Best First Mystery Novels

1988 winner:   A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George.
Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth Earl of Asherton, and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers are investigating the murder of a Yorkshire man. Obese Roberta Teys was found sitting by the headless corpse of her father. Her first words were, "I did it. And I'm not sorry." Was it because of the incestuous abuse she and her sister endured? Thomas Lynley series, book 1. RC 28547, BR 7624.

1990 winner:   The Body in the Belfry by Katherine Hall Page.
Gourmet caterer Faith Fairchild's life is turned topsy-turvy by her marriage to the minister of a quaint New England village church. While she adores her husband and new baby, Faith finds the change from her busy life in New York to the quiet of the country hard to tolerate. But her discovery of a dead body and the ensuing investigation and danger make her yearn for the quiet life to return. Faith Fairchild series, book 2. RC 31471.

1991 winner: Zero at the Bone by Mary Willis Walker.
After thirty years, Katherine Driscoll hears from her father. It is a shock in itself, but his letter also offers a proposal to help her. Katherine has no idea how he found out that her dog training business is desperately short of capital, and when she goes looking for her father, he provides no answers since he has been murdered. Violence and strong language.

1993 winner:   Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr.
The author, a Park Ranger herself, creates an authentic West Texas setting for this murder mystery. When Guadalupe Mountains National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon finds the body of another female ranger, she alone refuses to believe that a cougar killed her. Anna finds that conflict abounds in the Park, among ranchers, rangers, hunters and conservationists, as she looks for a human killer. Anna Pigeon series, book 1. Violence and strong language. WOD 446.

1996 winner:   Murder on a Girls’ Night Out by Anne George.
Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are sisters, but that is all they seem to have in common. Patricia Anne joins Mary Alice in surveying her most recent purchase, a country western bar. Before the final papers are signed, the owner is murdered, and the sisters investigate. Southern Sisters series. Some strong language. WOD 644.

1999 winner:   Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews.
Meg is knocking herself out trying to be a bridesmaid for the weddings of her brother, mother, and best friend. As she tries to help her ditzy relatives prepare for their various outrageous festivities, one of the guests is murdered, old crimes are uncovered, and she falls in love. BR 13270.

2000 winner:   Death on a Silver Tray by Rosemary Stevens.
London, 1805. George "Beau" Brummell is beseeched by his friend the duchess of York to clear a ladies' companion, whom she had recommended, of murder charges. The dreadful old Lady Wrayburn has been poisoned and the duchess wants to avoid a scandal.  BR 13293.

2003 winner:   Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.
Thirteen-year-old Maisie is lucky to be a maid in the home of a wealthy London suffragette who sees to her education. Maisie becomes a private investigator in 1929 after serving as a nurse during the Great War. Her first case involves a shelter for wounded veterans. Maisie Dobbs series, book 1. BR 15352.

2004 winner:   Dating Dead Men by Harley Jane Kozak.
Los Angeles greeting card artist Wollie Shelley, busy with a dating research project, dashes off to visit her institutionalized, schizophrenic brother. She finds a body on the road and fears that her sibling could be involved. As Wollie investigates, a colorful cast of characters gradually enters her life. Wollie Shelley series, book 1. RC 59695.

Best Novel

1989 winner:   Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters.
The author of Naked in the Ice disappeared seven years ago and has been declared legally dead. Now, Jacqueline Kirby, librarian-turned-writer, wins a competition and is hired to write a sequel. In Pine Grove, the original author's home town, Jacqueline begins having accidents similar to those that befell the author before her disappearance. It looks like another disappearance is planned. Jacqueline Kirby series, book 4. Some strong language. RC 30513.

1990 winner:   Bum Steer by Nancy Pickard.
Jenny Cain, the director of a civic foundation in Massachusetts, learns that "Cat" Benet intends to leave the foundation his $4,000,000 Kansas ranch. He wants to meet her before he dies, and she flies to Kansas City, only to find that Benet has been smothered in his hospital bed. Jenny's investigations take her to the ranch, to Dallas, to Santa Fe, and to an old fashioned, shootout ending. Jenny Cain series, book 6. Some strong language. RC 31491, BR 8222.

1992 winner:   Bootlegger’s Daughter by Margaret Maron.
Missing for three days, Janie Whitehead is found murdered in an abandoned mill with her baby Gayle, wet and hungry, beside her. Eighteen years later, Gayle decides to learn why her mother was killed. Deborah Knott, family friend, attorney, and daughter of a notorious former bootlegger, investigates, not realizing how it will jeopardize her campaign for judge. Deborah Knott series, book 1. Strong language and some violence. RC 37825.

1993 winner:   Dead Man’s Island by Carolyn Hart.
Retired newspaper reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (Henrie O.) is surprised to be summoned by her former lover, powerful Chase Prescott. Chase has also invited all of his close associates and family to the island he owns to determine which of them tried to murder him. This task is made more difficult when a repeat of the hurricane that gave Dead Man's Island its name occurs. Henrie O. series. Strong language and violence. BR 9684.

1994 winner:   She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb.
In the Tennessee hills, elderly escaped convict Harm Sorley is trying to find his wife and baby. Unfortunately, Korsakoff's syndrome has erased the last forty years from his memory. Like his uncle before him, Harm is becoming a folk hero, but newly appointed deputy Martha Ayers feels duty bound to track him. Meanwhile, retracing the route a pioneer girl took to escape from Native Americans, a graduate student encounters her ghost. Ballad series, book 3. Strong language. RC 40372.

1995 winner:   If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him by Sharyn McCrumb.
Forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson helps her attorney brother, Bill, in a bigamy-murder case that echoes an arsenic poisoning in the defendant's family. Meanwhile, Bill's partner, A.P., defends a woman who killed her arrogant ex-husband and his new wife. Elizabeth MacPherson series, book 8. RC 44478.

1996 winner:   Up Jumps the Devil by Margaret Maron.
When a former neighbor is shot in broad daylight in his backyard, Judge Deborah Knott pays a condolence call on his widow. She hears the family version of the murder, but quickly finds out that the sheriff suspects others who have stronger motives. Deborah Knott series, book 4. RC 45837.

2001 winner:   Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen.
Ireland, 1901. Molly Murphy flees to New York City after killing a would-be rapist in her home village. She assumes an alias for passage aboard ship, but at Ellis Island she is once again accused of murder. Handsome New York Police Department Captain Daniel Sullivan is willing to help her prove her innocence. Molly Murphy series, book 1. BR 14095.

2003 winner:   Letter from Home by Carolyn Hart.
Gretchen Gilman receives a letter prompting a flood of memories from her girlhood when a friend's mother was murdered. It is World War 2, and Gretchen, a thirteen-year-old cub reporter for the town paper, seeks the truth and loses her innocence. Now, fifty years later, the truth finds her. RC 57369.

2004 winner:   Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear.
London, 1930s. Wealthy Joseph Waite hires private investigator Masie Dobbs, a former battlefield nurse, to find his missing 32-year- old daughter, Charlotte. Maisie finds chilling links to Scotland Yard inspector Stratton's latest murder case and the Great War's terrible legacy. Maisie Dobbs series, book 2. BR 15546.

2005 winner:   The Body in the Snowdrift by Katherine Hall.
Caterer Faith Fairchild and her extended family gather at a ski resort in Vermont to celebrate her father-in-law's seventieth birthday. But after Faith finds the body of a local lawyer, the chef disappears, and another corpse turns up on the slopes, the clan starts bickering. Faith Fairchild series, book 15. RC 61863.