Celebrating with the Agatha Nominees

By Paula Gail Benson

Each year, I look forward to interviewing Agatha nominees prior to the Malice Domestic Conference. Unfortunately, my work schedule did not allow me to ask questions this year, but it has not stopped me from enjoying the diversity, uniqueness, talent, and skill of the nominees’ work.

In this message, I wanted to showcase the best contemporary novel and best short story nominees. They all are people I respect greatly and many of them have become dear and cherished friends.

The best contemporary novels show the amazing scope and range mystery novels can explore.

Malice Domestic’s Agatha nominated Contemporary Novels:

§  Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron

§  Helpless by Annette Dashofy

§  The Weekend Retreat by Tara Laskowski

§  A Case of the Bleus by Korina Moss

§  The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

Particularly, I must give a shout out to two of our Writers Who Kill partners, Annette Dashofy and Korina Moss.

Annette and I began our association in an online writing class taught by Susan McBride. After seeing the movie Ambulance Girl, I understand how Annette could work and write so convincingly about EMTs. With multiple series and stand-alone novels, she is a seven-times Agatha nominee. Here’s a link to her website: HOME | annettedashofy

Korina’s Cheddar off Dead won an Agatha for Best First Novel. Her recipes are as delightful as her quirky, small-town characters. Her novels allow readers to take virtual trips to the Sonoma Valley. She now has five books in her series. Here’s a link to her website: Korina Moss | Cozy Mystery Author (korinamossauthor.com)

Agatha and Lefty award winner Ellen Byron writes multiple series, under her name and as Maria DiRico. Before venturing into writing novels, she had a career as a playwright and screenwriter. Her humor, her knowledge of the TV world, her depictions of New Orleans, and her lovely devotion to good food makes her books wonderful excursions. Here’s a link to her website: Cozy Mysteries | Ellen Byron | Author

I met Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity award winner Tara Laskowski through her very talented husband Art Taylor. She gave me an opportunity to serve as a guest editor for the online journal SmokeLong Quarterly. Now, I’m a fan of her suspenseful novels and “What Scares You” blog posts (appropriate for someone born on Halloween), and a great admirer of her son Dash, who is a fantastic artist. Here’s a link to her website: Tara Laskowski - Tara Laskowski

Each step of Gigi Pandian’s writing journey has brought me new concepts to appreciate. Whether she’s writing intricate locked room stories, Jaya Jones adventure novels, or the exploits of a living gargoyle, her work is magical. Oh, and she writes about a magician, too! She’s an Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Lefty award winner. Here’s a link to her website: Gigi Pandian: USA Today Bestselling Author

The short story nominations show the great number of opportunities for publication: respected periodicals, convention anthologies, and a collection based on a group’s music. [Note: clicking on the story title links will allow you to read the nominated short stories.]

Malice Domestic’s Agatha nominated Short Stories:

§  Shelley Costa, “The Knife Sharpener” in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Jul/Aug 2023

§  Tina deBellegarde. “A Good Judge of Character” in Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Traditional

§  Barb Goffman. “Real Courage” in Black Cat Mystery Magazine issue 14

§  Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski. “Ticket to Ride” in Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Beatles

§  Richie Narvaez. “Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective” in Killin’ Time in San Diego: Bouchercon 2023

Shelley Costa’s work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Agatha Awards, and has received a Special Mention for The Pushcart Prize. Shelley explains after initially being captivated by the only female civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg, how it took five years of mulling over the idea for it to culminate into “The Knife Sharpener,” which she wrote in a week. Here’s the link to her process: Sharpening Knives Takes a Very Long Time (by Shelley Costa) | Trace Evidence (trace-evidence.net) Here is a link to her website: Shelley Costa Mysteries | Women Sleuths

A former middle school teacher, paralegal, and exporter, Tina deBellegarde now writes full time when she is not (1) helping her husband tend bees, harvest shitake mushrooms, or create jewelry designs, or (2) visiting her son in Japan. She writes the Batavia-on-Hudson novels for Level Best Books in addition to short and flash fiction. Her nominated story shows how a feline’s change in habit can provide clues to a murder. Here is a link to her website: Home | tdb writes (tinadebellegarde.com)

Barb Goffman is a well-known and respected mystery short-story writer and editor, having won three Agatha Awards, two Macavity Awards, and the Anthony, Silver Falchion, and Ellery Queen Readers Award. She has been a finalist for national crime-writing awards forty-one times. Her collection DON’T GET MAD, GET EVEN won the Silver Falchion in 2013. Her nominated story shows her adeptness at using different points of view in a single story. Here is a link to her website: Home - Barb Goffman Mystery Writer

I am incredibly grateful to Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, both Raven award winners, for their excellent reading recommendations as well as their devotion to and promotion of mystery fiction. Their collaboration on this gentle and powerful story of how an action from years before can continue to have ramifications is a terrific way for them to enter the field themselves. I hope the collaboration will continue. Here’s a link to Dru’s website: http://drusbookmusing.com.

Here’s a link to Kristopher’s website: BOLO BOOKS | Be On the Look Out for These Books

Born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Richie Narvaez has worked as a writer for most of his career, in all kinds of publishing, in print and online. He’s the recipient of the Spinetingler Award for Best Collection and an Agatha and Anthony for Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco.

Here is how he describes his unique protagonist: “In my story, “Shamu: World’s Greatest Detective,” the killer whale has been outfitted with a device that lets AI translate and transcribe her thoughts. With the aid of land-based assistant, Angie Gomez, Shamu investigates crimes professionally in order to save up enough money to buy her freedom from SeaWorld. In this story, a San Diego Padre has been murdered, and it’s up to the world’s greatest detective to uncover the culprit.”

Here’s a link to Richie’s website: About | Richie Narvaez

If you haven’t already, why not include some of these authors on your to be read list?