cattle-rustlers from the 1800s. School Library Journal says, “The emotional resonance in this appealing story is in how Rafa and other characters come to terms with transformative events in their lives in a very real and relatable way.”
About the Author: Adrianna Cuevas is first-generation Cuban American and only the second Latina ever nominated for an Edgar®. . In accepting her win, Cuevas shared that she’d once interviewed James Lee Burke—the night’s Best Novel winner for Flags on the Bayou—and that when she told him she wanted to be a writer, he said, “you’re a winner, I can tell;” a comment she captured on tape and played in her car many times over to keep her spirits up.
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