On the eve of the Oscars of Crime Writing

While it's Thursday here in New Zealand, for many other readers around the world it's still Wednesday night, making it the eve of the 2010 Edgar® Awards, often considered to be the 'Oscars' of the crime fiction world. There are of course many other prestigious award ceremonies for crime, mystery, and thriller fiction (see sidebar for some of them) - but I don't think anyone would argue that the Mystery Writers of America Edgars are right up there in terms of prestige (perhaps the CWA considers their Daggers the Oscars, and the Edgars the Golden Globes - but that's a whole 'nother discussion).

The Edgars (named of course after the man credited with kickstarting the detective fiction genre, Edgar Allan Poe) have been running since the mid 1940s - a Best First Novel by an American Author category began in 1946 - and have been honouring the creme de la creme of American (and international) crime writing, across a variety of categories ranging from novels to short stories to TV episodes to true crime, ever since. The MWA also gives a Grand Master award for lifetime achievement - this year this is being presented to Dorothy Gilman. New Zealand's own Dame Ngaio Marsh received this tremendous honour in 1978 (incidentally, the year my parents unleashed me on the earth).

Within the next 24 hours, we'll all learn who amongst the 2010 nominees will join that glittering list of previous winners. The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at our 64th Gala Banquet, April 29, 2010 from 7:30 - 11:00pm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

Looking at the Best Novel category, the shortlisted books are:

• THE MISSING by Tim Gautreaux
• THE ODDS by Kathleen George
• THE LAST CHILD by John Hart
• MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH by Charlie Huston
• NEMESIS by Jo Nesbo, translated by Don Bartlett
• A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE by Malla Nunn

Of the above novels, I have only read one last year; THE LAST CHILD by John Hart (which also won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger). Quite simply, I thought it was superb - one of (if not) the best crime novels I read in 2009 - so I was very glad to see it make the Edgars shortlist when the announcement was made. It was one of only two 5-star ratings I gave for Good Reading last year.
In my review for Good Reading, I said "Put simply, THE LAST CHILD is an exceptional novel; a literary crime thriller that is as much about its rich cast of layered, authentic and damaged characters as its intelligent and engrossing storyline. Hart writes beautifully, evoking aspects of the human condition alongside echoes of the Southern Gothic tradition, building his tale towards a surprising yet most fitting conclusion."

I've also heard very, very good things about Nesbo's work (another of his books is in my TBR pile), but know little about the other four shortlisted books and authors.

What do you think of the nominees? Who should win? Do you follow the Edgars? Which awards do you see as the most prestigious? Thoughts and comments welcome.