2014 Edgar Nominees!

An actual Edgar award! Cute, huh? This one belongs to Jack Farraiolo.

The 2014 nominees for the Edgar Award were announced this week! If you're not familiar with the Edgar Award, it's kind of like the Oscars for mystery writers. Every year, Mystery Writers of America (MWA) comes out with a short list of nominees, five books in various categories, and the winners are announced in May at a fancy black tie affair. Here's the link to all this year's Edgar nominees.

Oh, and since this blog is all about KIDLIT mysteries, here is the list of the YA and MG ("juvenile") nominees! Some of these folks have been interviewed in our Interrogation Room, so we've included links to their interviews in case you missed them!



BEST JUVENILE:

Strike Three, You're Dead by Josh Berk (Random House Children's Books – Alfred A. Knopf BFYR)
Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking by Erin Dionne (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dial)
P.K. Pinkerton and the Petrified Man by Caroline Lawrence (Penguin Young Readers Group – Putnam Juvenile)
Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud (Disney Publishing Worldwide – Disney-Hyperion)
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake (Random House Children's Books – Alfred A. Knopf BFYR)

BEST YOUNG ADULT:


All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking Juvenile)
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal (Random House Children's Books – Alfred A. Knopf BFYR)
Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy (Simon & Schuster – Simon Pulse)
How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller (Penguin Young Readers Group – Razorbill)
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

How many of these nominated books have YOU read? Which have you liked? We'd love to know -- drop us a comment! Which ones are you most eagerly adding to your TBR list?

Has anyone read them ALL?

PS - That photo at the top of this page would make a fun writing prompt! Who are the two people pictured with Edgar, and what are they talking about? Or plotting? Hmm.... 

12 Days of Mysteries: Day 12

It's our last day of 12 Days of Mysteries, our seasonal guide to great mysteries and thrillers for young readers: books we think would make great gifts. We're wrapping up by featuring SERIES books, for those who can't stop at just one!

First up: check out the highly prolific Caroline Lawrence! She has two fantastic series: THE ROMAN MYSTERIES (set in ancient history) and THE P.K. PINKERTON MYSTERIES (set in the Wild West!) The New York Times has raved about the PINKERTON MYSTERIES; check out this amazing review! (Then be sure to come right back here!)

There are two PINKERTON MYSTERIES so far:
THE CASE OF THE DEADLY DESPERADOES and
THE CASE OF THE GOOD-LOOKING CORPSE

And there are at least 17 (!!) ROMAN MYSTERIES! (You can click on the link here to see them all on GoodReads -- and all the pretty covers!)

Another series to check out: The KIKI STRIKES books by Kirsten Miller, which hits the sweet spot between MG/YA. (We've mentioned them before on the blog, but we're cross-posting here in case you didn't realize this is a entire series, with four books so far).

YA mystery fans should check out these series:

Ally Carter's HEIST SOCIETY and GALLAGHER GIRLS books.
Sara Shephard's PRETTY LITTLE LIARS.
Gabrielle Zevin's BIRTHRIGHT series (Great mob family to read about -- set in a future world where chocolate and coffee are illegal!)

12 Days of Mysteries: Day 7

Welcome back to 12 Days of Mysteries! It's Day 7, and on deck today we have suggestions for two YA mysteries that might be a little . . . incognito. That is, stories that might not be packaged as mysteries, yet they deal with crime or detective work in a way that's appealing to mystery fans.

Mary McCoy suggests OUT OF THE EASY, by Ruta Sepatys. "Some mystery elements and a whole lot of crime in this one, one of my faves of 2013," says Mary.

Until she was 11, Josie Moraine was raised in a Big Easy brothel by a house full of prostitutes - one of them her own mother. Since then, she's more or less raised herself, nurturing a dream of attending Smith College and crafting a plan to escape her city, her past, and her mother's reputation. However, when Josie's mother flees town with her gangster boyfriend on the heels of a murder, Josie finds herself sucked back into the underworld she's trying to escape. Set in 1950s New Orleans, Out of the Easy is a feast of a book: there's mystery, romance, scandal, crime, and a winning heroine who's got book smarts and street smarts to spare.

Diana Renn says, "I recently read  Just One Day,  by Gayle Forman, looking for a diversion from mystery and a tale of adventures abroad. There were adventures abroad, all right -- it's a really compelling story about a girl on a post-graduation tour of Europe, who meets a guy acting in a Shakespeare play and impulsively follows him to France for twenty-four hours. But it's there's also a healthy dose of mystery here. When the guy disappears after their one night together, Allyson spends the next year of her life -- at college and then back in Europe-- trying to find answers to her unresolved questions about those twenty four hours. She also tries to find the guy himself. Allyson turns into an amateur sleuth in her personal missing person case, roping in appealing sidekicks and making friends along the way. And kudos to Forman for making online sleuthing so interesting!"

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life. A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the "accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.


Have you ever read a book that wasn't packaged as a mystery, but you secretly suspect that it is? We'd love to hear about it!

12 Days of Mysteries: Day 2

It's Day Two of 12 Days of Mysteries, our holiday gift-giving guide for the young (or not-so-young) mystery/thriller lovers in your life! (If you missed Day One, you can step back in time here to check out Kirsten Kittscher's recommendations).

Here is F.T. Bradley with her ideas:







This year, I've been hitting the road around the south, and get my share of book recommendations. So I'll share a couple here . . .

I love the THEODORE BOONE series by John Grisham--great for kids who like mysteries and are ready to discover a new series.

My second recommendation is THE GIRL FROM FELONY BAY, by J.E. Thompson. This is a true undiscovered gem: A MG set in the south, with a great mystery and lots of strong setting in the story. Check it out; you won't be disappointed!

12 Days of Mysteries: Day 1

Here at Sleuths, Spies & Alibis, we're celebrating the holidays under cover! Book cover, that is.

For the next twelve weekdays, counting down to December 24, we'll be sharing some gift-giving recommendations for you. With our numerous book ideas -- and some great charitable organizations we'd like to tell you about -- finding the perfect something for the young mystery/thriller lover in your life shouldn't be a mystery!

Kicking off the season, here is Kristen Kittscher with her picks for your young mystery lover:

HIDE AND SEEK, by Kate Messner

Junior members of a secret society that protects the world's most important artifacts go to the rain forests of Costa Rica to recover an important treasure before it falls into the wrong hands. A fun, fast-paced mystery my students love.

MASTERPIECE, by Elise Broach

A beetle whose a talented artist and an eleven year old boy end up on the tail of a forger at the Met. A quirky, page-turning tale of friendship and mystery.

THE NIGHT TOURIST, by Katherine Marsh

Ninth grader Jack adventures into a Underworld of ghosts in New York City to discover what happened to his mother. Such a beautifully told, smart mystery full of adventure.

GILDA JOYCE, PSYCHIC INVESTIGATOR by Jennifer Allison

The first book in a hilarious and poignant series about psychic girl detective Gilda Joyce.

KIKI STRIKE, INSIDE THE SHADOW CITY, by Kirsten Miller

A group of smart, delinquent Girl Scouts and latte-sipping, Vespa riding teen Kiki Strike go undercover (literally) in the tunnels below NYC to solve an international crime. One of my all-time favorite mysteries for kids. Great for 5th - 7th graders.