Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Decade in Review: Edgar Award winners (2000-2009)

Well, as we get to the end of the year, we're starting to see more and more 'best of the year' lists and reflections - which can always provide some ammunition for debate and discussion. Given that it's 2009, we're also seeing a fair few 'reviewing the whole decade' type lists. Inspired by that, I thought I'd take a look (in something of a short series) at some of the crime fiction themes, highlights, or otherwise noteworthy happenings of the decade. And I'd be really interested to get your perspective in the comments section as well, on each topic.

To kick-off, I thought I'd look at award-winning crime novels - starting with one of the most prestigious accolades, the Edgar Award for Best Novel, given by the Mystery Writers of America each year. The list of winners this decade is:
To my shame, I have read none of these 10 books, although I have read other titles by several of those authors. A couple of these titles are in my TBR pile at home as well (being currently neglected due to the ever-increasing number of recent books needing reviews).

On this list alone, it seems T. Jefferson Parker has had a pretty good decade, Edgars-wise. Like James Lee Burke in the 1990s, he's picked up multiple Edgar awards (as a sidenote, James Lee Burke seemed to still be shortlisted a lot in the 2000s for several of his books for several high-ranking awards, if not getting the 'wins' as much this time around).

Have you read any of these titles? Which is your favourite? Which do you think is the best out of all ten Edgar Award winners this decade?
at 2:17 PM
Labels:

4 comments:

  1. BernadetteDecember 17, 2009 at 3:02 PM

    I've only read the 2000 and 2009 winners - both excellent books actually. Of the two my vote would go to Blue Heaven as being more evocative, it's beautifully written.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KiwicraigDecember 17, 2009 at 4:12 PM

    I really enjoyed John Hart's THE LAST CHILD this year, so will be interested to see what DOWN RIVER is like. I'm also looking forward to TJP's CALIFORNIA GIRL, which is near the top of my TBR pile...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Uriah RobinsonDecember 17, 2009 at 9:30 PM

    I have read five of the books and seven of these authors. Which proves that I have far too much time on my hands.
    Of those five winning books Joe R Lansdale's The Bottoms [Texas in the 1920s], closely followed by Jess Walter's Citizen Vince were in my opinion the best.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bastian from Jakarta, IndonesiaDecember 22, 2009 at 11:02 PM

    Hi, i also have read all of Edgar awards winner this decade, but unlike the Daggers which i have read each and every book nominated, i haven't finished reading all the nominated books for the Edgars.. I only read all the nominated books starting from 2005.
    My favorite winner would be 2006,2008,2009. I dislike 2004 and 2007. Rankin (2003) is good but one has to read the previous books in the series first. There are only 2 female winner : Burke and Rozan, both which i enjoyed very much.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)