Drum roll. The envelope, please! And the winner is… The 2025 Agatha and Edgar award winners were recently announced. They’re some of the most prestigious honors in the mystery genre. Nominees and winners display the distinction beneath their signature line and include it in their biographies. The recognition garners immediate respect within the writing community. Even though I do not have a book in the mix yet, I eagerly anticipate the nominations each spring. The carefully curated list of nominees provides a road map to good books and talented authors. Some names are unfamiliar, others are tried and true. Each are worth exploring. I always end up with new titles to add to my towering pile of TBR (“to be read”) books.
Malice Domestic is an annual fan convention that takes place each year in the D.C. area. The Agatha Awards are announced during the conference. They celebrate traditional mysteries, best typified by the works of Agatha Christie, and the award is named after the grande dame. A complete list of the nominees is posted on their website: https://www.malicedomestic.net/agatha-awards/copy-of-agatha-nominations The 2025 winners are as follows:
Best Contemporary Novel: Gigi Pandian for A Midnight Puzzle
Best First Novel: K.T. Nguyen for You Know What You Did
Best Non-Fiction: Phyllis M. Betz for Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft
Best Children’s/YA: K.A. Jackson for Sasquatch of Harriman Lake
Best Historical Novel: Amanda Flower for To Slip the Bonds of Earth
Best Short Story: Barb Goffman for “The Postman Always Flirts Twice” in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards are presented by the Mystery Writers of America in New York City each year. There are a lot of different categories. For a full list of the nominees for this year and years past, go to https://edgarawards.com/ A list of the 2025 winners is posted on their website: https://mysterywriters.org/mystery-writers-of-america-announces-the-2025-edgar-award-winners/ The Edgars cover a wide spectrum of mystery genres—there’s something for everyone.
Congratulations to the Agatha and Edgar Award winners and happy reading to all!
