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Mystery Most Traditional: 2012 Agatha Award Nominees

The 2012 Agatha Award nominees are in! The award is named in honor of Agatha Christie and is awarded by Malice Domestic, an annual “fun fan” convention for lovers of traditional mysteries. Nominated titles must have first been published in the United States by a living author during 2012 and typically contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. Winners will be announced in May 2013.

So, if you like your mysteries kind of cozy and not so hard boiled then you might enjoy these books. A selection of the nominees is listed below, to see the complete nominee list visit Malice Domestic.

Best Novel:

The Diva Digs Up the Dirt by Krista Davis

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet

The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best First Novel:

Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

A Scrapbook of Secrets by Mollie Cox Bryan

A Killer Read by Erika Chase

Faithful Unto Death by Stephanie Jaye Evans

Best Children's/Young Adult Novel:

Seconds Away by Harlan Coben

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

The Code Busters Club, Case #2: The Haunted Lighthouse by Penny Warner

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Best Historical Novel:

The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for Murder by Catriona McPherson

Murder on Fifth Avenue by Victoria Thompson

An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd

Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear


Amazon Says: "There are certain things you want in a village mystery: a pretty setting, a tasteful murder, an appealing sleuth . . . Malliet delivers all that." —Marilyn Stasio, The New ...
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The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron
Amazon Says: New York Times bestselling author Margaret Maron returns with a thrilling new Deborah Knott mystery . . . THE BUZZARD TABLE Judge Deborah Knott and her husband, Sher...
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Amazon Says: The brilliant new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by Louise Penny, one of the most acclaimed crime writers of our time  No outsiders are ever admitted to t...
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The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Amazon Says: Jane Ryland was a rising star in television news…until she refused to reveal a source and lost everything. Now a disgraced newspaper reporter, Jane isn’t content to work o...
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Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer
Amazon Says: Private Investigator Liz Talbot is a modern Southern belle: she blesses hearts and takes names. She carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag, and her golden retriever, Rhet...
Amazon

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown
Amazon Says: There’s always something to gossip about in Savannah, Georgia, and Reagan Summerside always seems to be in the middle of it. She’s busy enough running her consignment s...
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Scrapbook of Secrets by Mollie Cox Bryan
Amazon Says: Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mum in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can't help but feel th...
Amazon

A Killer Read by Erika Chase
Amazon Says: For the first meeting of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society, six friends gather in Molly Matthews's old Southern mansion-including Lizzie Turner, a...
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Faithful Unto Death by Stephanie Jaye Evans
Amazon Says: Everything looks perfect in Sugar Land, Texas. But it’s not. No one knows that better than Walker “Bear” Wells, a former college football player now serving as...
Amazon

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
Amazon Says: The first young adult book by a #1 New York Times bestselling author Whidbey Island may be only a ferry ride from Seattle, but it's a world apart. When Becca King arrives the...
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Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
Amazon Says: An instant New York Times bestseller, Liar & Spy is a story about games and friendship. Seventh-grader Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, a twe...
Amazon

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Amazon Says: Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost t...
Amazon

Amazon Says: She may be thirty-fifth in line for the throne, but Lady Georgiana Rannoch cannot wait to ring in the new year—before a Christmas killer wrings another neck… On...
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Amazon Says: “Guaranteed to appeal to those who never got over the death of Dorothy L. Sayers.”--Financial Times (UK)  Aristocratic and delightfully witty amateur sleuth Dandy ...
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Amazon Says: “A wonderful new mystery series that will let us see the horrors of World War I through the eyes of Bess Crawford, battlefield nurse.”
—Margaret Maron“Readers who...
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Amazon Says: In this latest entry in Jacqueline Winspear’s acclaimed, bestselling mystery series—“less whodunits than why-dunits, more P.D. James than Agatha Christie” (USA Today)...
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