Looking for a new read? How about one that is a more traditional Mystery. Check out The Agatha Award Winners on NC RA-Likes.
What is The Agatha Award? Since 1989 Malice Domestic, an annual fan convention, has honored authors of traditional mysteries with The Agatha Award, named after mystery writer Agatha Christie. Malice Domestic defines a traditional mystery as one with no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence.
Best of all, The Agatha Award is picked by fans of the genre. Each year Malice Domestic convention registrants give their nominations and convention attendees vote on the submissions. The awards are presented at a banquet.
Here is a sampling of 10 recent Agatha Award winners:
- Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr – DB065648 – National park ranger Anna Pigeon is patrolling the West Texas backcountry when she discovers the body of a colleague apparently killed by a mountain lion. A disbelieving Anna tracks a human killer as conflict erupts among park employees, hunters, ranchers, and conservationists.
- In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen – DB090989
England, 1941. Although an airplane crash kept Ben Cresswell out of battle, he is working for MI5 searching for spies. When a failed parachute jump leaves a suspicious corpse in his neighbors’’ Farleigh Place field, Ben investigates. Meanwhile, Pamela Sutton from Farleigh is secretly a government codebreaker. - Murphy’s Law: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen – DB085427 (contains all 4 books of the series)
Ireland, 1901. Molly Murphy flees to New York City after killing a would-be rapist in her home village. She assumes an alias for passage aboard ship, but at Ellis Island she is once again accused of murder. Handsome NYPD captain Daniel Sullivan is willing to help her prove her innocence. - Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen – DB079668
Accompanying her actress mother to Reno for her quickie divorce, Lady Georgiana Rannoch is caught up in the secret investigation run by her beau, Darcy, of a suspected jewel thief. Meanwhile her mother is cast by a Hollywood movie mogul—but he ends up dead. - Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer – DBC00082
Private Investigator Liz Talbot is a modern Southern belle. When her grandmother is murdered, Liz high-tails it back to her South Carolina island home to find the killer. - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia De Luce Mystery by C. Alan Bradley – DB70410 (DB audio) and BR20172 (braille)
England, 1950. Eleven-year-old aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce overhears her father in a heated argument with a stranger, who turns up dead in the garden of the Luces’ decaying estate. When Flavia’s father is charged with murder, she seeks clues in their village and his past to exonerate him. - Grime and Punishment: A Jane Jeffry Mystery by Jill Churchill – DB068692
Jane Jeffry’s friend Shelley Nowack hires the Happy Helper Cleaning Service, who instead of sending the regular maid sends substitute Ramona Thurgood. When Ramona is found strangled with a vacuum-cleaner cord in Shelley’s house, Jane thinks the killer could be someone in the neighborhood. - The Long Call by Ann Cleeves – DB096754
Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the North Devon church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. But before he leaves again, he learns that a body has been found on the nearby beach. - A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman – DB093885
The police receive an anonymous letter implicating Frances Wynn—the American-born Countess of Harleigh—in her husband’s death. Frances assures them of her innocence, but must hide the scandalous circumstances of his demise. Her dashing new neighbor, George Hazelton, is one of only two other people aware of the full story. - A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George – DB028547
Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth Earl of Asherton, and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers investigate the murder of a Yorkshire man. The main suspect is the victim’s daughter, who was found sitting by the headless corpse and confessed without apology. But she may have been driven to the crime by incestuous abuse.
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