Annal:2006 Agatha Award for Best Novel
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Agatha Award in the year 2006. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel of Suspense
- 2007 Macavity-Novel winner
- 2006 Agatha–Novel winner
- 2007 Anthony-Novel nominee
- 2007 Edgar–Novel nominee
- Score: 32.57
Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave.
Seventeen years later, three families and three friends, their worlds inexorably altered in the course of one night, must confront the ever-unfolding consequences. Wonderfully written and utterly absorbing, The Virgin of Small Plains is about the loss of faith, trust, and innocence…and the possibility of redemption.
All Mortal Flesh: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery
- 2007 Anthony-Novel nominee
- 2007 Macavity-Novel nominee
- 2006 Agatha–Novel nominee
- Score: 18.57
Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne’s first encounter with the priest Clare Fergusson was the beginning of an attraction so fierce, so forbidden, that the only thing that could keep them safe from compromising their every belief was distance. He figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody’s business but his own until her body is discovered, gruesomely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it’s an open-and-shut case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the murder investigation he controls. To the townspeople, it’s proof that the whispered gossip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hierarchy, it’s a chance to control their wayward cleric once and for all.
Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
- 2006 Agatha–Novel nominee
- Score: 6.56
London, 1931. The night before an exhibition of his artwork opens at a famed Mayfair gallery, the controversial artist Nick Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police rule it an accident, but Nicks twin sister, Georgina, a wartime journalist and a infamous figure in her own right, isnt convinced. In Messenger of Truth, Maisie once again uncovers the perilous legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself. But to solve the mystery of Nicks death, Maisie will have to keep her head as the forces behind the artists fall come out of the shadows to silence her.
Following on the bestselling Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.
- 2006 Agatha–Novel nominee
- Score: 6.56
After the death of her husband Cole, Ruby McGavin is shocked to learn that she’s inherited part of a cattle ranch in Tokopah County, California. But she’s even more surprised to find out that the family he claimed died years ago is very much alive.
Ruby arrives in town intent on simply selling her part of the ranch to the McGavins. But as she comes to know them-in particular the handsome saddlemaker Lucas McGavin-Ruby learns family secrets about her departed husband and his family that make her wonder if she ever really knew Cole.Driven to uncover the whole story, Ruby discovers a legacy of pain and denial.
Why Casey Had to Die: A Harry Bronson Mystery
- 2006 Agatha–Novel nominee
- Score: 6.56
"A retired cop, a cold case, and murder at a convention honoring Dorothy L. Sayers. Entertainment guaranteed. What more could a mystery fan ask for?" —Bill Crider
