The Mystery Writers of America bestowed their annual Edgar Awards April 26, recognizing the best in crime writing in several genres and formats. The evening's top prize for fiction went to Attica Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird, an East Texas set whodunit featuring a black Texas Ranger investigating the deaths of a black man and a white woman that soon promises to unearth long-buried romantic and racially motivated crimes. Locke has been acclaimed for her previous crime novels and also produces the hit series Empire, which Booklist cites as 'lending cinematic polish to her sordid tale of violence bubbling in a Texas bayou backwater.' The top prize for best fact crime went to Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. Grann's account of several murders, many unsolved, during the 1920s oil boom on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma made it onto many 'Best of' lists and has been optioned for film by Martin Scorsese. Kirkus Reviews cited Grann's 'dogged original research and supurb narrative skills in this gripping account of pitiless evil.' Killers of the Flower Moon can be found in MPL's Too Good To Miss collection as well as the regular nonfiction collection. The Best First Novel nod went to Jordan Harper for She Rides Shotgun, a thriller centered on a father and daughter on the run for their lives. Booklist called it 'a dark, original take on the chase novel and a strangely touching portrait of a father-daughter relationship framed in barbed wire.'
The Edgars also recognized titles in Young Adult, Juvenile, Best First Novel and other categories. The full list of nominees and winners can be found here.