Here are the Agatha Award Nominees. The winners will be announced at Malice Domestic on April 28, 2012.
UPDATE: winners indicated by *
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Best Novel:

The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews
# 13 with Meg Langslow, decorative blacksmith in a southern town

* *
The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis
# 5 with Sophie Winston, an event planner in Alexandria, Virginia, in the Domestic Diva mysteries

* *
Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
# 1 with Max Tudor, a former MI-5 agent, now vicar at St. Edwold’s in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip, England

* *
* Three-Day Town by Margaret Maron
# 17 with Deborah Knott, district judge in North Carolina

## Related post: MBTB review of Rituals of the Season # 11

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A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
# 7 with Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec

## Related post: MBTB review of Still Life # 1

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Best First Novel:

Dire Threads by Janet Bolin

* *
Choke by Kaye George (watch for this title coming to the library soon)
# 1 with Imogene Duckworthy, a 22-year-old waitress, living with her mother Hortense, and baby daughter Nancy Drew, in Saltlick, Texas

* *
* Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
# 1 with Troy Chance, a freelance writer in Lake Placid, New York

## Related post: MBTB mini-review of Learning to Swim

* *
Who Do, Voodoo? by Rochelle Staab
# 1 with Liz Cooper, a clinical psychologist who is skeptical about the paranormal, in Los Angeles, California, in the Mind for Murder mysteries

* *
Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend
# 1 with Sunny Meadows, a fortune teller leaving New York City for rural Divinity, in upstate New York, in the Fortune Teller mysteries

* * *
Best Historical Novel:

* Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
# 5 with Lady Georgiana, minor royalty in 1930s England

## Related post: MBTB review of Her Royal Spyness # 1

* *

Murder Your Darlings by J.J. Murphy
# 1 with Dorothy Parker, the real-life witty writer in 1920s Manhattan, New York City, in the Algonquin Round Table mysteries

* *

Mercury's Rise by Ann Parker
# 4 with Inez Stannert, a saloon owner, around 1880 in Leadville, Colorado, in the Silver Rush mysteries

* *

Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson
# 4 with Crispin Guest, a disgraced knight reduced to living by his wits on the mean streets of 1384 London, England

* *

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear
# 8 with Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist and investigator based in 1920s and 1930s London, England

## Related posts:
MBTB full review of Maisie Dobbs # 1
MBTB mini-review of The Mapping of Love and Death # 7

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K. Carr

Book # 2 with India Black, a young madam running a brothel catering to gentlemen, in 1870s London, England

Summary: A spy for British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, India Black disguises herself as a servant to protect Her Highness the Queen from a possible assassination attempt by Scottish nationalists while spending the Christmas holidays in Balmoral.

First book: India Black

NEW! Until I get more caught up with publishing my Mystery Memos on the MBTB blog, I'll be giving you some highlights from each one (down below) and making the entire Mystery Memo available to Download here

Mystery Memo # 110 has two books in the Perfect Read category:
Val McDermid: Fever of the Bone (2009)
Peter Robinson: Bad Boy (2010)

* * *

Douglas Corleone: One Man’s Paradise (2010) *** ½

Lawyer

Book # 1 with lawyer Kevin Corvelli, newly moved from NY to Hawaii

Kevin wants to get out of murder trials after a bad experience in NY but his lawyer buddy Jack gets Kevin hired to defend a young man accused of murdering his fiancé.
Easy to follow, great characters.

Next book: Night on Fire

* * *

Ann Littlewood: Did Not Survive (2010) ****

Action / cozy.

Book # 2 with Iris Oakley, a zookeeper at a small zoo in Vancouver, Washington.

When the body of the zoo foreman is killed, Iris tries to find out who among the staff doesn’t have an alibi. The zoo setting is wonderful and the mystery solving is interesting and believable.
Try this if you like the series by Betty Webb with zookeeper Teddy Bentley, at a private zoo in California

First book: Night Kill
* * *

Val McDermid: Fever of the Bone (2009) **** ½

Thriller/British police procedural

Book # 6 with Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. Tony, a psychologist, does criminal profiling for the police. Carol heads up a special police squad.

A new supervisor wants to start using a cheaper criminal profiler instead of Tony. That leaves Tony free to be hired by a nearby town to look at the murder of a teenage girl. It looks like she was lured to her death by someone on a social website. Tony is unaware that Carol’s team is working two similar murders with boys as victims back in his hometown.
Great balance of the personal and the professional. Enthralling.

First book: The Mermaids Singing

## Related post: MBTB review of A Darker Domain, a stand-alone police procedural, set in Scotland

* * *

Peter Robinson: Bad Boy (2010) **** ½

British police procedural

Book # 19 with DCI Alan Banks and his partner DI Annie Cabot, Yorkshire.

This book involves Banks’ own daughter – she’s attracted to a “bad boy”, the boyfriend of her roommate, not realizing how bad he really is. The series is the perfect mix of police procedural and the personal.
Similar to Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday (Turnstone) and Ian Rankin's DS John Rebus (Knots and Crosses).

First book: Gallows View

## Related post: MBTB review of All the Colours of Darkness # 18

* * *

Kathryn R. Wall: Canaan’s Gate (2010) ****

Private investigator

Book # 10 with Bay Tanner, an accountant who runs an investigation agency in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The case: a timid bank employee hires Bay to prove that one of her tellers is scamming a wealthy elderly customer. Then the elderly man’s wife dies, and the timid bank employee, Bay’s client, also dies, apparently a suicide.
This series reminds me of the Margaret Maron series with Judge Deborah Knott (The Bootlegger’s Daughter).

First book with Bay Tanner: In For a Penny

## Related post: MBTB review of Covenant Hall # 9

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Sins of the Fathers
by Patricia Hall

British police procedural

Book # 12 with Laura Ackroyd, a reporter, and Michael Thackeray, a police inspector, in Yorkshire, England, in the Yorkshire mysteries

Description: A young boy running for his life through the snow, his sister hovering between life and death in intensive care: it seems that another father has been driven to the edge and turned on his family when DCI Michael Thackeray reluctantly enters a family home turned blood-stained charnel house. But as he and journalist Laura Ackroyd dig deeper, the tragedy becomes darker and much more dangerous.
While Thackeray seeks to find where the children's father has gone, Laura begins to ask just who he is. This seems to have been a family with no past long before its future was so brutally taken away. Who is Gordon Christie? Who is he hiding from? Is it only the police who are looking for him? Where has he gone with a loaded gun and his son in tow? And who seems to be obstructing Thackeray's inquiry at every turn, driving him to the brink of resignation and Laura to despair?
from Fantastic Fiction

First book: Death by Election

I drop in on the blog Lesa's Book Critiques every couple weeks. Lesa reviews mainly mystery fiction. I always find a few titles to add to my To Be Read list.
.

Check out Lesa's review of One Book in the Grave by Kate Carlisle

One Book in the Grave SILS holdings

Book # 5 with Brooklyn Wainwright, a rare book expert in San Francisco, California, in the Bibliophile mysteries

Description: Brooklyn's chance to restore a rare first edition of Beauty and the Beast seems a fairytale come true — until she realizes the book last belonged to an old friend of hers. Ten years ago, Max Adams, a renowned, brawny papermaker, fell in love with a stunning beauty, Emily, and gave her the copy of Beauty and the Beast as a symbol of their love. Soon afterward, he died in a car crash, and Brooklyn has always suspected his possessive ex-girlfriend and her jealous beau.

Now she decides to find out who sold the book and return it to its rightful owner—Emily. She believes a rare book dealer can assist her, but when she arrives at his shop, she finds him murdered. Is it possible the same couple who may have killed Daniel is now after his edition of Beauty and the Beast? With the help of her handsome boyfriend, Derek Stone, Brooklyn must unravel the murder plot—before she ends up in a plot herself... from from author Kate Carlisle's website

First book: Homicide in Hardcover

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Retribution by Val McDermid

Book # 5 with Dr. Tony Hill, a forensic psychologist and criminal profiler, and Carol Jordan, a Detective Chief Inspector, based in fictional Bradfield, in northern England

Description: The Retribution finds clinical psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan struggling to survive and recapture celebrity sociopath Jack Vance, who has broken out of prison with the intention of exacting violent revenge. NoveList

First book: The Mermaids Singing

Welcome to Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two.
I've taken a tip from Margaret Cannon's list this year - I also have 11 top books.
Not all these books were published in 2011 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2011.

Download a printable copy of the entire list here.

Archer Mayor: Tag Man (2011)

American police procedural.

Book # 22 with Joe Gunther, the head of the new Vermont Bureau of Investigation.

Joe is still on leave after a tragedy in his personal life, but he takes on a low key case to pass the time. A thief has been breaking into local homes, taking nothing and leaving a note that says “Tag!”. Some of the book is from the thief’s point of view – a man with obsessive compulsive disorder who likes to break into people’s homes and snoop around. Everything becomes more series when a hitman targets the thief. Not enough of Joe in this one, but lots of great twists.

First book: Open Season

## Related post: MBTB mini-review of The Price of Malice # 20

* * *

Sara Paretsky: Body Work (2010)

Private investigator

Book # 15 with V.I. Warshawski in Chicago

The family of a troubled Iraq war vet hires V.I. to help prove he didn’t kill a woman, although he was found unconscious with the murder weapon in his hand.
This series always impresses me, wonderfully complex.

First book: Indemnity Only

## Related post: MBTB review of Hardball # 14

* * *

Peter Robinson: Before the Poison (2011)

Non-series. Amateur Sleuth.

Chris, semi-retired from writing movie music, has bought an old mansion in Yorkshire. When Chris finds out that in the 1950s, a woman killed her husband in his house and was hanged for it, he becomes obsessed with the story. Just a bit of digging shows him that she may not have been guilty. Fragments of a book about the trial, and fragments of the woman’s war diary (she was a nurse in WW2) are interspersed in the narrative and work well.
This isn’t a genre mystery, but follows the steps of this amateur detective as he puts together what happened all those years before. Great for character and setting.

Peter Robinson is well-known for his acclaimed Inspector Alan Banks series.

* * *

C.J. Sansom: Heartstone (2010)

Historical, set in England in 1545.

Book # 5 with lawyer Matthew Shardlake.

King Henry VIII is now married to Catherine Parr. The Queen asks Matthew to secretly help her. Her loyal servant wants someone to look into her son’s death. To investigate this, Matthew travels to an estate near Portsmouth. He is close to the action when the English fleet gathers to repel the expected French naval attack near there.
Great stuff: complex plot, great characters. The writing makes the era come alive.

First book: Dissolution

## Related post: MBTB full review of Sovereign # 3

* * *

Julia Spencer-Fleming: One was a Soldier (2011)

American police procedural/amateur detective.

Book # 7 with Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest in Millers Kill, New York and her love interest, police chief Russ Van Alstyne.

Clare has just returned from a year’s military service in Iraq and has joined a veterans support group. When one of the group, a young woman, is found dead, it could be suicide, but the group pushes for more investigation and even does some investigating themselves. The best part of this series is the characters’ lives, now including rookie police officer Hadley.

First book: In the Bleak Midwinter

* * *

John Verdon: Shut Your Eyes Tight (2011)

Investigator.

Book # 2 with Dave Gurney, at 47 newly retired to upstate New York. Dave was a decorated homicide cop famous for solving several serial murderer cases.

The case of the beheaded bride: Dave is hired by the murdered bride’s mother after police fail to find the mysterious main murder suspect. The book is all from Dave’s point of view. Lots of action.

First book: Think of a Number

Related post:
Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part one

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Blood Royal
by Barbara Cleverly

Historical/British police procedural

Book # 9 with Commander Joe Sandilands, a Scotland Yard detective

Library Journal review: Joe Sandilands, on his return to London from India, is placed in charge of the Special Irish Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department. Mix in a suspicious Russian princess and let the drama begin. This is set in 1922, and there's plenty of room for intrigue.

First book: The Last Kashmiri Rose

Looking for something a little romantic for mid-February? Try the Murder by the Book reading list
A Love to Die For: Husband and Wife Detective Teams.
This list was created in 2005.

Some highlights from this list:

Conrad Allen: Murder on the Lusitania

Historical

Book # 1 with George and Genevieve Dillman, who work as detectives on luxury ocean liners, early 1900s
.
.
* * *

Carrie Bebris: Pride and Prescience

Cozy

Book # 1 with Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice; 19th century England
.
.
* * *

Peter May: The Firemaker

Thriller

Book # 1 with police detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell, Beijing; the New China series

.
.
* * *

Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank

Historical

Book # 1 with Amelia Peabody, Victorian feminist Egyptologist & husband scholar-colleague Radcliffe Emerson

.
.
* * *

Last but not least, an actual Valentine's Day mystery:

Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton

Cozy

Book # 26 with Hamish Macbeth, a police constable in Scotland
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.
.
* * *

Find more Murder by the Book themed mystery reading lists in the Reader's Café

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Calling of the Grave
by Simon Beckett

Forensic science/British police procedural

Book # 4 with Dr. David Hunter, forensic anthropologist in England

Book review from Euro Crime: Forensic anthropologist David Hunter continues his geographical wanderings after his experiences in Norfolk, a remote Scottish island and at Tennessee's "murder farm" in three earlier books. This latest in the series has a prologue set in the past, when Hunter's wife and child were still alive. Hunter is asked by DI Terry Connor to attend an exhumation on Dartmoor. The body turns out to be that of a young teenager killed by "monster" Jerome Monk. Monk has been found guilty of killing her and other young women, so when he offers from his prison cell to reveal the sites of the other graves, he is brought out to the moors along with the police, prison officers and their various specialist medical and behavioural advisors. Of course, things don't go as planned. . . .
Read the rest of the Euro Crime review here.

First book: The Chemistry of Death

Welcome to Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part one.
I've taken a tip from Margaret Cannon's list this year - I also have 11 top books.
Not all these books were published in 2011 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2011.

Download a printable copy of the entire list here.

Lee Child: The Affair (2011)

Investigator. Action/adventure.

Book # 16 with ex-military policeman Jack Reacher, now drifting around the U.S.

This is a prequel to the series, back when Reacher was still in the military police. You could go right from this one to the first book in series - the perfect circle. After a woman is murdered in a small town near a military training base in the U.S., Reacher is sent to town undercover to see what he can find out. Interesting to see Reacher in the military.

First book: Killing Floor

## Related posts:
MBTB review of Bad Luck and Trouble # 11

MBTB review of 61 Hours # 14

* * *

Michael Connelly: The Drop (2009)

American police procedural.

Book # 17 with renegade cop Harry Bosch, now with the LAPD Cold Case squad.

The case: Harry gets a special request by a city councilor to investigate the death of the councilor’s son. It looks like the man jumped or fell or was pushed from his hotel balcony. Bosch and the councilor never got along and Bosch can feel the influence of backroom politics and manipulations. Lots of good twists. Reminds me why I love this author.

First book: The Black Echo

## Related post: MBTB review of Nine Dragons # 15

* * *

Tana French: Faithful Place (2010)

All Tana French’s books feature police detectives on the murder squad in Dublin, Ireland. They are not a series, but loosely connected. This one features Frank Mackey, a senior undercover cop.

A suitcase is found belonging to his girlfriend from 20 years ago who he was planning to run away with. She disappeared that very night. Not a standard police procedural.

First book: In The Woods

## Related post: MBTB review of The Likeness # 2

* * *

Sara J. Henry: Learning to Swim (2011)

Amateur sleuth

Book # 1 with Troy Chance, a young woman who works in Lake Placid, NY.

While on a ferry trip across the lake, Troy thinks she sees a child fall from a passing ferry. Without thinking, she jumps in and yes, a 6-year-old boy has been tied into a sweatshirt and is underwater. She rescues him and heroically swims to shore. The pace hardly slows down after she traces the boy’s father to Ottawa and accompanies the child back home. Troy is determined to get to the bottom of who threw the child in the water, and she doesn’t completely trust that the father had nothing to do with it. Enthralling writing style, a good balanced character in Troy and an interesting narrative voice. A great read.

The author’s website says the next book will be out in 2012.

## Related post: MBTB mini-review of Learning to Swim

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Stuart MacBride: Shatter the Bones (2011)

British police procedural (Scottish noir)

Book # 7 with Logan “Lazarus” McRaie, DS, in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The case: a young mother and daughter singing sensation from a competition TV show have been kidnapped for ransom and the police have very little to go on. There is a breakneck pace to the policing and McRaie’s personal life that makes the book hard to put down.

First book: Cold Granite

## Related posts:
MBTB review of Cold Granite # 1

MBTB review of Dark Blood # 6

* * *

Margaret Maron: Three-Day Town (2011)

Book # 17 with Judge Deborah Knott, now married to police officer Dwight.

This book is set in New York City where Deborah and Dwight are taking a delayed honeymoon. Staying in a friend’s apartment, they are invited down the hall to a neighbour’s party. When they return to their apartment, there is a dead body in it. NYPD detective Sigrid Harald from Maron’s other series plays a big part.
Nicely done from multiple points of view – mostly Deborah and Sigrid. It’s refreshing to see Deborah operate outside the cloying cushion of her endless relatives on the home front in North Carolina.

First book: Bootlegger’s Daughter

## Related post: MBTB review of Rituals of the Season # 11

Watch for upcoming post: Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Innocent
by Taylor Stevens

Investigator/Action/Adventure

Book # 2 with Vanessa Michael Munroe, the daughter of American missionaries in Africa, now works all over the world as a researcher and investigator

Description: Eight years ago, five-year-old Hannah was spirited out of school and into the closed world of a cult known as The Chosen. Ever since, followers of its leader, The Prophet, have hidden the child and shielded her abductor. Now, childhood survivors of The Chosen who have escaped to make a life for themselves on the outside know where to find Hannah and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help. . .
Munroe must navigate unpredictable cult members, their dangerous cohorts and the struggle against her own increasingly violent nature so she can rescue the child.... (book jacket)

First book: The Informationist

A Royal Pain
By Rhys Bowen

Book # 2 in the Royal Spyness Series, with Lady Georgiana Rannoch

MBTB review: Better than the first in the series.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch is back and her financial situation is as dire as ever. However, a summons from the Queen puts her secret house cleaning business on the back burner as she is asked to host and chaperone a young Bavarian princess the Queen is hoping to pair with her son. But fatal "accidents" start plaguing our heiress and Georgie soon finds herself in the midst of another mystery that has political implications.

It's the characters that make this series. They are wildly entertaining and eccentric enough individually, but when they get together in the pages of this series...well, let’s just say that anything can happen. Just like the first book, it takes a while for the mystery portion of the novel to take off, but readers are sufficiently amused by the plot and character antics to be left with any complaint. This lighthearted, fun cozy is just the thing to look forward to after a long day of work. Just remember to pick up Her Royal Spyness (2007) before delving into this one.

Happy Reading.

Posted by Shiela