Murder, death and whodunits: The 2017 Edgar Award nominees

The Mystery Writers of America have unveiled the nominees for the 2017 Edgar Awards, one of the highest honors in the genre. The award is, of course, named for Edgar Allan Poe, often credited with inventing the modern detective story.

In addition to the specific categories listed below, the MWA has selected two recipients for the Grand Master Award, a recognition of life achievement in mystery writing. The 2017 recipients are Max Allan Collins, known for his "Quarry" and "Road to Perdition" series, among many other projects; and Ellen Hart, the Minnesota novelist behind the groundbreaking Jane Lawless series.

The winners will be announced in April.

Best novel

• "The Ex" by Alafair Burke
• "Where It Hurts" by Reed Farrel Coleman
• "Jane Steele" by Lyndsay Faye | More
• "What Remains of Me" by Alison Gaylin
• "Before the Fall" by Noah Hawley | More

Best first novel by an American author

• "Under the Harrow" by Flynn Berry
• "Dodgers" by Bill Beverly
• "IQ" by Joe Ide | More
• "The Drifter" by Nicholas Petrie
• "Dancing with the Tiger" by Lili Wright
• "The Lost Girls" by Heather Young

Best paperback original

• "Shot in Detroit" by Patricia Abbott
• "Come Twilight" by Tyler Dilts
• "The 7th Canon" by Robert Dugoni
• "Rain Dogs" by Adrian McKinty
• "A Brilliant Death" by Robin Yocum
• "Heart of Stone" by James W. Ziskin

Best fact crime (Nonfiction)

• "Morgue: A Life in Death" by Dr. Vincent DiMaio & Ron Franscell
• "The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan" by Laurence Leamer
• "Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane: A True Story of Victorian Law and Disorder: The Unsolved Murder That Shocked Victorian England" by Paul Thomas Murphy
• "While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man's Descent into Madness" by Eli Sanders
• "The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer" by Kate Summerscale

Best critical / biographical

• "Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life" by Peter Ackroyd
• "Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime: Works and Authors of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden Since 1967" by Mitzi M. Brunsdale
• "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life" by Ruth Franklin | More
• "Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula" by David J. Skal

Best short story

• "Oxford Girl" by Megan Abbott, from "Mississippi Noir"
• "A Paler Shade of Death" by Laura Benedict, from "St. Louis Noir"
• "Autumn at the Automat" by Lawrence Block, from "In Sunlight or in Shadow"
• "The Music Room" by Stephen King, from "In Sunlight or in Shadow"
• "The Crawl Space" by Joyce Carol Oates, from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best juvenile

• "Summerlost" by Ally Condie
• "OCDaniel" by Wesley King
• "The Bad Kid" by Sarah Lariviere
• "Some Kind of Happiness" by Claire Legrand
• "Framed!" by James Ponti
• "Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry" by Susan Vaught

Best young adult

• "Three Truths and a Lie" by Brent Hartinger
• "The Girl I Used to Be" by April Henry
• "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
• "My Sister Rosa" by Justine Larbalestier
• "Thieving Weasels" by Billy Taylor