LibGuides: Agatha Awards: Nonfiction (1993-present)

Agatha Awards

Best Nonfiction

2020s

WINNER

Phantom Lady : Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane

Phantom Lady : Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane
Call Number: BIO HARRI JOA L (Adult biography)
ISBN: 9781613733844
Publication Date: 2020-02-04
The untold story of Hollywood's most powerful female writer-producer of the 1940s, Joan Harrison, who grew from being the worst secretary Alfred Hitchcock ever had to one of his closest collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the "Master of Suspense."

FINALISTS

Sometimes You Have to Lie : the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Aughor of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
American Sherlock : Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson
Howdunit : a Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards
H. R. F. Keating : a Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell

Sometimes You Have to Lie : the life and times of Louise Fitzhugh, renegade author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
Call Number: BIO FITZH LOU B (Adult biography)
ISBN: 9781580057691
Publication Date: 2020-12-01
Louise Fitzhugh's books are full of resistance: to liars, to conformity, to authority, and even (radically, for a children's author) to make-believe. As a commercial children's author and lesbian, Fitzhugh often had to disguise the nature of her most intimate relationships. She lived her life as a dissenter--a friend to underdogs, outsiders, and artists--and her masterpiece remains long after her death to influence and provoke new generations of readers. Harriet is massively influential among girls and women in contemporary culture; she is the missing link between Jo March and Scout Finch, and it's not surprising that writers have thought of her as a kind of patron saint for misfit writers and unfeminine girls. This biography brings Harriet's creator into the frame, shedding new light on the author and her work.
American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson
Call Number: 363.25 D272a (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780525539551
Publication Date: 2020-02-11
From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air ("Not since Devil in the White City has a book told such a harrowing tale"--Douglas Preston) comes the riveting story of the birth of criminal investigation in the twentieth century.
Howdunit: a Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards (Editor)
Call Number: 808.3872 E26h (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780008380137
Publication Date: 2020-09-17
Howdunit offers a fresh perspective on the craft of crime writing from leading exponents of the genre, past and present. The book offers invaluable advice to people interested in writing crime fiction, but it also provides a fascinating picture of the way that the best crime writers have honed their skills over the years. Its unique construction and content mean that it will appeal not only to would-be writers but also to a very wide readership of crime fans. The principal contributors are current members of the legendary Detection Club, including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Peter James, Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, Andrew Taylor, Elly Griffiths, Sophie Hannah, Stella Duffy, Alexander McCall Smith, John Le Carré and many more. Interwoven with their contributions are shorter pieces by past Detection Club members ranging from G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr to Desmond Bagley and H.R.F. Keating.

WINNER

How to Write a Mystery: a Handbook from Mystery Writers of America by MA with editors Lee Child and Laurie R. King

How to Write a Mystery : a handbook from Mystery Writers of America by Mystery Writers of America; Lee Child (Editor); Laurie R. King (Editor)
Call Number: 808.3872 M998h (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781982149437
Publication Date: 2021-04-27
From some of the most successful mystery writers in the business, an invaluable guide to crafting mysteries, from character development and plot to procedurals and thrillers.

NOMINEES:

The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan
Murder Most Grotesque: the Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanaugh

The Combat Zone : murder, race, and Boston's struggle for justice by Jan Brogan
Call Number: 362.88 B866c (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781625346087
Publication Date: 2021-09-24
At the end of the 1976 football season, more than thirty Harvard athletes went to Boston's Combat Zone to celebrate. In the city's adult entertainment district, drugs and prostitution ran rampant, violent crime was commonplace, and corrupt police turned the other way. At the end of the night, Italian American star athlete Andy Puopolo, raised in the city's North End, was murdered in a stabbing. Three African American men were accused of the crime. His murder made national news and led to the eventual demise of the city's red-light district. Starting with this brutal murder, The Combat Zone tells the story of the Puopolo family's struggle with both a devastating loss and a criminal justice system that produced two trials with opposing verdicts, all within the context of a racially divided Boston. Brogan traces the contentious relationship between Boston's segregated neighborhoods during the busing crisis; shines a light on the overtly racist court system that allowed lawyers to strike potential jurors based on their ethnic identity; and lays bare the deep-seated corruption within the police department and throughout the Combat Zone. What emerges is a fascinating snapshot of the city at a transitional moment in its recent past.
Murder Most Grotesque : the comedic crime fictino of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan
Call Number: 823.9209 P846m (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781953789860
Publication Date: 2021-07-13
Joyce Porter is the funniest crime writer you've never heard of- until now. Creator of DCI Wilfrid Dover, Scotland Yard's laziest and rudest detective, Eddie Brown, a schoolteacher forced into Cold War spycraft against his will, and Constance Ethel Morrison-Burke ("The Hon Con"), a boisterous noblewoman turned private eye. Porter filled her mysteries with outrageous situations, sparkling dialogue, and over-the-top humor. This tribute to her works is for mystery lovers who enjoy laughing while they piece together clues.
The Irish Assassins : conspiracy, revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanagh
Call Number: 941.7081 K21i (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780802149367
Publication Date: 2021-08-03
One sunlit evening, May 6, 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were funded by American supporters of Irish independence and carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans armed with specially-made surgeon's blades. They ended what should have been a turning point in Anglo-Irish relations. A new spirit of goodwill had been burgeoning between British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Ireland's leader Charles Stewart Parnell, with both men forging in secret a pact to achieve peace and independence in Ireland-with the newly appointed Cavendish, Gladstone's protýegýe, to play an instrumental role in helping to do so. The impact of the Phoenix Park murders was so cataclysmic that it destroyed the pact, almost brought down the government, and set in motion repercussions that would last long into the twentieth century. In a story that spans Donegal, Dublin, London, Paris, New York, Cannes, and Cape Town, Julie Kavanagh thrillingly traces the crucial events that came before and after the murders. From the adulterous affair that caused Parnell's downfall; to Queen Victoria's prurient obsession with the assassinations; and the investigation spearheaded by Superintendent John Mallon, also known as the "Irish Sherlock Holmes," culminating in the eventual betrayal and clandestine escape of leading Invincible James Carey and his murder on the high seas,

WINNER

Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction by Dian Vallere, ed.

Promophobia : taking the mystery out of promoting crime fiction by Diane Vallere (Editor)
Call Number: 808.02 PROMO V
ISBN: 9798987261620
Publication Date: 2022-12-27
Publishing a book can be scary. Figuring out how to promote it can be straight-up frightening. When the seas of book promo make you feel adrift in unfriendly tides, keeping your head above water can be difficult. Enter PROMOPHOBIA, a collection of essays that just might save the life of your book. Divided into categories PROMOPHOBIA will open your eyes to the opportunities around you. The contributing authors share their personal experiences about what’s worked for them (and in a few humorous cases, what didn’t) to provide a beacon. You’re no longer in the dark. You’re not swimming alone.

NOMINEES:

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards - book
The Handbook to Agatha Christie: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie by Mary Anna Evans and J. C. Bernthal
The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

The Life of Crime : detecting the history of mysteries and their creators by Martin Edwards
Call Number: 809.3872 E26L (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780008192426
Publication Date: 2022-05-26
In the first major history of crime fiction in fifty years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the eighteenth century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world's most popular form of fiction.

WINNER

Finders : Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar

Finders : justice, faith, anad identity in Irish crime fiction (Irish studies) by Anjili Babbar
Call Number: 823.0872 BABBA F
ISBN: 9780815611578
Publication Date: 2023-03-15
Irish detectives are idiosyncratic characters, conforming neither to obsolete, stereotypical crime fiction devices nor to sentimentalized notions of Irishness engendered by the American imagination and popular culture representations. As these detectives attempt to reconcile and evaluate standards of religious and legal justice, assessing and ranking their value in a search for absolutes to incorporate in the basis of their own, individual systems, Irish noir makes use of heritage and genre in the establishment of a new approach: one which considers what it means to be both an individual and the product of social systems, both acculturated and globalized, both affected by the past and assuming a role in progress, both aware of imperfections of the self and the world and desirous of having a positive impact.

FINALISTS

Perplexing Plots : popular storytelling and the poetics of murder by David Bordwell
A Mystery of Mysteries : the death and life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak
Fallen Angel : the life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan

Fallen Angel : the life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan
Call Number: BIO POE EDGA M
ISBN: 9780807180457
Publication Date: 2023-11-15
Over 170 years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe remains a figure of enduring fascination and speculation for readers, scholars, and devotees of the weird and macabre. In Fallen Angel, acclaimed novelist and poet Robert Morgan offers a new biography of this gifted, complicated author. Focusing on Poe's personal relationships, Morgan chronicles how several women influenced his life and art. Eliza Poe, his mother, died before he turned three, but she haunted him ever after. The loss of Elmira Royster Shelton, his first and last love, devastated him and inspired much of his poetry. Morgan shows that Poe, known for his gothic and supernatural writing, was also a poet of the natural world who helped invent the detective story, science fiction, analytical criticism, and symbolist aesthetics. Though he died at age forty, Poe left behind works of great originality and vision that Fallen Angel explores with depth and feeling.

2010s

Winner

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks : 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Finalists

The Poisoner's Handbook : Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz by Deborah Blum
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder
Have Faith in Your Kitchen by Katherine Hall Page
Charlie Chan : the Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Charlie Chan : the untold story of the honorable detective and his rendezvous with American history by Yunte Huang
Call Number: 363.25 C454h (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9780393069624
Publication Date: 2010-08-30
This provocative first biography of Charlie Chan presents American history in a way that it has never been told before. Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhip-wielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon. Huang finally resurrects the “honorable detective” from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity.

Winner

Books, Crooks and Counselors : How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz

Finalists

Agatha Christie : Murder in the Making : More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran
On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda
Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A. B. Emrys
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris

Winner

Books to Die For : the World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels by John Connolly

Books to Die For : the world's greatest mystery writers on the world's greatest mystery novels by John Connolly (Editor); Declan Burke (Editor)
Call Number: 809.3 C7527b (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781476710365
Publication Date: 2016-10-25
Detective and mystery stories -- History and criticism.
Detective and mystery stories -- Reviews.
Detective and mystery stories -- Bibliography.

Finalists

Blood Relations : the Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950 by Joseph Goodrich
More Forensics and Fiction : Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D. P. Lyle More
Double Cross : the True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The Grand Tour : Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie by Mathew Prichard

Double Cross : the true story of the D-Day spies by Ben Macintyre
Call Number: 940.54 M152d (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780307888754
Publication Date: 2012-07-31
On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring Allied victory at the most pivotal point in the war.
Double Cross [CD] : the true story of the D-Day spies by Ben Macintyre; John Lee (Read by)
Call Number: CD Nonfiction MA (Adult CD Audiobooks)
ISBN: 9780307990433
Publication Date: 2012-07-31
Double Cross [E-Book] : the true story of the D-Day spies by Ben Macintyre
Call Number: 940.54 M152d Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780307888761
Publication Date: 2012

Winner

The Hour of Peril : the Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower

Finalists

Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester
Mastermind : How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
Not Everyone's Cup of Tea : an Interesting & Entertaining History of Malice Domestic's First 25 Years by Verena Rose and Rita Owen

Mastermind : how to think like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
Call Number: 153.4 K82m (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780670026579
Publication Date: 2013-01-03
Lessons from the world's greatest fictional detective teach us how to improve our own mental powers. Konnikova unpacks mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first century neuroscience and psychology

Winner

Writes of Passage : Adventures on the Writer's Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Finalists

The Poisoner : the Life and Crimes of Victorian England's Most Notorious Doctor by Stephen Bates
Death Dealer : How Cops and Cadaver Dogs Brought a Killer to Justice by Kate Flora
400 Things Cops Know : Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga
The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley

Winner

The Golden Age of Murder : the Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story by Martin Edwards

Finalists

The Great Detective : the Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes by Zack Dundas
A is for Arsenic : the Poisons of Agatha Christie
Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo
The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook : Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For edited by Kate White ; Mystery Writers of America

Winner

Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot : How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats by Jane K. Cleland

Finalists

A Good Man with a Dog : a Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods by Roger Guay with Kate Clark Flora
Sara Paretsky : a Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Margaret Kinsman

Winner

From Holmes to Sherlock : the Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Bostrom

From Holmes to Sherlock : the story of the man and women who created an icon by Mattias Bostrom; Michael Gallagher (Translator)
Call Number: 823.8 B747f (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780802126603
Publication Date: 2017-08-01
SUBJECTS:
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930 -- Characters -- Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes, Sherlock -- Influence.
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930.
Detective and mystery stories -- Authorship.
Authors, Scottish -- 19th century -- Biography.
Authors, Scottish -- 20th century -- Biography.

Finalists

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards
American Fire : Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse
Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jess Lourey
Manderley Forever : a Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards
Call Number: 823 E26d (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781464207211
Publication Date: 2017-08-01
Detective and mystery stories, English -- History and criticism.
English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
Crime in literature.
American Fire by Monica Hesse
Call Number: 364.164 H587a (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781631490514
Publication Date: 2017-07-11
The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate--there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning. The culprit, and the path that led to these crimes, is a story of twenty-first century America....Though it's hard to believe today, one hundred years ago Accomack was the richest rural county in the nation. Slowly it's been drained of its industry--agriculture--as well as its wealth and population. In an already remote region, limited employment options offer little in the way of opportunity. A mesmerizing and crucial panorama with nationwide implications, American Fire asks what happens when a community gets left behind.

Winner

Mastering Plot Twists by Jane Cleland

Mastering Plot Twists : how to use suspense, targeted storytelling strategies, and structure to captivate your readers. by Jane K. Cleland; Donald Maass (Foreword by)
Call Number: 808.3 C6245m (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781440352331
Publication Date: 2018-06-26
CONTENTS: Part one: Pre-plotting. Hone in on a conflict ; Align your people with your conflicts ; The power of perception ; Generate compelling narrative questions -- Part two: Plotting. Plot your course ; Use TRDs to control pace ; Find fire in ice ; Choose two subplots ; End with a wallop.

Finalists

Writing the Cozy Mystery by Nancy J. Cohen
Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox
Agatha Christie : a Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson
Wicked Women of Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo

Conan Doyle for the Defense : the true story of a sensational British murder, a quest for justice, and the world's most famous detective writer by Margalit Fox
Call Number: 364.1523 D754f (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780399589461
Publication Date: 2018
In 1908 an elderly woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow apartment. The police found a convenient but innocent suspect in Oscar Slater--a Jewish cardsharp--who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, already the world-famous creator of Sherlock Holmes, was outraged by this injustice and became obsessed with the case. Over the years he scoured trial transcripts, newspaper accounts, and police diaries, meticulously noting myriad holes and inconsistencies. Finally, in 1927, his work won Slater's freedom. Conan Doyle for the Defense immerses readers in the science of Edwardian crime detection, telling the story of how Conan Doyle managed to get this murder conviction overturned by employing the methods of his most famous creation. Along the way, Fox illuminates a watershed moment in the history of criminal justice when reflexive prejudice began gradually to be replaced by reason and the scientific method

Winner

The Mutual Admiration Society : How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton

The Mutual Admiration Society : how Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford cicle remade the world for women by Mo Moulton
Call Number: 823.912 S274m (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9781541644472
Publication Date: 2019-11-05
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was a renowned crime novelist who achieved fame and fortune during a period that historian Mo Moulton calls 'the day after the revolution.' In a time when just as many doors were closed to women as open, Sayers found professional success with her Lord Peter Wimsey novels. Yet she never could have done it without the cohort of remarkable women she met at university -- all of whom would go on to challenge societal norms and fight for equality of opportunity in their own way. In 1912, Dorothy L. Sayers and five friends founded a writing group at Somerville College, Oxford; they called themselves the 'Mutual Admiration Society.' Smart, bold, serious, and funny, these women were also sheltered and chaperoned, barred from receiving degrees despite taking classes and passing exams. Mutual Admiration Society follows these six women as they navigate the complexities of adulthood, work, intimacy, and sex in Interwar England. Bringing these women to vivid life, Moulton reveals how Dorothy L. Sayers was intimately intertwined with the members of the MAS -- and how, together, they fought their way into modernity

Finalists

Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell
Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrified Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin
Furious Hours : Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
The Five : The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story

Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell
Call Number: 318.52 B532f (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781476676524
Publication Date: 2019-02-25
Queen, Ellery -- Criticism and interpretation.
Dannay, Frederic, 1905-1982 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Lee, Manfred B. (Manfred Bennington), 1905-1971 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Queen, Ellery -- Influence.
Detective and mystery stories, American -- History and criticism.
Ellery Queen's mystery magazine.

Blonde Rattlesnake

Blonde Rattlesnake : Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 crime spree that terrorized Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin
Call Number: 364.9794 B849b (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781493037896
Publication Date: 2019-06-01

Furious Hours

Furious Hours : murder, fraud, and the last trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Call Number: 364.152 L478c (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781101947869
Publication Date: 2019-05-07
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted -- thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante's trial was Harper Lee, who had traveled from New York City to her native Alabama with the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she had helped her friend Truman Capote research seventeen years earlier. Lee spent a year in town reporting, and many more working on her own version of the case.
Furious Hours [E-Book] : murder, fraud and the last trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Call Number: 364.152 L478c Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781101947876
Publication Date: 2019

The Five

The Five [E-Book] : the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
Call Number: BIO R895f Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781328664082
Publication Date: 2019-04-09
Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden, and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses, lived on country estates; they breathed ink dust from printing presses and escaped human traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that “the Ripper” preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness, and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time—but their greatest misfortune was to be born women.

2000s

Winner

100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by Jim Huang

Finalists

The American Regional Mystery by Marvin Lachman
The Complete Christie by Matthew Bunson
They Wrote the Book edited by Helen Windrath
Women of Mystery edited by Martha Dubose

Winner

Seldom Disappointed : a Memoir by Tony Hillerman

Seldom Disappointed by Tony Hillerman
Call Number: 813.54 H652h (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780060194451
Publication Date: 2001-10-02
When Tony Hillerman looks back at seventy-six years spent getting from hardtimes farm boy to bestselling author, he sees lots of evidence that Providence was poking him along. For example, when an absentminded Army clerk left him off the hospital ship taking the wounded home from France, the mishap put him on a collision course with a curing ceremony held for two Navajo Marines, thereby providing the grist for a writing career that now sees his books published in sixteen languages around the world and often on bestseller lists. Or, for example, when his agent told him his first novel was so bad that it would hurt both of their reputations, he nonetheless sent it to an editor, and that editor happened to like the Navajo stuff.

Finalists

The History of the Mystery by Max Allan Collins
Writing the Mystery : a Start-To-Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional by G. Miki Hayden
Who Was That Lady? by Jeffrey Marks
Food, Drink and the Female Sleuth by The Sisters Wells

Winner

They Died in Vain : Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels edited by Jim Huang

Finalists

The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction edited by Mike Ashley
Mystery Women : an Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction by Colleen Barnett
Kitchen Privileges : a Memoir by Mary Higgins Clark
Writing Mysteries : a Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America edited by Sue Grafton with Jan Burke and Barry Zeman

Kitchen Privileges : a memoir by Mary Higgins Clark
Call Number: 813.54 C594c (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780743206051
Publication Date: 2002-11-19
Mary Higgins Clark’s memoir begins with the death of her father in 1939. With no money in the house—the Higgins Bar and Grill in the Bronx is failing and in debt, and worry about it is one of the things that has killed her father—Mary’s indomitable Irish mother (she devotes a chapter to her “Wild Irish Mother”) puts a classified ad in the Bronx Home News: “Furnished rooms! Kitchen Privileges!” Very shortly there arrives the first in a succession of tenants who will change the lives of the Higgins family and set the young Mary on her start as a writer, while bringing to them all a dose of the Christmas spirit that seemed to have vanished with Mr. Higgins’s death. Full of hope, faith, memorable characters, and warmth, Kitchen Privileges brings back into sharp, nostalgic focus the feeling of growing up poor, but determined to survive, in a vanished Bronx that was one of white lace curtains instead of a slum, and at a time when everybody was poor and either needed or offered a helping hand.

Winner

Amelia Peabody's Egypt : a Compendium by Elizabeth Peters and Kristen Whitbread

Finalists

Mystery Women : an Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction, Volume 3 (Parts 1 & 2) by Colleen A. Barnett
A Second Helping of Murder : More Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers edited by Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezah
Atomic Renaissance : Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s and 1950s by Jeffrey Marks

Winner

Private Eyelashes : Radio's Lady Detectives by Jack French

Private Eyelashes : radio's lady detectives by Jack French; Barbara J. Watkins (Foreword by)
Call Number: 791.44 F874p (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781593934507
Publication Date: 2009-05-01
Women in radio broadcasting.
Detective and mystery radio programs -- United States -- Catalogs.

Finalists

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes : the Complete Short Stories edited by Leslie Klinger

Winner

Girl Sleuth : Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

Girl Sleuth : Nancy Drew and the women who created her by Melanie Rehak
Call Number: 813.52 R345g (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780151010417
Publication Date: 2005-09-12
In 1930 a plucky girl detective stepped out of her shiny blue roadster, dressed in a smart tweed suit. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties, and emerged as beloved by girls today as by their grandmothers. Rehak tells the behind-the-scenes history of Nancy and her groundbreaking creators. Both Nancy and her "author," Carolyn Keene, were invented by Edward Stratemeyer, who also created the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy Boys. But Nancy Drew was brought to life by two remarkable women: original author Mildred Wirt Benson, a convention-flouting Midwestern journalist, and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, a wife and mother who ran her father's company after he died. Together, Benson and Adams created a character that has inspired generations of girls to be as strong-willed and as bold as they were.

Finalists

Behind the Mystery -- Top Mystery Writers by Stuart Kaminsky
The Heirs of Anthony Boucher by Marvin Lachman
The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Leslie S. Klinger

Winner

Don't Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden

Finalists

Mystery Muses by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar
The Beautiful Cigar Girl by Daniel Stashower

Winner

Arthur Conan Doyle : a Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley

Finalists

The Official Nancy Drew Handbook by Penny Warner

Winner

How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Finalists

African American Mystery Writers : a Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey
Anthony Boucher : a Biobibliography by Jeffrey Marks
Edgar Allan Poe : an Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Harry Lee Poe
The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher, or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

Winner

Dame Agatha's Shorts by Elena Santangelo

Finalists

Duchess of Death by Richard Hack
Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James
Blood on the Stage 1925-1950 by Amnon Kabatchnik
The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

Talking about Detective Fiction by P. D. James
Call Number: 823.8 J28t (Adtul Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780307592828
Publication Date: 2009-12-01
P. D. James, the undisputed queen of mystery, gives us an intriguing, inspiring and idiosyncratic look at the genre she has spent her life perfecting. Examining mystery from top to bottom, beginning with such classics as Charles Dickens's Bleak House and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and then looking at such contemporary masters as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell, P. D. James goes right to the heart of the genre. Along the way she traces the lives and writing styles of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and many more. Here is P.D. James discussing detective fiction as social history, explaining its stylistic components, revealing her own writing process, and commenting on the recent resurgence of detective fiction in modern culture. It is a must have for the mystery connoisseur and casual fan alike.

1990s

Winner

The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery by Barbara D'Amato

Finalists

Dorothy L. Sayers by Alzina Stone Dale
The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie by Michael C. Gerald
The Fine Art of Murder by Edward Gorman
A Reader's Guide to the American Novel of Detection by Marvin Lachman
The Doubleday Crime Club Compendium 1928-91 by Ellen A. Nehr

Winner

By a Woman's Hand by Jean Swanson and Dean James

Finalists

Encyclopedia Mysteriosa by William L. DeAndrea
Crime Fiction II by Allen J. Hubin
Great Women Mystery Writers by Kathleen Gregory Klein
Had She But Known : Mary Roberts Rinehart by Charlotte MacLeod

Winner

Mystery Readers Walking Guide - Chicago by Alzina Stone Dale

Finalists

John Dickson Carr : the Man Who Explained Miracles by Douglas G. Greene
Ngaio Marsh : the Woman and Her Work by B. J. Rahn
The Armchair Detective Book of Lists, 2nd ed. by Kate Stine
The Cadfael Companion, 2nd ed. by Robin Whteman

Winner

Detecting Men by Willeta L. Heising

Finalists

Amateur Detectives : a Writer's Guide to How Private Citizens Solve Criminal Cases by Elaine Raco Chase and Anne Wingate
Mystery : a Celebration by Ron Miller
The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers : the Making of a Detective Novelist by Barbara Reynolds
By a Woman's Hand, 2nd ed. by Jean Swanson and Dean James

Winner

Detecting Men by Willeta L. Heising

Finalists

Crimes of the Scene by Nina King and Robin Winks
Guilty Parties by Ian Ousby

Winner

Mystery Reader's Walking Guide to Washington D. C. by Alzina Stone Dale

Finalists

Speaking of Murder by Edward Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
Deadly Women by Jan Grape, Dean James and Ellen Nehr
Silk Stalkings II by Victoria Nichols and Susan Thompson
Killer Booksi by Jean Swanson and Dean James

Winner

Teller of Tales : the Life of Arthur Conan Doyle by Daniel Stashower

Finalists

The Deadly Directory by Kate Derie
A Taste of Murder : Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers by Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl
Detecting Women III by Willetta L. Heising
The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing by Rosemary Herbert

Agatha Awards

2020s

WINNER

Phantom Lady : Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane

FINALISTS

Sometimes You Have to Lie : the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Aughor of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody

American Sherlock : Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson

Howdunit : a Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards

H. R. F. Keating : a Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell

WINNER

How to Write a Mystery: a Handbook from Mystery Writers of America by MA with editors Lee Child and Laurie R. King

NOMINEES:

The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan

Murder Most Grotesque: the Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan

The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanaugh

WINNER

Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction by Dian Vallere, ed.

WINNER

Finders : Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar

FINALISTS

Perplexing Plots : popular storytelling and the poetics of murder by David Bordwell

A Mystery of Mysteries : the death and life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak

Fallen Angel : the life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan

2010s

Winner

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks : 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Finalists

The Poisoner's Handbook : Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz by Deborah Blum

Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder

Have Faith in Your Kitchen by Katherine Hall Page

Charlie Chan : the Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Winner

Books, Crooks and Counselors : How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz

Finalists

Agatha Christie : Murder in the Making : More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran

On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda

Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A. B. Emrys

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris

Winner

Books to Die For : the World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels by John Connolly

Finalists

Blood Relations : the Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950 by Joseph Goodrich

More Forensics and Fiction : Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D. P. Lyle More

Double Cross : the True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre

The Grand Tour : Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie by Mathew Prichard

Winner

The Hour of Peril : the Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower

Finalists

Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester

Mastermind : How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova

Not Everyone's Cup of Tea : an Interesting & Entertaining History of Malice Domestic's First 25 Years by Verena Rose and Rita Owen

Winner

Writes of Passage : Adventures on the Writer's Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Finalists

The Poisoner : the Life and Crimes of Victorian England's Most Notorious Doctor by Stephen Bates

Death Dealer : How Cops and Cadaver Dogs Brought a Killer to Justice by Kate Flora

400 Things Cops Know : Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga

The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley

Winner

The Golden Age of Murder : the Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story by Martin Edwards

Finalists

The Great Detective : the Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes by Zack Dundas

A is for Arsenic : the Poisons of Agatha Christie

Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio by Jane Ann Turzillo

The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook : Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For edited by Kate White ; Mystery Writers of America

Winner

Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot : How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats by Jane K. Cleland

Finalists

A Good Man with a Dog : a Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods by Roger Guay with Kate Clark Flora

Sara Paretsky : a Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Margaret Kinsman

Winner

From Holmes to Sherlock : the Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Bostrom

Finalists

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards

American Fire : Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jess Lourey

Manderley Forever : a Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay

Winner

Mastering Plot Twists by Jane Cleland

Finalists