This is the fifth installment of the 2010 Edgar Award Nominations.
You can view the entire list of Edgar Award Nomination on the Mystery Writers of American website.
Best Critical/Biographical
Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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Talking About Detective FictionAuthor: James, P. D. |
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Nominated for the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical eBook is available from the CLEVNET eMedia Collection. In a perfect marriage of author and subject, P. D. James — one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work today — gives us a personal, lively, illuminating exploration of the human appetite for mystery and mayhem, and of those writers who have satisfied it. P. D. James examines the genre from top to bottom, beginning with the mysteries at the hearts of such novels as Charles Dickens’s Bleak House and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, and bringing us into the present with such writers as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie (“arch-breaker of rules”), Josephine Tey, Dashiell Hammett, and Peter Lovesey, among many others. She traces their lives into and out of their fiction, clarifies their individual styles, and gives us indelible portraits of the characters they’ve created, from Sherlock Holmes to Sara Paretsky’s sexually liberated female investigator, V. I. Warshawski. She compares British and American Golden Age mystery writing. She discusses detective fiction as social history, the stylistic components of the genre, her own process of writing, how critics have reacted over the years, and what she sees as a renewal of detective fiction — and of the detective hero — in recent years. There is perhaps no one who could write about this enduring genre of storytelling with equal authority and flair: it is essential reading for every lover of detective fiction. |
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The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest DetectivesEditor: Penzler, Otto |
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Nominated for the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical A great recurring character in a series you love becomes an old friend. You learn about their strange quirks and their haunted pasts and root for them every time they face danger. But where do some of the most fascinating sleuths in the mystery and thriller world really come from? What was the real-life location that inspired Michael Connelly to make Harry Bosch a Vietnam vet tunnel rat? Why is Jack Reacher a drifter? How did a brief encounter in Botswana inspire Alexander McCall Smith to create Precious Ramotswe? In The Lineup, some of the top mystery writers in the world tell about the genesis of their most beloved characters — or, in some cases, let their creations do the talking. |
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Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen KingAuthor: Rogak, Lisa |
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Nominated for the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical A fascinating look at the life of the author who created such modern classics as Carrie, IT, and The Shining. One of the most prolific and popular authors in the world today, Stephen King has become part of pop culture history. But who is the man behind those tales of horror, grief, and the supernatural? Where do these ideas come from? And what drives him to keep writing at a breakneck pace after a thirty year career? In this unauthorized biography, Lisa Rogak reveals the troubled background and lifelong fears that inspire one of the twentieth century’s most influential authors. King’s origins were inauspicious at best. His impoverished childhood in rural Maine and early marriage hardly spelled out the likelihood of a blossoming literary career. But his unflagging work ethic and a ceaseless flow of ideas put him on the path to success. It came in a flash, and the side effects of sudden stardom and seemingly unlimited wealth soon threatened to destroy his work and, worse, his life. But he survived and has since continued to write at a level of originality few authors could ever hope to match. Despite his dark and disturbing work, Stephen King has become revered by critics and his countless fans as an all-American voice more akin to Mark Twain than H. P. Lovecraft. Haunted Heart chronicles his story, revealing the character of a man who has created some of the most memorable — and frightening — stories found in literature today. |
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The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia HighsmithAuthor: Schenkar, Joan |
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Nominated for the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Patricia Highsmith, one of the great writers of 20th Century American fiction, had a life as darkly compelling as that of her favorite “hero-criminal,” talented Tom Ripley. In this revolutionary biography, Joan Schenkar paints a riveting portrait, from Highsmith’s birth in Texas to Hitchcock’s filming of her first novel, Strangers On a Train, to her long, strange, self-exile in Europe. We see her as a secret writer for the comics, a brilliant creator of disturbing fictions, and erotic predator with dozens of women (and a few good men) on her love list. The Talented Miss Highsmith is the first literary biography with access to Highsmith’s whole story: her closest friends, her oeuvre, her archives. It’s a compulsive page-turner unlike any other, a book worthy of Highsmith herself. |
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The Stephen King Illustrated Companion: Manuscripts, Correspondence, Drawings, and Memorabilia from the Master of Modern HorrorAuthor: Vincent, Bev |
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Nominated for the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical An interactive approach to Stephen King’s greatest works, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion features a wealth of unseen memorabilia from the author’s desk and insightful text that reads between the lines to uncover King’s own compelling biography. Supplemented with rare and previously unpublished ephemera from King’s archives, such as hand-edited manuscript drafts, revealing letters between King and his editor, and personal mementos from his career, this unique companion volume tangibly illuminates the writer’s works and life in a way never done before. |
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The 2010 Edgar Award Nominations Series:
Part 1 — Best Novel
Part 2 — Best First Novel By An American Author
Part 3 — Best Short Story
Part 4 — Best Paperback Original
Part 5 — Best Best Critical/Biographical
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