Edgar Award Nominees for Best Novel - 2014

The Edgar Award for Best Novel will be presented by the Mystery Writers of America at their banquet in New York City on May 1, 2014.

The nominees are:

     Sandrine’s Case by Thomas H. Cook

     The Humans by Matt Haig

     Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

     How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

     Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin

     Until She Comes Home by Lori Roy

This is the first year that I’ve read all the nominated books BEFORE the award has been presented. I don’t know what it represents in additional sales of books, but it’s the summa cum laude acknowledgement of the mystery world.

I don’t envy the judges their task, because the books were all good and they were all different. It’s comparing apples and oranges. Or apples and orangutans. That’s why MBTB always had so many year’s best picks at the end of the year. These are good books that represent different styles, so how do you pick JUST ONE.

But here’s the bottom line: I have to consider what I personally respond to. Given that and based on the poetry of his words, his sense of humor and the great plot, my pick today is Ian Rankin’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

Tomorrow my pick might be one of the others.