Last night, May 1, The Edgar Awards were announced in New York City. Named for the guy who started the whole genre, Edgar Alan Poe, the Edgars honor all types of mystery and crime writing by American authors. A Traveler’s Library, as usual, is looking for those with a strong sense of place that might interest travelers.  Here are the big winners and some nominees that fit the bill.

BEST NOVEL

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.  [Setting: Minnesota]Here Krueger departs from his popular Cork O’Connor mystery series with a coming of age novel about a boy facing multiple deaths and searching for reason. In 2009, when we were on a virtual road trip around the United States, we featured an interview with Krueger about his book, Vermillion Drift. Now that he’s won the big Edgar, you might want to see how this author’s mind works, by reading that interview.

You might also be interested in the nominated How the Light Gets In [Setting: Quebec] by Louise Penny. Part of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, it follows one we reviewed here in 2011, A Trick of the Light. Penny does an excellent job of setting the scene, lus developing very interesting characters, although I was disappointed that I listened to an audio book rather than reading it in print.

Standing in Another Man’s Grave [Setting Edinburgh] features the a return of a retired character in a popular series by Ian Rankin.

Until She Comes Home [Setting Detroit] by Lori Roy.  Former Edgar award winner for Bent Road.

Best New Novel by an American Writer

Red Sparrow, by John Matthews [Setting: Russia] The cold war spy games between Russia and America (will they never end?) have been mined practically into extinction, but Matthews has a new angle–the spies who were specifically trained to use sexual wiles to get information.   Red Sparrow intrigued me when I heard about it and sounds like a very good read.

Others travelers who read might like:

I have to admit that I was pulling for Tucsonan Becky Masterman in this category for her excellent first crime novel, Rage Against the Dying [Setting: Tucson/Oro Valley] . We reviewed it after seeing her at the 2013 Tucson Festival of Books.

Ghostman [setting: Atlantic City] by Roger Hobbs. A casino robbery gone wrong and a mysterious “fixer.”

You can see the entire list of nominees and award winners at the Edgars website.  Please let me know if there are others I should have included here.

Note: Some titles and book covers here are linked to Amazon, in case you’d like to purchase a copy of a book. When you use these links, it costs you no more, but A Traveler’s Library gets a few cents to keep us in business. Thanks.