Annal:2005 Agatha Award for Best First Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Agatha Award in the year 2005. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Better Off Wed: An Annabelle Archer Mystery
- 2005 Agatha–1st Novel winner
- Score: 10.55
The murder of a particularly difficult mother-of-the-bride has cast a pall on wedding planner Annabelle Archer’s latest triumph—and suspicion falls heavily on her sometime-business partner and friend Richard Gerard. Annabelle knows that even her trusted wedding emergency kit won’t be able to salvage their careers if she and Richard can’t find the real culprit.
It’s no easy task since the slain matron was perhaps the most hated socialite in D.C., but Annabelle navigates through the city’s colorful wedding industry and powerful social scene on the deadly trail…
- 2005 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Every reporter dreams of breaking the story of the century, but for tabloid television reporter Abigail Gardner becoming that story will be her greatest nightmare. Things start to fall apart when Abby’s normally cold, distant father suffers a stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and singing show tunes. When her ne’er-do-well big brother Bennett shows up at the hospital with his new girlfriend Emily Boyle, a much-loved but somewhat unstable heiress to an American political dynasty, things get worse.
When Emily ends up dead shortly after their visit and…
- 2005 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Four weeks. Four murders. One thing in common. All were warned of tragedy by a boardwalk fortune teller. Eerie coincidence? Or something more sinister?
Knit One, Kill Two: A Knitting Mystery
- 2005 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked—until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt’s murder.
Witch Way to Murder: An Ophelia and Abby Mystery
- 2005 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
- Score: 6.55
Ophelia Jensen wishes she was just your typical, thirty-something librarian. Unfortunately, she’s been burdened with psychic powers—an unwanted “gift” she considers inconvenient at best and at worst downright dangerous. Her kindly old grandmother Abby, however, has no compunctions about the paranormal, being a practicing witch with unique abilities of her own.
And sometimes the otherworldly arts do come in handy—like when the arrival of a mysterious, good-looking stranger to their normally tranquil corner of Iowa seems to trigger an epidemic of catastrophes,…
