Get in touch with your inner sleuth...

During the first week of May, two events will take place that have to do with murder and mystery. Swanky awards ceremonies will be held for mystery writers and their fans. Read on and test your powers of deduction to see if you can figure out which books will take the prize.

The first awards ceremony is the Edgar Awards, named for Edgar Allen Poe, the patron saint of the Mystery Writers of America. The Edgar Awards have been given out annually since 1946, the winners chosen by their fellow writers. The very first Edgar was given to Julius Fast for his novel, Watchful at Night. Winners of the various categories are presented with a miniature bust of Edgar Allen Poe.

This year the Edgar Awards banquet will take place Thursday, May 1, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, located in Union Station in New York City. It is a black tie affair and awards are given to the following categories: Best Novel, Best First Novel by an American Author, Best Paperback Original, Best Fact Crime, Best Critical/Biographical, Best Short Story, Best Juvenile, Best Young Adult, and Best Television Episode Teleplay. Some of the iconic mystery writers who have won the Edgar Award in the past are: Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Stephen King.

The second affair is the Agatha Awards which are hosted by Malice Domestic, Ltd, a fan-based organization. The Agatha Awards banquet will be held Saturday, May 3, in Bethesda, Maryland. The Agatha Awards, which are named after Agatha Christie, honor the cozy mystery, focusing on stories that contain "no explicit sex" or "no excessive gore or gratuitous violence." Recipients of the award receive a black teapot with the title of the award and year in white print.

In 1988, Carolyn Hart won the first Agatha Award for her novel, Something Wicked. Fans attending the Malice Domestic Conference are randomly selected to serve as judges for the awards. The categories for the Agatha's are: Best Contemporary Novel, Best Historical Novel, Best Short Story, Best Non-Fiction, and Best Children's/Young Adult Novel.

If you are in the mood to hazard a guess, here are the nominations for the Best Novel category of each award.

The Edgar Awards

The Agatha Awards

After May 4, I will post the winners so that you can see how well you predicted the outcome.

Happy Deducing!

*For further information on the awards, click on the following links:

The Agatha Awards

The Edgar Awards

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