Steve Hamilton's 'The Lock Artist' wins Edgar Award for Best Novel

The Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards last Thursday night at the 65th Gala Banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, and “The Lock Artist” by Steve Hamilton received this year’s Edgar Award for Best Novel.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, commonly called “The Edgars,” they are presented annually by the MWA to honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television from the previous calendar year.

Hamilton’s “The Lock Artist” was among six nominees for this year’s Best Novel Edgar. The other nominees included “Caught” by Harlan Corben, “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter” by Tom Franklin, “Faithful Place” by Tana French, “The Queen of Patpong” by Timothy Hallinan and “I’d Know You Anywhere” by Laura Lippman.

Hamilton, 50, has published nine books during his award-winning career. They are, in order of publication, as follows:

- “A Cold Day in Paradise” (1998)
- “Winter of the Wolf Moon” (2000)
- “The Hunting Wind” (2002)
- “North of Nowhere” (2003)
- “Blood is the Sky” (2004)
- “Ice Run” (2005)
- “A Stolen Season” (2006)
- “Night Work” (2007)
- “The Lock Artist” (2009)

For more information about Hamilton and his books, visit his official Web site at www.authorstevehamilton.com.

The MWA gave out a number of other awards last Thursday night, including the following:

Best First Novel by an American Author – “Rogue Island” by Bruce DeSilva

Best Paperback Original – “Long Time Coming” by Robert Goddard

Best Fact Crime – “Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity” by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry

Best Critical/Biographical – “Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American History” by Yunte Huang

Best Short Story – “The Scent of Lilacs” by Doug Allyn

Best Juvenile – “The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy” by Dori Hillestad Butler

Best Young Adult – “Interrogation of Gabriel James” by Charlie Price

Best Play – “The Psychic” by Sam Bobrick

Best Television Episode Teleplay – “Episode 1” – Luther, teleplay by Neil Cross

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award – “Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man” by Evan Lewis

Grand Master Award – Sara Paretsky

Raven Awards – Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Ill. And Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minn.

The Simon & Schuster – Mary Higgins Clark Award – “The Crossing Places” by Elly Griffiths

On Jan. 22 (http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2011/01/edgar-allan-poe-award-nominees.html), I posted a complete list of the all-time Best Novel Edgar Award winners. Today, I give you a complete list of all the books that have received Edgars in the Best Fact Crime category. First awarded in 1948, those award-winning books include the following titles:

2011 – “Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity” by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry
2010 – “Columbine” by Dave Cullen
2009 – “American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood and the Crime of the Century” by Howard Blum
2008 – “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy” by Vincent Bugliosi
2007 – “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson
2006 – “Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece” by Edward Dolnick
2005 – “Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder” by Leonard Levitt
2004 – “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson
2003 – “Fire Lover” by Joseph Wambaugh
2002 – “Son of a Grifter” by Kent Walker
2001 – “Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI & A Devil’s Deal” by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill
2000 – “Blind Eye” by James B. Stewart
1999 – “To The Last Breath” by Carlton Stowers
1998 – “The Death of Innocents” by Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan
1997 – “Power To Hurt” by Darcy O’Brien
1996 – “Circumstantial Evidence” by Pete Earley
1995 – “To Protect and Serve” by Joe Domanick
1994 – “Until the Twelfth of Never” by Bella Stumbo
1993 – “Swift Justice” by Harry Farrell
1992 – “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” by David Simon
1991 – “In a Child’s Name” by Peter Maas
1990 – “Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell” by Jack Olsen
1989 – “In Broad Daylight” by Harry N. MacLean
1988 – “CBS Murders” by Richard Hammer
1987 – “Careless Whispers: The True Story of a Triple Murder and the Determined Lawman Who Wouldn’t Give Up” by Carlton Stowers
1986 – “Savage Grace” by Stephen M.L. Aronson and Natalie Robins
1985 – “Double Play: The San Francisco City Hall Killings” by Mike Weiss
1984 – “Very Much A Lady” by Shana Alexander
1983 – “The Vatican Connection” by Richard Hammer
1982 – “The Sting Man” by Robert W. Greene
1981 – “A True Deliverance” by Fred Harwell
1980 – “The Falcon and the Snowman” by Robert Lindsey
1979 – “Til Death Do Us Part” by Vincent Bugliosi and Ken Hurwitz
1978 – “By Persons Unknown” by Barbara Amiel and George Jonas
1977 – “Blood and Money” by Thomas Thompson
1976 – “A Time To Die” by Tom Wicker
1975 – “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
1974 – “Legacy of Death” by Barbara Levy
1973 – “Hoax” by Lewis Chester, Stephen Fay and Magnus Linkletter
1972 – “Beyond A Reasonable Doubt” by Sandor Frankel
1971 – “A Great Fall” by Mildred Savage
1970 – “The Case That Will Not Die” by Herbert B. Ehrmann
1969 – “Poe the Detective” by John Evangelist Walsh
1968 – “A Private Disgrace” by Vicotria Lincoln”
1967 – “The Boston Strangler” by Gerold Frank
1966 – “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote
1965 – “Gideon’s Trumpet” by Anthony Lewis
1964 – “The Deed” by Gerold Frank
1963 – “Tragedy in Dedham” by Francis Russell
1962 – “Death and the Supreme Court” by Barrett Prettyman Jr.
1961 – “The Overbury Affair” by Miriam Allen deFord
1960 – “Fire at Sea” by Thomas Gallager
1959 – “They Died in the Chair” by Wenzell Brown
1958 – “The D.A.’s Man” by Harold R. Danforth and James D. Horan
1957 – “Night Fell on Georgia” by Charles Samuels and Louise Samuels
1956 – “Dead and Gone” by Manly Wade Wellman
1955 – “The Girl with the Scarlet Brand” by Charles Boswell and Lewis Thompson
1954 – “Why Did They Kill?” by John Bartlow Martin
1953 – “Court of Last Resort” by Erie Stanley Gardner
1952 – “True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality” by St. Clair McKelway
1951 – “Twelve Against Crime” by Edward D. Radin
1950 – “Bad Company” by Joseph Henry Jackson
1949 – No Award
1948 – “Twelve Against the Law” by Edward D. Radin

In the end, how many of the books mentioned above have you had the chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more information about the Mystery Writers of America and the Edgar Awards visit www.mysterywriters.org and theedgars.com.