Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Our April 2012 Bestsellers

Hardcovers

1 – Amanda Quick, Crystal Gardens, Putnam

2 – Lisa Lutz, Trail of the Spellmans, Simon & Schuster

3 – Owen Laukkanen, The Professionals, Putnam

4 – Donna Leon, Beastly Things, Atlantic Monthly

5 – Jacqueline Winspear, Elegy for Eddie, Harper

6 – Jim Lynch, Truth Like the Sun, Knopf

7 – tie

Patricia Briggs, Fair Game, Ace

Phillip Margolin, Capitol Murder, Harper

Cara Black, Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, Soho

10 – Randy Wayne White, Chasing Midnight, Putnam

Trade Paperbacks

1 – William Seil, Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy, Titan

2 – Gay Hendricks & Tinker Lindsay, The First Rule of Ten, Hay House

3 – tie

William Kent Krueger, Northwest Angle, Simon & Schuster

James Thompson, Snow Angels, Berkley

5 – tie

Ross Allison, Spooked in Seattle, Clerisy

Urban Waite, The Terror of Living, Backbay

Susan Elia MacNeal, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, Bantam

8 – tie

Matt Ruff, Bad Monkeys, Harper

Bill Fitzhugh, The Exterminators, Poisoned Pen

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, Scholastic

James Thompson, Lucifer’s Tears, Berkley

Yrsa Sigurdaardóttir, Ashes to Dust, Minotaur

Mass Markets

1 - Kevin O’Brien, Terrified, Pinnacle

2 – Jo Nesbø, Redbreast, Harper

3 - Louise Penny, Still Life, St. Martin’s

4 – tie

Mike Lawson, The Inside Ring, Atlantic Monthly

Camilla Läckberg, The Ice Princess, Pocket

D.D. Barant, Dying Bites, St. Martin’s

7 – K.W. Jeter, Infernal Devices, Angry Robot

8 - tie

Carolyn Hart, Dead by Midnight, Harper

Carol O’Connell, Mallory’s Oracle, Jove

10 – tie

J.A. Jance, Until Proven Guilty, Harper

Lee Child, The Affair, Dell

Camilla Läckberg, The Preacher, Pocket

Robert B. Parker, Sixkill, Berkley

What Happened to the Edgars?

Not that long ago, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, the Edgar Award nominees were Big Stuff. We would hold doing any returns until after they were announced early in the year - which was dangerous, as it means holding onto lots of books that should have been returned to lower the end-of-the-year inventory for tax purposes. But we'd learned over the years that as soon as the nominees were announced the calls would start, with collectors from around the country trying to find 1st printings. Man, you sure hoped that you had a supply of at least a couple of the nominees, better still if they were signed. If we didn't have copies, we would scramble to get them from the wholesalers. We'd try to get at least five copies of each and we'd just have to hope that they'd arrive in good shape, clean and crisp and desirable.

The whole thing would start over on the night of the Edgar banquet. We'd try to find someone who was going and arrange for them to call us so that we could try to get more copies of the winners first thing that next morning. Had to have them. Had to.

We'd put big signs in the front windows - "New Edgar Nominees Now In" or "Edgar Winners Available", something like that. People would specifically come in to look for them, to ask for them. To read them and judge for themselves.

But something shifted over the years. We now have one man who, each year, wants a copy of each nominee. He doesn't care about printing but he'd prefer hardcover. He's it.

Since the awards were announced last Thursday, no one has asked about them. We put the winners in last Friday's newzine. No reaction. We have the list of nominees with the winners underlined on our front counter and none have sold.

No one seems to care or pay attention...

What happened to the Edgars?

Why Prague?

As my previous books were all set in the neon lit streets of Tokyo and Osaka, a lot of folks have been asking why I chose to write a novel set half a world away in Prague.

There's no single answer. I was blown away by the city when I first visited in 2002 (just after the devastating flood that plays an important role in Complication) but I didn't really consider using it as a setting until years later, when I got the idea of a crime surrounding a mysterious watch that ticked backward and forward at the same time. And I thought, who better than to have commissioned this watch Emporer Rudolf II, Prague-based Holy Roman Emporer in the late 16th century?

From there it involved a ton of research, something I'd hoped to avoid, to be honest, but the more I started learning about Prague and its history, the more fictional doors started opening, the more my story started expanding and deepening.

Its a city of intrigue, ghosts, and endless fascination (and yes, a real place too, where real people get up everyday and go to their real jobs and live regular, mundane lives -- but if you wanted to read about that, you probably wouldn't be at a mystery blog right now, would you?) Despite visiting multiple times during the course of my research, I feel as if I've only glimpsed at its surface

Isaac Adamson

 

 

2012 Edgar Award Winners

Winners of the 2012 Edgar Awards were announced tonight.

Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees!

Best Novel: Mo Hayder, Gone, Atlantic Monthly Press

Best First Novel: Lori Roy, Bent Road , Dutton

Best Paperback Original: Robert Jackson Bennett, The Company Man, Orbit Books

Best Fact Crime: Candace Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, Doubleday

Best Critical Biography: Michael Dirda, On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling, Princeton University Press

Best Short Story: Peter Turnbull "The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train" , Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best Juvenile: Matthew J. Kirby, Icefall, Scholastic Press

Best Young Adult: Dandi Daley Mackall, The Silence of Murder, Knopf

Questions and Answers with Amanda Quick

We're trying something different with Jayne Ann Krentz today. Instead of having her sit at the computer and improvise a blog post, we sent her the following questions at the end of last week and she took a few days to answer. Much easier, she said, than the under-the-gun need to be creative. We'll try this with future authors when we can. Our questinos in blue, Jayne's in black:

--> How many rejection slips did you get before your first novel was published?

ANSWER: I stopped counting after the first couple of hundred. I regret to say that it took me six long years to get published. When I started out virtually no U.S. publishers published romantic-suspense. But when the U.S. market finally opened up I was there, standing on the right corner when the bus arrived.

--> Have you ever thrown away a book that you just couldn't make work?

ANSWER: Never had to throw away an entire book, thank goodness. If a book/plot/character isn't going to work it becomes obvious fast.

--> Is it still exciting to publish a new book even after all this time?

ANSWER: Are you kidding? It's always a thrill. There is something just so dang cool about publishing a new book. I love the feeling.

--> Do you get ideas for new books all the time and you keep them written down, or does one come to mind when you need one?

ANSWER: Boy, howdy, I sure wish a new plot would show up automatically whenever I need one. That would be very handy. Sadly, new ideas require thinking -- lots and lots of thinking.

--> Do you have entire story arcs mapped out when you begin a trilogy or a series of related books?

ANSWER: Yes, but only in an extremely vague way. My problem is that I get my best ideas after I start writing -- not at the early plotting stage when they would be most useful for advance planning.

--> Do you know how a book/series is going to end when you begin it?

ANSWER: I know it will end happily and with an element of redemption but that's because I'm fundamentally an optimist. That worldview informs all of my books.

--> Would life be easier if you published under just one name?

ANSWER: Oh, yeah. I never set out to have three careers, trust me. I always figured I'd stick with the one that worked. I didn't have a backup plan in the event that all three names worked, which is what happened. But there has been one big advantage: This way readers know which of my three fictional landscapes -- past, present, or future -- they'll be getting when they pick up one of my books.

--> Do you have to enter a different mind-set to write different stories for different names?

ANSWER: Nope. The only thing that changes is the fictional landscape. That allows me to do different kinds of plots, of course, but my core archetypes, sense of humor, worldviews, values, etc. do not change between books.

--> Is there any kind of book you would like to write but haven't?

ANSWER: No. One of the many things I love about romantic-suspense is that the genre has plenty of room for my stories.

--> If you could change anything about your writing career, what would it be?

ANSWER: I would have stuck with one name -- my birth name, as it happens, Jayne Castle. But things got complicated somewhere along the line.

Getting Ready for Tuesday

Here's Jayne - er, um Amanda - with our reserved copies of her new romantic suspense novel Crystal Gardens, on sale next Tuesday. With over 200 copies to be signed, Jayne came in today to sign the copies to be sent overseas and by priority mail, maybe half overall. It's always a big production and splitting the signing work over two days is the only way to get it all done and keep it all straight. 

Not only signed copies but the only place to get copies with a rose stamp!

The Day the Music Died

Dick Clark, Man of Music and Mystery: Nov 30, 1929 - April 18, 2012

A Simple Plan for Publishing's Future

by PNBA Executive Director Thom Chambliss (reprinted with his kind permission)

With the lawsuit filed against several of the largest publishers in the country challenging the way in which those publishers decided to adopt the "agency plan" for selling their eBooks (go here to Seattle Mystery Bookshop's blog for a nice summary of the settlement and what it means), all kinds of people are speaking out about the demise of publishing as we know it. Maybe they're right. My guess is, though, that at least some publishers will figure it out, will go their own way, and will eventually adopt agency plans--not just for eBooks, but for all of their new releases, new paperback editions, and new eBooks.

Why would publishers set minimum prices for their books? Simply to accommodate those authors who want to protect the value of their work, and in doing so, to protect the broadest and deepest ways of distributing books in a free market. Let me explain.

The movie industry has dealt with the issue of digitized product now for more than twenty years; perhaps the book industry can learn from its model. The movie producers, comparable to our publishers, decided early on NOT to release their movies directly to video at the same time as they released the films to theaters. Why? To maintain the value of their long and expensive work. Any movie released "direct to video," without first being run in theaters, was assumed to be so bad that it would lose money in theaters. Over the years, the film industry has established a logical, progressive marketing pattern for their products: first a film is released only to theaters, only at full price. Then the movie is released to video at full retail, and simultaneously to pay TV at premium prices. Finally, usually after a few years, the film is sold to network TV and the DVD is re-priced for mass-market sales.

What is the lesson for publishers? I believe that many publishers of quality books will soon begin selling their front list on an agency plan, meaning the book's price will be set by the publisher, NOT by the retailer, so that those people who most want the book will pay a premium for it. This would allow ALL retailers to sell the books competitively; no one vendor would be able to discount the book lower than its competitors. Perhaps, for many front-list titles, sales quantities would initially decline, because an author's book would not be available anywhere at massive discounts. However, after a reasonable time set by the publisher, that hardcover edition could be sold at discount by whomever. If the book had been well-received by the book buying public at its premium price, the newly discounted copies might see massively increased sales. Then, with the release of the first trade paperback edition, another wave of marketing would take place, dictated by the success of the total premium and discount-priced sales of the hardcover, and sold initially only at the premium paper price, under agency pricing. Again, within a time adopted by the publisher, those editions would eventually be sold at discount. At that point, the eBook versions would be released, many initially sold at publisher-set agency prices, before eventually being offered at discounts set by the retailers.

What advantages would such a system offer? Basically, the same advantages that it offers to the movie industry: the publisher maintains its income and control over the initial release of the product, provides itself with upcoming opportunities to re-market each new edition of the book, and assures the author that he or she will continue to provide the editorial and promotional opportunities, and income, that direct-to-eBook releases don't offer.

Some people complain that publishers should release their books at the lowest possible price, because the public shouldn't have to pay a "premium." Are these same people complaining that the movie studios should release all of their new movies to DVD, at the lowest price based on the cost of transferring the data to disc? If not, why not? Probably because they know that that model would be disaster for the movie producer, and would mean that no one would be able to produce movies at a profit. That is the dilemma facing publishers today: they cannot make a profit by releasing their new books direct to eBook at the lowest cost of data transfer. Some of us respond to that with "Well, duh."

God forbid that I, or anyone else, should tell publishers what to do. I mean this as a suggestion that publishers look at what is working and why. Yes, if publishers moved to agency plan sales for all of their "new releases," in every format, it would mean that independent retail bookstores could again compete on the sale of books, and a lot more of them might survive in such a rejuvenated industry. And, yes, I work for some of those book retailers, so I have a vested interest. But I also believe that publishers, big and small, provide enormous benefit to their authors and thus to the public. Almost every book they publish is chosen not so much with profit in mind, but to share ideas, often at a loss.

Publishers pay up front to acquire books; invest in editorial processes to improve them and make them even better than their first drafts; invest in sometimes wide and sweeping marketing and promotional programs to help the books reach their widest audience; and print, package and distribute the books, all in the hope that they will make enough money to pay for the investment. And, if they are enormously lucky and successful, additional profits may just help pay for the publishing of other books that might not ever make back the expenses. That is the nature of publishing.

If Amazon, or any one discounter, ever becomes the only source of publishing and distribution of books in this country, free speech will become a lost dream. I encourage my publisher friends to think for themselves, and to save themselves while they still can.

From the Columbia Journalism Review

Ebooks and Antitrust

The Justice Department sues Apple and five book publishers for fighting Amazon, April 11, 2012

By Ryan Chittum

Back in 2010, a giant retailer had 90 percent of a market—a near total monopoly (monopsony, if you want to be precise).

This company tried to dictate pricing in the industry via its dominant position (aided significantly, to be sure, by its early innovation in the market) and by the fact that it can use its profits elsewhere to subsidize heavy discounts, selling them at a loss so other retailers can’t match its prices. That threatened to further cement this company’s grip on the market, as did the fact that it sold a device that locked consumers into its proprietary software. This company used its monopoly power to demand lower prices from manufacturers, removing their products from its store (and thus cutting off almost all sales) when they didn’t comply.

Manufacturers in this market—the folks who actually make the stuff people buy—were gravely concerned about the power this retailer had assumed over their business.

Another giant company came along and told manufacturers it had a better model. It would let them set their own prices for their own goods in exchange for a fixed cut and for barring other retailers from selling for less. The manufacturers agreed and individually set their own prices for their products.

While this would have been vertical price fixing and considered illegal five years ago under the Sherman Antitrust Act, a 2007 Supreme Court ruling has changed that, saying that retailers can set minimum prices for their products to “give consumers more options so that they can choose among low-price, low-service brands; high-price, high-service brands; and brands that fall in between.”

Two years later, the model has made an impact. The monopoly retailer’s position in the market has been reduced to 60 percent. Prices have risen about 25 percent, which allows for the emergence of two new major retailers who wouldn’t have been in the market since they would have been competing to lose money on every book sale. Sales have continued to boom.

The Justice Department sues for antitrust violations. But whom does it sue? The companies fighting the monopoly, naturally.

The dominant retailer I’m talking about above, of course, is Amazon. The competitor is Apple (and, later, Barnes & Noble), and the manufacturers are the major book publishers.

But the Obama administration is missing the forest for the trees in suing them for colluding to raise prices in the ebook market.

While this may look like price-fixing, and the DOJ has some damning-looking meetings and timelines (that Penguin’s CEO says contain “material misstatements and omissions”), it’s ultimately about companies being forced to do what the government wouldn’t do: Take on a monopolistic competitor that abused its market power to dictate how they do business.

How do we know this? Because the publishers sued here made less money under Apple’s agency sales model than they did under Amazon’s loss leader policy. As Macmillan CEO John Sargent, who is fighting the DOJ suit, says: "When Macmillan changed to the agency model we did so knowing we would make less money on our e book business. We made the change to support an open and competitive market for the future, and it worked." What kind of sense does it make for companies to fix prices to make less money? The publishers were gravely worried about the monopoly power Amazon was accumulating over their market and they acted to break it. If anybody was anticompetitive here it’s Apple, which leveraged its heft and the publishers’ weak position vis a vis Amazon to ensure itself a 30 percent profit margin on ebook sales.

This kind of market distortion is unsurprising when companies like Amazon, which doesn’t play nice, are allowed to accumulate dominant positions and to use their power to dictate terms.

GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram writes that “A case against Amazon wouldn’t make any sense unless it could be shown that Amazon’s behavior was causing higher prices.” It’s true antitrust laws are there primarily to protect consumers, but they do that in part by protecting competitors and suppliers from chokeholds in markets. Doing so ultimately protects consumers in the long run—on prices and on selection.

Taking a loss on something to establish or maintain a dominant market position is predatory pricing. In the short run, that may benefit consumers, but it won’t in the long run. (UPDATE: I’ve made several copy edits to fix tenses in the opening few paragraphs.)

Reprinted with the kind permission of the CLR, whose motto is "Strong Press, Strong Democracy"

DoJ settlement, Amazon: What it Means

What does the settlement of three major publishers with the Department of Justice lawsuit mean? Really - it is too soon to know. We think we know what it will mean in the near-term, but if we could predict the future we'd be gazillionaires from all the Lottery numbers we'd have chosen and wouldn't be trying to scrape out livings selling books.

In the short term, we will undoubtedly see the price of e-books tumble. Will it be a slight decrease or a free fall? In the short term, probably somewhere in between. Amazon released a statement yesterday that they were looking forward to lowering prices. Will that mean back down to $9.99 from $14.99? We shall see. Will it mean even lower? We shall see. You can track that yourself. Pick a new book on Amazon and check the price for a Kindle edition. Then look up the same book on another site and see if there is a difference. Now repeat every couple of days. (We don't set the prices of the e-books sold through our site. Google does that. Will they drop prices to match Amazon? We'll see.)

In a comment reported widely yesterday, "Reaction from Amazon was also swift. Drew Herdener, a spokesperson for the e-tailer, called the DoJ’s decisions “a big win for Kindle owners,” adding, “We look forward to being allowed to lower prices on more Kindle books.”

A report on Mediabistro notes that in the first quarter of 2012, Amazon's sales of e-books rose 29% while Apple's rose just 1%. Overnight, Apple's stock had dropped 13% when we checked Friday, while B&N's dropped 6.4% Thurdsay (down 17% for the month that is not half over). We admit to not being able to tell much from these tea leaves - Amazon's stock is also down slightly.

What will it mean to publishers? In the short term, it depends on the publisher. Those who settled will be forced to pay millions back to customers in some fashion. So they'll take a financial hit in the short term, at a time when they're already reeling from the falling sales of printed books. On NPR Thursday, one analyst - James McQuivey of Forrester Research - predicted that some won't make it.

The Author's Guild website carried the full statement from someone who didn't buckle. Macmillan's CEO John Sargent is one of the guys who did not settle with the DoJ. "But the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous. After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model. We also felt the settlement the DOJ wanted to impose would have a very negative and long term impact on those who sell books for a living, from the largest chain stores to the smallest independents." Bear in mind that Macmillan is the company that Amazon attacked a few years ago by removing all of their publications from sale.

Penguin Group chairman (the other publisher who refused to settle) John Mackinson wrote this: “The second, and equally powerful, reason for our decision to place this matter in the hands of a court is that we believed then, as we do now, that the agency model is the one that offers consumers the prospect of an open and competitive market for e-books. We understood that the shift to agency would be very costly to Penguin and its shareholders in the short-term, but we reasoned that the prevention of a monopoly in the supply of e-books had to be in the best interests, not just of Penguin, but of consumers, authors and booksellers as well."

At the same time, there is a class action suit against the publishers and an on-going European investigation concerning the agency model as well. So the financial liabilities faced by the named publishers and Apple are impossible to know at this time. It would be fair to say they will be 'large'.

What will it mean to booksellers? In the short term... depends on how far the prices for e-books fall. If they fall fast and steeply, it will inevitably mean lost sales of printed books.

While everyone seems to think that this DoJ case is about competition surrounding the sale of e-books, and how collusion was engaged to raise the price of e-books, what isn't addressed is that higher prices for e-books are needed to save printed books. A $25 or $27.99 hardcover can compete with a $14.99 e-book better than it can with a $9.99 price. Drastically lowered e-book prices gut the sales of hardcovers, even trade paperbacks. If e-books continue to outsell hardcovers and massacre the sales of softcovers, printed books are seriously threatened. No one talks about that.

What you, as reader and consumer and resident of Earth can do for yourself is to watch for stories that report on the sales of printed books. Most likely, you'll find them around the ends of financial quarters, as well as annual reports of the past year's sales that come out at the beginning of a new year. A search on the internet should turn them up - business pages of the major news outlets, or Publisher's Weekly. Quarters go Jan - Mar, April - June, etc. Look for reports in early July that cover the present quarter. That will tell us if something is happening immediately. And that may foretell where publishing is going.

Here are articles on the matter:

Wall Street Journal: US Alleges E-Book Scheme

Publisher's Weekly: The Broad Strokes of the Hachette, HarperCollins and S&S Price-Fixing Settlement

New York Times: Cut in E-Book Pricing by Amazon Is Set to Shake Rivals and Justice Deptartment Sues Apple and Publishers Over E-Book Pricing; 3 Publishers Settle

Bloomberg: U.S. Sues Apple For eBook Pricing as Three Firms Settle

BBC: Q&A: Apple and e-book prices

Author's Guild's president Scott Turow on what it all means. 

I was asked by a reporter from the New York Times if Wednesday, with the settlement, would be viewed in the future as the 'death knell' of what has been so dismissively characterized as 'legacy publishing'. I begged off, saying it was too soon to tell.

I hope that I am right, that there is still hope for my industry. However, I'm having a very difficult time playing the role of an optimist.

~JB

[One last thing: we've been writing about these matters and why they matter for nearly a year now. If you look to the right at the list of Categories and click on 'Bookselling these Days', you can read backward through the earlier posts.]

 

 

Why I write mysteries

I have written 16 novels, including my latest, Capitol Murder. They all have lawyers, murders and surprise endings and there is a reason for that. I became addicted to reading in elementary school. My favorite writers were Ellery Queen and Perry Mason and both had a huge impact on my life. When I was 12 I made up my mind that I was going to be a criminal defense attorney like Perry when I grew up. For 25 years that is what I did. I handled 30 murder cases, argued at the US Supreme Court and did everything in real life that Perry did in the books.

When I started writing, it was natural for me to copy my literary heroes, so I wrote legal thrillers with clues and twists inspired by Erle Stanley Gardner and Ellery Queen. They say you should write what you know. Mysteries and legal thrillers are what I grew up with and I thoroughly enjoy writing the type of books I enjoyed reading as a kid ( and still do as an adult).

Phillip Margolin

What we all dream about: empty shelves and room for more books!

No Winspear Tomorrow

We had announced through our weekly newzine that Jacqueline Winspear's signing that had been scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed due to family matters. This post is an attempt to alert

We do not yet know - nor do we know when we'll know - when the signing will be rescheduled, but we'll get the word out as soon as we do hear.

All active reserves will remain active and on hold awaiting her future visit.

Sorry, but these things do happen and we're all lucky and spoiled that it isn't very frequent. We wish Jackie well and look forward to seeing her later in the Spring.

~the Crew

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- The Titanic Tragedy

Titan Books has released a new edition of my mystery novel, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- The Titanic Tragedy in advance of the the Titanic's 100th anniversary. 

Seattle Mystery Bookshop has been a good friend to this book since it was first published in 1996.  It was great coming back for a book signing today.  I was joined by many good friends, including members of our Seattle Sherlock Holmes society, "The Sound of the Baskervilles", who brought a cake and made the signing a festive occasion.

Many thanks to all!

William Seil

2012 Thriller Awards

The Internation Thriller Writers have announced their nominees for the 2012 Thriller Awards

Best Hard Cover Novel:

Joseph Finder - Buried Secrets (St. Martin’s Press)

Jonathan Hayes - A Hard Death (Harper)

Stephen King - 11/22/63 (Scribner)

Michael Koryta - The Ridge (Little, Brown and Co.)

Marcus Sakey - The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes (Dutton Adult)

Best Paperback Original:

Jeff Abbott - The Last Minute (Sphere/LittleBrown UK)

John Gilstrap - Threat Warning (Pinnacle)

Helen Grant - The Glass Demon (Delacorte Press)

Steven James - The Queen (Revell)

John Rector - Already Gone (Thomas & Mercer)

Best First Novel:

James Barney - The Genesis Key (Harper)

Melinda Leigh - She Can Run (Montlake Romance)

Paul McEuen - Spiral (The Dial Press)

H.T. Narea - The Fund (Forge Books)

Leslie Tentler - Midnight Caller (Mira)

Best Short Story:

James Scott Bell - “One More Lie” (Compendium Press)

Michael Lewin - “Anything to Win” (Strand Magazine)

Twist Phelan - “Happine$$” (MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE RICH AND THE DEAD, Grand Central Publishing)

Tim L. Williams - “Half-Lives” (Dell Magazine)

Dave Zeltserman - “A Hostage Situation” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

2012 Agatha Nominees

The nominees for the 2012 Agatha Awards have been announced by Malice Domestic for books published during 2011 that honor the "traditional mystery." The winners will be announced at the Agatha Awards banquet to be held on Saturday, April 28, 2012, during Malice Domestic conference.

Best Novel

Donna Andrews, The Real Macaw

Krista Davis, The Diva Haunts the House

G.M. Malliet, Wicked Autumn

Margaret Maron, Three Day Town

Louise Penny, A Trick of the Light

Best First Novel

Janet Bolin, Dire Threads

Kaye George, Choke

Sara J. Henry, Learning to Swim

Rochelle Staab, Who Do, Voodoo?

Kari Lee Townsend, Tempest in the Tea Leaves

Best Historical Novel

Rhys Bowen, Naughty in Nice

J.J. Murphy, Murder Your Darlings

Ann Parker, Mercury's Rise

Jeri Westerson, Troubled Bones

Jacqueline Winspear, A Lesson in Secrets