Edgar Awards 2024

Earlier this month, my wife and I traveled to New York City to attend the Edgars — the “Oscars of mystery fiction” — as well as a pre-Edgars reception sponsored by Dell Magazines. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Editor Janet Hutchings suggested we make the trip as I'd won third place for "Teddy's Favorite Thing" in the 2023 EQMM Readers Awards, and that seemed like an invitation I shouldn't refuse. Plus my wife and I haven't been on a significant vacation alone in decades. This seemed a good excuse to visit a great city, wear a suit, and pretend I’m an adult.

We got into town early and all was well. I genuinely like New York, and this is the first time I've visited when I wasn't on business. Every time before there's been some kind of existential, kill-what-you-eat meeting in the offing. Not this time -- I was just a tourist. We stayed at the Marriot Marquis off Times Square, which was ... fine. We got a good rate through my membership in the Mystery Writers of America. Times Square itself I can take or leave. It's brassy and obnoxious and a little bit goes a long way. But the hotel also hosted the Edgars and was just a couple blocks from the Dell event.

Another advantage was the hotel's proximity to Broadway. We caught last-second tickets to Hamilton and the theater was literally attached to the hotel. The tickets weren't cheap but the heavy lifting in getting to New York was already accomplished. Why not see a show? I'm glad we went -- there's still nothing quite like a big stage musical for telling an emotional story. I love how musicals it illuminate the interior life of characters. Want to know what's on a character's mind, how they're feeling? Hit them with a spotlight at center stage and they will tell you.

Before the awards we also managed a pilgrimage to The Mysterious Bookshop, to scarf up some vintage paperbacks for the flight home, and we visited the 9/11 memorial a few blocks away. The last time I was in New York, the Twin Towers were holes in the ground. It almost looked like a construction site, until you looked up at the surrounding buildings and saw the scars and the blown-out glass and the tattered tarps hanging everywhere. Now the site is peaceful, tasteful, sad. It reminded me of some of the Holocaust memorials I've visited in Europe. There are tears, but it is worth the visit.

The Dell Magazine reception was held at Library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, which I understand is the city's second-oldest library. It was a cozy event and well-attended, and I knew a surprising number of people, from the correspondence I've carried on since starting this job, and from the writers I've met since joining the Mystery Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Everyone had name tags, which was a great help. I'm not great at mingling but I still had some wonderful conversations.

I thanked Charles Ardai from Hard Case Crime for his prompt and compassionate rejcetion of B.K.P.I. last year (he literally responded within an hour). I talked baseball with Josh Pachter -- he gave me side-eye when I said I might see a Yankees game that week, saying that he was a Mets fan; I tried to convince to adopt my Dodgers as his out-of-town team (and Josh says he might have been to Ebbets Field as a very young boy). I got to tell Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson how much I enjoyed their story, "Dogs of War," and I got to enthuse to David Dean how much I've enjoyed his Dr. Marchland stories. Twist Phelan was there, which was a treat -- she's smart and kind and I greatly enjoyed "Judge Not" from her last year. I got to meet Gabriela Stiteler and her husband James; Gabriella was my fellow rookie in EQMM's Department of First stories -- her "Two Hours West of Nothing" was published in the same issue as my story, earning her a Robert L. Fish Award nomination. I met Richard Helms and his wife Elaine, and told him how I'd related the Broadway plot of his "Spear Carriers" to my wife the night before, when we went to our show. A new agent — James Farner — introduced himself to me, so I buttonholed him about my novel. And of course it was truly a pleasure to meet Janet Hutchings in person, who has done so much to encourage and promote my writing career.

Pictures of the event are here — you might even find my wife and I, if you look hard enough.

I'm an introvert, so an hour of small talk had me ready to run back to my room to assume a defensive crouch, but there was a little ceremony to recognize their award winners and nominees. It was pleasant to accept my certificate and share how nice it feels to be the new guy at anything when you're over sixty. After the awards several writers introduced themselves and had warm words for my work. Nice people, all around, and a general sense of we're-all-in-this-together — trying to write mysteries and please our readers.

After the reception we returned to the hotel and freshened up for the Edgars ceremony, which was a bigger and louder deal than the Dell event. I made a point of reading all the best novel nominees this year, so it was a special thrill to introduce myself to S.A. Cosby, and tell him how much I enjoyed All The Sinners Bleed. He was friendly and gracious and shared a bit about how he'd come to conceive and complete this work, and I think he was pleased when I encouraged him to write more stories about Titus Crown.

The Edgars ceremony was in a large ballroom, with maybe fifty tables seating a dozen people each. We had our dinner and then watched the awards, which moved at a decent clip (and are available to watch online). I knew some of the writers, and need to read many more. It was inspiring to see so many first-time winners, and to realize that just a few short years ago they were as obscure to the business as I am now. It's nice to know that is a gulf that can be crossed, whether or not I ever cross it. And everyone seemed thrilled with their ugly little Edgar statues (which are less ugly in person than they are in pictures).

Worn out from a day of meeting and greeting, we beat a hasty retreat after the awards wrapped up ... and my wife and I promptly came down sick, wiping out the rest of our week in New York, saving me from having to disappoint Josh about going to Yankee Stadium, among other things. It was a crushing disappointment but it was a great trip, until it wasn't, and now that I'm home I can concentrate on the glow of all the things that went right. I don't know as I'd go every year (and I'm certain I can't afford it!) but I'm glad to see the Edgars once in my life. I come away feeling that the business is both bigger and smaller than I expected -- bigger in the multiplicity of writers and publishers and categories, but smaller in the down-to-earth nature of the writers I met. Good people. A good trade. I'm privledged to be a part of it.

Congrats to the many winners and special thanks to Janet Hutchings for inviting me to the Dell reception!