Here Are The 2024 Edgar Award Winners for Best Mysteries

The Mystery Writers Association have announced their winners for the best mystery fiction and nonfiction. Books honored with the Edgar Award were published in the prior year. This is the 78th annual award.

In addition to a slate of awards for the books themselves, several other honors are bestowed at the Edgar Awards presentation. R. L. Stine and Katherine Hall Page were honored with the Grand Master Award, which celebrates important contributions to the genre as well as a consistently strong body of work. The Ellery Queen Award, given to excellent writing teams or noteworthy people within the mystery publishing industry went this year to Michaela Hamilton at Kensington Books.

Whether you like your crime to be factual or you love a good paperback mystery, there’s something here for you among this year’s winners.

Best Novel: Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke Best First Novel by An American Author: The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry Best Paperback Original: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto Best Fact Crime: Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters  Best Critical/Biographical: Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell  Best Short Story: “Hallowed Ground” by Linda Castillo Best Juvenile: The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas  Best Young Adult: Girl Forgotten by April Henry The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award: Play the Fool by Lina Chern  The G. P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award: An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo The Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award: Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux

Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman also took home an award for Best Television Episode Teleplay for Poker Face‘s “Escape from Shit Mountain.” The Robert L. Fish Memorial Award was given to “The Body in Cell Two” by Kate Hohl, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (May-June 2023).  

The judging panels for the Edgar Awards are comprised of members throughout the association and represent every region of the country, each subcategory of the genre being judged, and from every demographic to ensure as much representation as possible.

To learn more about the Edgar Awards or Mystery Writers Association, head over to their respective websites.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.