The Edgar Awards
2004
Winner
Acceleration
by Graham McNamee YA MCN
Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the
diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
Nominees
The
Last Treasure by Janet Anderson YA Anderson, J.
Thirteen-year-old Ellsworth leaves his father to visit the relatives he has never met and eventually joins forces
with Jess, his distant cousin, to uncover family secrets and search for their ancestor's hidden treasure.
Feast of Fools by Bridget
Crowley YA CRO
In England in the late thirteenth century, a young chorister at the Cathedral of Saint Aelred, outcast because of his crippled
foot, sympathizes with the city's other outcasts, the Jews, and sets out to prove their leader innocent of murder
Death
and the Arrow by Chris Priestly YA PRI
After his friend Will, a pickpocket in London in 1715, is murdered as part of a series of mysterious deaths, fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe asks his friend Dr. Harker to help find
the killer.
Uncovering Sadie's Secrets
by Libby Sternberg YA MYSTERY Sternberg, L
Gr. 6-9. Sternberg's first novel is a lightweight, entertaining teen
mystery-romance narrated by 15-year-old high-school sophomore Bianca Balducci.
The lively story follows Bianca as she tries “to hook up with a guy” who is
her major crush, keep up with homework, and be a good daughter. At the same
time, she's busy investigating why her new friend Sadie is apparently being
stalked by a twosome dubbed “the Lemming Lady and the Ice Man,” and trying
to stay ahead of her 20-something sister, Connie, who is a real-life PI. The
plot thickens as Bianca uncovers secrets in Sadie's past. The subtitle suggests
that this is the first in a new series: Nancy Drew fans and other young mystery
aficionados will be pleased.
2003
Winner
The Wessex Papers, Vols. 1-3 by Daniel Parker
Vol. 1.
Trust Falls
Wessex Academy is a very exclusive boarding school for the very privileged. Unfortunately, it's got a few nasty secrets, including extortion, conspiracy, and scandal. In "Trust Falls, " Sunday Winthrop and new student Fred Bushmill's pranks lead to their uncovering a sinister blackmail ring.
Vol. 2.
Fallout
Sunday and Fred discover more about the sinister conspiracy at Wessex. The blackmailers are getting desperate . . . and they're willing to turn to murder.
Vol. 3
Outsmart
Nominees
Cheating
Lessons by Nan Willard Cappo YA Cappo, N.
Seventeen-year-old Bernadette Terrell has always felt she's known the right thing to do. Now she must contend with a situation that doesn't have black-and-white answers, where a community's hope, hard work, and pride are on the line. Is a team, and a town, implicated by one person's cheating?
Safe House by Jenny Carroll
Although 16-year-old Jessica Mastriani was on vacation when Amber Mackey went missing, most of her fellow students at Ernest Pyle High School seem to blame her for Amber's brutal slaying. How could Jess's newly acquired psychic ability have stopped Amber from being killed? When another girl disappears, Jess is given a chance to redeem herself--if she can find the girl without letting the Feds know of her power.
Hit and Run by Mark Delaney
An appeal from an old friend lands the young detectives in the middle of a mystery surrounding a hit-and-run accident. What at first seems like a routine investigation quickly turns dangerous as the four teens find themselves caught in a complicated plot involving a gang-controlled car-theft ring, frightened law-abiding citizens, and a twisted plan for revenge.
For Mattie, the case is also uncomfortably personal, and one that provides an unwelcome reunion with the mother he has not seen in years. Now Byte, Peter, and Jake must work fast to stop an innocent woman from going to prison while Mattie must learn an important lesson in forgiveness.
The Night the Penningtons Vanished by Marianna Heusler
Alone
in her aunt's gift shop How Do I Love Thee? late one evening, Isabella Ripa
opens the door to a glamorous woman carrying a birdcage. Isabella is enchanted
by the woman's love birds and agrees to take them - at least for the night -
until she can persuade her Aunt Talullah to adopt the pair, called the
Penningtons. But in the morning the birds are gone. In their place is a book of
love poems. As Isabella and her friends set out to recover the birds, they
become embroiled in a mystery of a missing actress, a robbery and an intruder in
Aunt Talullah's house.
2002
Winner
The Boy in
the Burning House
by Tim Wynne-Jones YA MYSTERY Wynn-Jones, T.
Two
years after his father's disappearance, Jim Hawkins still deals with the loss.
He meets Ruth Rose, the bad-girl stepdaughter of the town pastor, and she shocks
him when she tells him her stepfather is a murderer. Jim burns with a desire for
the truth, until it becomes clear it may be more unsettling than he can bear
when he hears about a boy who died in a fire 30 years ago.
Nominees
Dark
Secrets Don't Tell by Elizabeth Chandler E. YA MYSTERY Chandler, E.
Eight years after her mother's mysterious drowning, Lauren returns to her
hometown to visit her family, but the strange events that follow lead her to
believe her mother may be trying to communicate with her. Now, after finding
herself the victim of a number of cruel tricks, Lauren suspects there was more
to her mother's death than she knows--and it looks like she may be the next
target!
Death on
Sacred Ground by Harriet K. Feder
Gr. 6-10. In this third title in the Vivi Hartman mystery series, tenth-grader
Vivi and her rabbi father travel to the funeral of a young Orthodox Jewish girl.
It seems that pretty, rebellious Mindy Solomon was shot to death during a
high-school archery club outing, and the police want to know why she died on
snake-ridden Seneca Indian sacred ground, well away from the rest of the group.
To complicate things, Seneca teen Jimmy Cloud is missing, and his Jewish
girlfriend confides to Vivi that she is being stalked. As Vivi snoops around the
tense little town, she discovers other suspects, including local teens who
resent the Senecas; members of a born-again-Christian group who have been
recruiting Jewish teens; and even Mindy's father.
Shades
of Simon Gray by
Joyce McDonald YA MYSTERY
McDonald, J.
Gr.
6-8. The author of Shadow People (2000) puts a supernatural spin on her latest
tale of teenage criminal mischief. Simon Gray lies in a coma after smashing his
car into the Liberty Tree (also known as the Hanging Tree after a 200-year-old
lynching) in the center of his small New Jersey town. Accident--or suicide?
While he hovers between life and death, he also finds himself hovering about the
tree, along with the ghost of the historical victim. Meanwhile, various people
keep vigil by his bedside, and odd things occur--weather extremes plague the
town; there's a huge «murder» of crows; nine residents fall victim to West
Nile Virus. Readers fond of atmosphere and suspense will stay the course,
discovering that Simon isn't the only character who comes out of the experience
a better person.
2001
Winner
Counterfeit
Son by Elaine Marie Alphin
When
serial killer Hank Miller is killed in a shoot-out with police, his abused son
Cameron adopts the identity of one of his father's victims in order to find a
better life. But when his father's old accomplice tracks him down, will Cameron
give up his new identity to protect the victim's family?
Nominees
Silent
to the Bone by E.L.
Konigsberg YA Konigsberg, E.
When
he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, 13-year-old
Branwell loses his power of speech and only his friend Connor is able to reach
him and uncover the truth about what really happened.
The Body of Christopher
Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci
YA MYSTERY Plum-Ucci
Torey
Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts
and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast. His
search for answers opens his eyes to the lies, pain, and need to blame when
tragedy strikes, and his once-safe world comes crashing down around him.
Locked Inside by Nancy Werlin
Marnie
is tremendously wealthy, and tremendously alone. The sixteen-year-old daughter
of a superstar who died years ago, Marnie refuses to take part in her oppressive
boarding-school community. Nor does she have any interest in returning to
Manhattan to live with her guardian, a well-meaning but stiff man named Max. She
would rather burrow away in the dark, comforting world of her favorite Internet
adventure game. Especially now that she has started chatting online with one of
the other players, an intriguing rogue who calls himself the Elf.