Annal:1996 Agatha Award for Best First Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Agatha Award in the year 1996. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Murder on a Girls' Night Out: A Southern Sisters Mystery
- 1996 Agatha–1st Novel winner
- Score: 10.46
Patricia Anne—”Mouse”—is respectful, respectable, and demure, a perfect example of genteel Southern womanhood. Mary Alice—”Sister”—is big, brassy, flamboyant, and bold. Together they have a knack for finding themselves in the center of some of Birmingham’s most unfortunate unpleasantness.
Country Western is red hot these days, so overimpulsive Mary Alice thinks it makes perfect sense to buy the Skoot ‘n’ Boot bar—since that’s where the many-times-divorced “Sister” and her boyfriend du jour like to hang out anyway. Sensible retired schoolteacher Patricia…
Biggie and the Poisoned Politician
- 1996 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.46
Biggie Weatherford is the wealthiest woman in the tiny East Texas town of Job’s Crossing. She’s also something of an eccentric (she says cooling her feet in a propped-open refrigerator is easier than putting in air-conditioning). Mostly, though, she’s an affectionate grandmother with a passion for fishing and an abiding interest in local history.
Understandably, Biggie gets riled up when she finds out about the proposed garbage dump to be located next to her ancestral graveyard—the final resting place of James Royce Wooten, the town’s founding father and the…
Death in Little Tokyo: A Ken Tanaka Mystery
- 1997 Anthony-1st Novel winner
- 1997 Macavity-1st Novel winner
- 1996 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 26.47
When mystery buff Ken Tanaka masquerades as a private investigator at his local mystery club’s weekend event, a femme fatale right out of an old Bogart movie asks him for a favor. Ken takes the case as a joke—but there’s nothing to laugh about when his sleuthing leads him to a dead man in a Little Tokyo hotel room. Suddenly entangled in a real-life murder, Ken and his girlfriend, Mariko Kosaka, have to negotiate the unfamiliar streets and traditional customs of Los Angeles’s Japanese-American enclave.
- 1997 Anthony-1st Novel winner
- 1997 Anthony-Paperback winner
- 1996 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 26.47
Theresa is a career woman, a mother and a wife. When her mother calls to say there’s trouble at her elderly neighbor’s house and she’s going over to investigate, Theresa has no choice but to get involved. Before the night is over, Theresa finds herself caught up in the harsh brutality of the streets, with a drive-by shooting, a mysterious kidnapping, and more.
Riding for a Fall: A Veterinarian Mystery
- 1996 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.46
Murder wasn’t part of her practice…
Palm Springs veterinarian Andi Pauling is struggling to keep her new business afloat. So when Ross McRoberts appears in her doorway, he seems like an apparition conjured up by her own wishful thinking. A vet school friend who was too sexy for his own good, Ross is Andi’s one big regret: He married someone else and moved away.
Yet Ross has changed. On the surface he seems filthly rich, driving a fancy sports car, playing polo, and galloping with a crowd that reeks of luxury. But there’s trouble behind the glamour: Ross’s…
