THE AGATHA AWARDS
The 2019 Agatha Award Nominees and **Winners
​
Best Contemporary Novel
Fatal Cajun Festival by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
**The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)
Fair Game by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press)
The Missing Ones by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
A Better Man by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Murder List by Hank Philippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Mystery Novel
A Dream of Death by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane Books)
**One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House, a division of Harlequin)
Murder Once Removed by S. C. Perkins (Minotaur)
When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano (Encircle Publications)
Staging for Murder by Grace Topping (Henery Press)

Best Historical Mystery
Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen (Penquin)
Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
The Pearl Dagger by L. A. Chandlar (Kensington)
**Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink) 
The Naming Game by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)

Best Nonfiction
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrified Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin (Lyons Press)
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (Knopf)
**The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt)

Best Children/Young Adult
Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers by Shauna Holyoak (Disney Hyperion)
Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen MacManus (Delacorte Press)
**The Last Crystal by Frances Schoonmaker (Auctus Press)
Top Marks for Murder (A Most Unladylike Mystery)
by Robin Stevens (Puffin)
Jada Sly, Artist and Spy by Sherri Winston (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Best Short Story 
"Grist for the Mill" by Kaye George in A Murder of Crows (Darkhouse Books)
"Alex’s Choice" by Barb Goffman in Crime Travel (Wildside Press)
"The Blue Ribbon" by Cynthia Kuhn in Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible (Wildside Press)
**"The Last Word" by Shawn Reilly Simmons, Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible (Wildside Press)
"Better Days" by Art Taylor in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
A Brief Summary of the Agatha Award Process
  1. ​Everyone who is registered for or becomes a Friend of Malice December 31st of any given year will receive a nomination ballot in early January.
  2. All ballots that are returned by the due date will be counted by the Agatha Awards Chair, who then prepares a slate of the top five nominees in six categories.
  3. The Malice Board verifies that the titles presented on the slate meet the criteria for their categories (confirming pub dates, etc.). The slate is approved. 
  4. The Agatha Award Nominations are announced! 
  5. Malice attendees receive an Agatha Ballot in their registration bags when they check in to the convention. Ballots that are completed and turned in by the deadline (1:00 on Saturday) are counted by the awards committee onsite, and the winners in each category are determined.​
  6. The Agatha Awards are announced at the Agatha Awards Banquet on Saturday night during Malice!
The Agatha Award Categories
Malice Attendees are invited to nominate their favorite works in the following six categories. The order in which the nominations are listed will count toward the final tally in the event of a tie. Ballots are sent via email in January to everyone who is registered for Malice before the December 31 deadline. Ballots do not need to be filled in completely to be counted. It's perfectly acceptable to nominate in less than six categories, or nominate fewer than five books or stories per category. 

The categories are:
  • Best Contemporary Novel
  • Best Historical Novel
  • Best First Novel
  • Best Nonfiction
  • Best Short Story
  • Best Children's/Young Adult Novel