Annal:2007 Anthony Award for Best Critical Nonfiction
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Anthony Award in the year 2007. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Anthony Award for Best Critical Work
- Nonfiction books
- Nonfiction authors
- Mystery/Suspense books
- Mystery/Suspense authors
- Criticism books
- Criticism authors.
Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers
- 2007 Anthony-Critical winner
- 2007 Macavity-Nonfiction winner
- 2006 Agatha–Nonfiction nominee
- Score: 26.57
We asked 100 published writers: “Did a mystery set you on your path to being a writer? Is there a classic mystery that remains important to you today?” This book is the result.
The writers we contacted represent the entire spectrum of the mystery genre, from cozy to hardboiled, from acclaimed veterans to some of the field’s most intriguing newcomers. Young or old, each of these writers reminds us of a basic truism: great writers are great readers first. Their essays reveal the extent to which the discovery of these seminal texts was not just literary inspiration but a life-altering event.
We found it especially endearing to see how often contributors referred not just to a book’s text but to its literal form as well: a particular copy of a particular edition. We are reminded that the power of the printed word derives in part from the fact that it is printed and bound, fixed in both time and place.
In these essays, we’re also reminded of the power of the genre itself. For many writers, their classics represent more than just a bar against which to measure their own work,…
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder
- 2007 Anthony-Critical nominee
- 2007 Edgar-Fact Crime nominee
- 2007 Macavity-Nonfiction nominee
- 2006 Agatha–Nonfiction nominee
- Score: 24.57
A gruesome murder, a stunned city, and Edgar Allan Poe come to life with vivid detail in this shocking true story by award-winning author Daniel Stashower.
On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. It was soon discovered to be the lovely Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar salesgirl who had gone missing three days earlier. By nightfall, news of the girl’s death had spread and sent Manhattan into a spasm of horror and outrage.
In the months that followed, the gruesome details of the murder pushed American journalism into previously unimagined realms of lurid sensationalism. But despite media pressures, New York City’s unregulated and disjointed police force proved unable to mount an effective investigation, and the crime remained unsolved.
A year after Mary Rogers was murdered, as public interest in the case began to wane, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case. At the time of the murder, thirty-one-year-old Poe had recently published his groundbreaking detective story “The Murders in…
Don't Murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A.
- 2006 Agatha–Nonfiction winner
- 2007 Anthony-Critical nominee
- 2007 Macavity-Nonfiction nominee
- Score: 22.56
A career editor demonstrates why most fiction manuscripts are rapidly rejected. Loaded with positive examples from 140 mystery authors, this well-researched volume shows numerous ways that all writers can dramatically improve their craft and put forth the fresh new voice publishers demand.
Even multi-published pros Margaret Maron, P.J. Parrish, Phil Hardwick, and Kathryn Wall admit to learning new techniques from Don't Murder Your Mystery.
Read 'Em Their Writes: A Handbook for Mystery and Crime Fiction Book Discussions
- 2007 Anthony-Critical nominee
- Score: 6.57
Who says there’s nothing to discuss about mysteries? Mystery readers unite—you can now read mysteries guiltlessly, and extend the pleasure through lively and informed discussions. Here is the guide for mystery book clubs. Award-winning author, librarian, and avid mystery fan Gary Niebuhr proves that “mystery book club” is no misnomer, and that when it comes to the mystery genre, there is indeed a great deal to talk about. He also reveals how to organize your group, get participants, select book club titles, prepare for the meeting, and conduct discussions. Book club themes, inside tips, and background material and sample questions for 100 of the best mystery titles for discussion are included—from Margaret Atwood’s Blind Assassin, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, and James Lee Burke’s Cimarron Rose to Dashiell Hammet’s Maltese Falcon, Tony Hillerman’s Dance Hall of the Dead, and Elizabeth Inness-Brown’s Burning Marguerite. You’ll find a wonderful assortment of classic and contemporary mysteries here; and the questions can easily serve as models for discussing countless…
The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases
- 2007 Edgar-Critical/Biography winner
- 2007 Anthony-Critical nominee
- Score: 16.57
From autopsies to zoology, how Holmes eliminated the impossible
This unique book uses the legendary adventures of Sherlock Holmes as a jumping-off point to discuss the growth of forensic science during the Victorian era. The book explores the emergence of science from superstition, how forensic autopsies evolved from anatomical dissection, the huge advances in blood chemistry and poison detection, and the early use of fingerprints, photography and trace evidence. It also provides new insights into landmark criminal cases that influenced the forensic world, such as Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, and includes rare period illustrations.
E. J. Wagner (Stony Brook, NY) is a crime historian and lecturer who specializes in forensic roles. She is the organizer and moderator of the annual Forensic Forum at the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook. Her work has been published in the New York Times and the Lancet.
