The Edgar® Awards, or Edgars® are named for Edgar Alan Poe, the American author credited with the invention of the modern detective story. They are awarded in the spring of each year by the Mystery Writers of America to honor distinguished works in the genre. The Davenport Public Library is pleased to present the winner and nominees in the Best Novel category:
WINNER
In Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes, unhappily retired cop Bill Hodges is spurred to action when the perpetrator of a devastating crime in his depressed Midwestern city threatens to strike again on a larger scale. The previous year, a crazed driver had run a stolen Mercedes into a line of unemployed people waiting for a job fair, killing eight and wounding several. Hodges, in a race against time and with the help of some unusual local characters, will not let the devious Mercedes Killer escape again!
NOMINEES
This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash follows Wade, an ex-minor league baseball player on the run with his two young daughters (taken from their foster home in Gastonia, NC). He is pursued simultaneously by a vengeful former criminal associate and ex-cop Brady Weller who uncovers more nefarious doings in Wade’s past.
“HELP US,” a note attached to the collar of a dog found wandering in the woods sends Detective Inspector Jack Caffery back to work in Wolf, Mo Hayder’s fifth Somerset crime novel. Will Caffery find the family held hostage in their country home before it is too late? Will the mysterious Walking Man help him discover the truth about his missing brother?
In Stuart Neville’s The Final Silence, Rea Carlisle enlists the help of former Belfast DI Jack Lennon in uncovering her uncle’s disturbing activities during the Troubles. Her efforts are blocked by her father, a successful politician determined to keep the family’s grisly secrets under wraps. Now the subject of a murder investigation himself, Lennon smells a conspiracy.
Detective Inspector John Rebus returns to the Edinburgh police force in Saints of the Shadow Bible, Ian Rankin’s nineteenth series installment. Paired once again with internal affairs officer Malcolm Fox, Rebus links 30-year-old murder case with a current car accident investigation to reveal a complex web of public and private corruption.
In Karin Slaughter’s stand-alone crime novel, Cop Town, two women detectives from very different backgrounds team up to stop a serial shooter from terrorizing the police force in 1970s Atlanta.