A bit of a warning: I really, really enjoy talking about Edgar Allan Poe. I find his work equal parts engaging, emotional, and genuinely skin-crawlingly creepy, and I find the man himself, in all his moody, tragic, cantankerous glory, throughly intriguing. My fascination only grew when, after writing yesterday’s post on Edgar and the Edgars, I saw this article that (perhaps slightly facetiously) suggests that Edgar Allan Poe had a time machine.
For the record, if this is true:
EDGAR ALLAN POE! COME HANG OUT WITH US AT THE LIBRARY! WE ARE LOADS OF FUN.
Ahem…anyways….As I mentioned yesterday, the Edgar Awards, handed out by the Mystery Writers of America, is one of the most recognized awards, particularly within the mystery/crime/thriller genres, for both books and for television. Having been handed out for nearly fifty years, they are a tried and true stamp-of-approval for those looking for a mystery that will challenge or chill. So, in the hopes that you will find some new favorites among previous Edgar Award Winners, and also in the hopes of further enticing the time-traveling Edgar Allan Poe to come and visit, might we suggest that…
If you want to know more about the Edgar Awards, Then check out:
Mr. Mercedes: I can think of very few times when I would not whole-heartedly recommend a Stephen King novel,but in this case, the good Mystery Writers of America had the good sense to agree with me. In this darkly compelling, race-against-time thriller, a depressed and retired cop finds himself unwittingly pitted against a ruthless killer who drove straight into a crowd of job-seekers at an unemployment fair. This is King at his darkest, but also, perversely, at his most humane, capturing the failures and foibles of human nature in a way that manages to be honest, frank, and still somehow empathetic. If you enjoy this, be sure to check out Finders Keepers, the next installment of this proposed trilogy.
Live by Night: Right up there with Stephen King is Dorchester’s own Dennis Lehane–a man whose imagination is worryingly dark, but whose prose are some of the most memorable you’ll ever read. This third book in his trilogy of Coughlin novels (featuring gangster Joe Coughlin) tells of our hero’s misadventures during Prohibition, from the dark streets of Boston to the heady nightlife of Cuba–but it’s a dangerous time, filled with exceptionally untrustworthy men…and for those who live outside the law, the end is usually an early grave…Lehane has proven himself surprisingly adept at historical settings and details, and his obviously love for his characters and subject matter make these stories into epic stories that should not be missed.
The Last Policeman: It’s great for readers that the Edgars aren’t afraid to celebrate authors who bend genres, and play with the elements of mysteries to create a work that is wholly original, and sometimes, quite a challenge. This winner of the Best Paperback Original for 2013 is one of those books. When the Earth is doomed by an imminent and unavoidable asteroid collision, New Hampshire homicide detective Hank Palace not only investigates a suspicious suicide that has gone overlook, but also must contend with knowing that his work will end in six months, whether he wants it to or not. This unsettling, philosophical novel won author Ben H. Waters a great deal of recognition, as well as a legion of fans.
Queenpin: Detective noir novels are a classic in the mystery genre, but it largely remains a genre dominated by men…that is, until Megan Abbott came onto the scene. In this fascinating glimpse into the sordid and strangely alluring world of 1960’s Las Vegas, a young woman is hired to keep the books at a seedy nightclub, and finds herself the protégée of the infamous mobqueen Gloria Denton. But even as Gloria spills all her secrets, it’s clear that these two women aren’t going to take any chances on each other, and that one wrong move might be their last. The cover art for this book is pitch-perfect, as well, harkening back to the pulp novels in which noir was born.