A Two Day Pre-Malice Agatha Party

by Paula Gail Benson

This year, we won't be able to gather in Bethesda, Maryland, to celebrate the best of the traditional mystery. We'll miss the homecoming, family reunion, and all round party blast. But, that doesn't mean that we can't celebrate the magnificent authors whose brilliant works have been nominated for the Agatha Award.

Last year, I offered a quiz to match words (from stories or novels) with authors in the Best Short Story and Best First Novel categories. This year, I'm expanding the game to include all the nominees. The Best Historical Mystery, Best Nonfiction, and Best Children/Young Adult categories are featured today and the rest will be in my post at Writers Who Kill tomorrow.

Why don't you take these little tests today and tomorrow to remember some great reads or be introduced to some new authors? Match the titles (numbered) with the words (lettered) below. Answers are at the end!

Rhys Bowen

Best Historical Mystery

(1) Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen (Penquin)
(2) Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
(3) The Pearl Dagger by L. A. Chandlar (Kensington)
(4) Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink) 
(5) The Naming Game by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)

Susanna Calkins

Best Nonfiction

(6) Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
(7) Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrified Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin (Lyons Press)
(8) Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (Knopf)
(9) The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
(10) The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt)

L.A. Chandlar

Best Children/Young Adult

(11) Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers by Shauna Holyoak (Disney Hyperion)
(12) Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen MacManus (Delacorte Press)
(13) The Last Crystal by Frances Schoonmaker (Auctus Press)
(14) Top Marks for Murder (A Most Unladylike Mystery)
by Robin Stevens (Puffin)
(15) Jada Sly, Artist and Spy by Sherri Winston (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Edith Maxwell

(A) Cartoons/Spies/Missing Mothers

(B) Denver/Crime Ring/Hacker

(C) Extended Honeymoon/Animal Attack

(D) Females/Human/Friendships

(E) Hairdresser/Honeymoon/Murder

(F) Handkerchief/Shrink/Gangsters

(G) Medicine/Massachusetts/Faith

(H) New York/London/Voodoo Macbeth

Gabriel Valjan

(I) Historian/Pen Name/Protagonist

(J) Cigarettes/Jazz/Photographs

(K) Reverend/Acquitted/Assassinated

(L) School/Anniversary/Detective Society

(M) Secrets/Homecoming/Murder

(N) Wagon Train/Kidnapping/Magic

(O) Women/Victims/Wrong Place at Wrong Time

ANSWERS:

15(A)

11(B)

1(C)

9(D)

7(E)

5(F)

4(G)

3(H)

6(I)

2(J)

8(K)

14(L)

12(M)

13(N)

10(O)