Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. They are the sponsors of the prestigious.

First awarded in 1955, and named after Edgar Allan Poe, these awards are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America to honour the best in mystery fiction published in the past year.

Here is a selection of this year’s nominees. Check out the website for the full list.

Best Novel

The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter
The Lady from Zagreb by Philip Kerr
Life or Death by Michael Robotham
Let Me Die in his Footsteps by Lori Roy
Canary by Duane Swierczynski

Best First Novel

Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton
Where All the Light Tends to Go by David Joy
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

Best Fact Crime

Operation Nemesis: the assassination plot that avenged the Armenian Genocide by Eric Bogosian
Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the world that made him by T.J. English
Whipping Boy: the forty year search for my twelve year old bully by Allen Kurzweil
Forensics: what bugs, burns, prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime by Val McDermid
American Pain: how a young felon and his ring of doctors unleashed America’s deadliest drug epidemic by John Temple