2011 Agatha Award Nominees

The Agatha Awards are given each year for books published in the United States.  Authors must be living and the awards focus on traditional mysteries (such as Agatha Christie's mysteries were) and are books which "contain no explicit sex" and "contain no excessive gore or gratuitous violence" (from malacedomestic.org). 

Winners are to be announced on 28 April 2012, also on the Malice Domestic website. 

2011 Agatha Nominees for Best Novel: 

The Real Macaw By Andrews, Donna 2011-07 - Minotaur Books 9780312621209 CHECK CATALOG Meg juggles twins, murder, and a back-talking bird in the next sidesplittingly funny installment in the award-winning, "New York Times""-bestselling series. …More

The Diva Haunts the House By Davis, Krista 2011-09 - Berkley Prime Crime 9780425243787 CHECK CATALOG Domestic diva Sophie Winston is getting into the Halloween spirit- her decorations for a community haunted house are so good, it's scary. Not to be outdone, rival domestic diva Natasha is throwing a spooktacular Halloween party at her house. But when Sophie arrives, she discovers one of Natasha's guests dead in a Halloween display, and a pale, fanged partygoer fleeing the scene. Could the killer be a "real" vampire-the same one rumored to have lived in Sophie's haunted house back when it was a boardinghouse? Good thing a domestic diva never runs out of garlic. …More

Wicked Autumn: A Max Tudor Novel By Malliet, G. M. 2011-09 - Minotaur Books 9780312646974 CHECK CATALOG Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. Now he has found a measure of peace among urban escapees and yoga practitioners, artists and crafters and New Agers. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play. …More

Three-Day Town By Maron, Margaret 2011-11 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446555784 CHECK CATALOG While in New York, Judge Deborah Knott has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment with her husband to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that it is missing and the doorman has been murdered. 320 pp. …More

A Trick of the Light By Penny, Louise 2011-08 - Minotaur Books 9780312655457 CHECK CATALOG BookPage Notable Title Lillian Dyson is dead. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Surete du Quebec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. …More

2011 Agatha Nominees for Best First Novel:

Dire Threads By Bolin, Janet 2011-06 - Berkley 9780425241899 CHECK CATALOG First in a new series. Willow Vanderling's quaint new embroidery shop is not a hit with the local zoning commissioner. After he's murdered, the evidence is stacked against Willow. Includes original embroidery projects. Original. …More

Choke By George, Kaye 2011-05 - Mainly Murder Press 9780982795279 CHECK CATALOG Twenty-two-year-old Imogene Duckworthy is waiting tables at Huey's Hash to support her toddler daughter in tiny Saltlike, Texas, and just itching to become a private eye like the ones she admires on TV. When Huey is found murdered, she gets her chance to solve a real case ... but when Immy's mother is hauled in for the crime, the spunky waitress finds herself on the lam from the law. …More

Learning to Swim By Henry, Sara J. 2011-12 - Broadway Books 9780307718396 CHECK CATALOG After she witnesses a small boy being thrown into Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives into the frigid water. She rescues the frightened boy only to discover that he had been kidnapped, and he is the victim of a bizarre and bloody plot. …More

Who Do, Voodoo? By Staab, Rochelle 2011-11 - Berkley 9780425244593 CHECK CATALOG Clinical psychologist Liz Cooper doesn't believe in ghosts. But when her best friend finds a tarot card tacked to her front door--and is then accused of murder--Liz will have to find a way to embrace the occult if she wants to outwit the real killer. First in a new series. Original. …More

Tempest in the Tea Leaves By Townsend, Kari Lee 2011-08 - Berkley Prime Crime 9780425242759 CHECK CATALOG Using various fortune-telling tools to interpret her visions, psychic Sunny Meadows seeks to aid the residents of Divinity, New York. But when she uses tea leaves to read the frazzled town librarian, what lies at the bottom of the cup is anything but helpful. Original. …More

Past Agatha Award Winners you may have missed:

Bury Your Dead By Penny, Louise 2011-08 - Minotaur Books 9780312626907 CHECK CATALOG Chief Inspector Gamache receives a letter from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. The letter proclaims Olivier's innocence, so Gamache must relive the terrible events that killed one of his men before he can bury the dead. …More

The Long Quiche Goodbye By Aames, Avery 2010-07 - Berkley Prime Crime 9780425235522 CHECK CATALOG 2010 Agatha Award Winner-Best First Novel Upon the grand opening of Fromagerie Bessette (a.k.a. the Cheese Shop) in Providence, Ohio, proprietor Charlotte Bessette finds a body just outside her shop, the victim stabbed to death with one of her prized olive-wood handled knives. Original. …More

The Brutal Telling By Penny, Louise 2010-08 - Minotaur Books 9780312661687 CHECK CATALOG "Chaos is coming, old son." With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies -- exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness. …More

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery By Bradley, Alan 2010-01 - Bantam 9780385343497 CHECK CATALOG It is the summer of 1950, and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events. For Flavia, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. …More

The Cruelest Month By Penny, Louise 2008-03 - Minotaur Books 9780312352578 CHECK CATALOG 2008 Agatha Award Winner- Best Novel The cozy, seemingly idyllic town of Three Pines is thrown into chaos when an impromptu sance turns deadly. In this complex, accomplished mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache must confront a myriad of baffling questions surrounding the case. …More

A Fatal Grace By Penny, Louise 2007-05 - Minotaur Books 9780312352561 CHECK CATALOG 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel From the Dagger and Arthur Ellis Award-winning author of "Still Life" comes the second Gamache mystery set in the stunning countryside of Quebec. …More

The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel of Suspense By Pickard, Nancy 2006-04 - Ballantine Books 9780345470997 CHECK CATALOG BookPage Notable Title 2007 Kansas Notable Book 2006 Agatha Award for Best Novel Some of the leading citizens of Small Plains, Kansas, are determined to keep the truth buried when a long-ago murder resurfaces with devastating and deadly consequences. …More

Better Off Wed: An Annabelle Archer Mystery By Durham, Laura 2005-01 - Avon Books 9780060738310 CHECK CATALOG A real-life wedding planner makes her debut and introduces Annabelle Archer, a wedding planner and amateur sleuth in Washington, D.C. When a socialite drops dead at her daughter's wedding reception, Annabelle must unveil the killer to keep her partner out of prison. Original. …More

The Body in the Snowdrift By Page, Katherine Hall 2005-05 - William Morrow & Company 9780060525309 CHECK CATALOG 2005 Agatha Award for Best Novel Caterer Faith Fairchild and family are off for a week-long stay at the Pine Slopes resort in Vermont to celebrate her father-in-law's birthday. All seems to going be well until Faith stumbles upon the body of a local lawyer. …More

Birds of a Feather By Winspear, Jacqueline 2005-08 - Penguin Books 9780143035305 CHECK CATALOG Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate's missing daughter. The case is complicated by the violent deaths of three of the heiress's friends. Maisie discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War. …More

Letter from Home By Hart, Carolyn 2004-10 - Berkley Prime Crime 9780425198827 CHECK CATALOG In this "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of the Year, set in the summer of 1944, journalist Gretchen Gilman gets a letter from her small Oklahoma hometown, which brings back memories of the people she had once known. But this summer, life there will change forever. …More

Maisie Dobbs By Winspear, Jacqueline 2004-06 - Penguin Books 9780142004333 CHECK CATALOG Hailed by NPR's "Fresh Air" as part "Testament of Youth," part Dorothy Sayers, and part "Upstairs, Downstairs," this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature's favorite sleuths. Maisie Dobbs isn?t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence?and the patronage of her benevolent employers?she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind. …More

Track of the Cat By Barr, Nevada 2003-06 - Berkley 9780425190838 CHECK CATALOG The first novel featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon is reissued. When a fellow ranger is killed and his death is ruled a mountain lion attack, Anna's suspicions are raised. It's up to her to save the protected cats from the prejudiced locals--and prove the kill was the work of a species far less rare. …More

Bubbles Unbound By Strohmeyer, Sarah 2002-03 - Signet Book 9780451205445 CHECK CATALOG A beautician, reporter, and a sleuth, Lehigh, Pennsylvania's Bubbles Yablonsky is saddled with an ex-husband, a precocious daughter, and a shoplifting mother. From solving dark crimes to lightening dark roots, Bubbles has everyone talking. When she trips over a corpse and implicates a wealthy town socialite in the crime, Bubbles teams with a well-muscled photographer to blow the lid off the murder. …More

Murphy's Law By Bowen, Rhys 2001-10 - Minotaur Books 9780312282066 CHECK CATALOG 2001 Agatha Award for Best Novel From the creator of Constable Evan Evans comes the first novel in a delightful series set in 19th century New York, and featuring Irish sleuth Molly Murphy. …More